Four Tips On How To Prepare For Your First Family Portraits
Family portraits are one of the best things you can do to celebrate your family. They are great to be able to document specific times in your life. And you’ll never regret taking them 🙂 If it is your first family portrait session, no need to worry! There are a few things you can do to make sure everything goes as planned. Here are four tips on how to prepare for your first family portraits 😉
Focus On Having Fun, Capturing The Moment – Not The PERFECT Picture
One of the biggest tips that I would give a family who has never taken family portraits is to come with the right mindset. I believe that the pictures should be fun, candid, and should feel unposed. Expecting to capture the perfect image – where everyone’s hair is perfect, the shirts have no wrinkles, and everyone is giving their VERY best expression is great. But it is not realistic. And aiming for these types of images aren’t really fun! In my experience, most people want images that capture natural moments that are not forced – and this is the style I shoot in. Especially with families with children. MOST children cannot sit in front of the camera and smile perfectly for more than about 30 seconds 🙂 Capturing them and everyone having a good time is a lot more fun and the these images are genuine.
Plan Ahead And Show Up Early
Along with having the right mindset, I would also recommend planning ahead. This includes showing up on time and coordinating where to meet for the start of the session with the Photographer. If you are typically running late, planning on arriving 10-15 minutes early will ensure that you are not stressed out at the start of the session. In my experience, children feed off of the mood of their parents – so if you are stressed out, your children will feed off of this. Arriving early to the session and in a good mood actually goes a long way in having a positive and fun session 🙂
Plan On Something Fun After The Session As An Incentive
Another thing that I recommend is planning something fun for after the session. In my experience, this works really well with children as an incentive. Typically mom’s and women in general get really excited for family portraits – but children and dads may not be as excited for the session 🙂 Giving everyone an incentive to enjoy the session is a great way to have everyone engaged in the session. This can be planning on going to ice cream or to your favorite family restaurant afterwards.
Think Of One Or Two Ideas You Would Like To Include Into The Session
Another tip on how to prepare for your first family portraits is to think of one or two ideas. Most Photographers will have plenty of ideas and poses for you and your family to do. However, I LOVE getting ideas from clients. Some of the ideas I have gotten from clients I’ve actually used with other clients! Brainstorming some fun ideas helps to personalize the session into your own.
If you have never taken family portraits, it is easier than you probably think. Just remember to focus on having fun, show up early to the session, plan something fun afterwards, and to think of one or two pose ideas 🙂 Thanks!
