Clothing for Family Picture?

Say no to the white shirt and khaki pants or jeans! :) I agree with others that say to pick a color family and go from there. I like at least one person to have a little pattern and others play off of that. I have seen some great pics with browns, reds, oranges in the fall. I always go to photographers' websites to view their portfolios to see what creative ideas other families have come up with! There are some wonderfully-dressed families out there! Makes me jealous but inspiring too! LOL! Good luck!

http://littleavocado.blogspot.com/2010/04/spring-and-summ...

She has some good ideas.

Ug!!! The white shirt/jean, denim shirt/khaki, black/white....has been done TO DEATH!!!! Its almost comical. Dont you know that you will look at that picture a decade from now and ask yourself, "what were we thinking?" OR, "what happened?, was it 1995?"....Hey!!! 1996 called...they want their look back!!!!
Just dress as each family member dresses normally...if you want coheasivness, just dress in shades of color that compliment each other.
EX. Shades of...say...blue. Maybe dad has on a navy blue polo with dark jeans. 1st son has on, say, royal blue tee with tan shorts. 2nd son has on baby blue tee, under a white shirt with white wash type jeans...Mom has on white crop pants with a maroon blouse....
Mix it up....

Blue and Khaki always look nice.

Our family pic, the main color was kelly green. I wore a full kelly green dress, my husband had a white and kelly stripe shirt, son had white shirt with kelly green t-shirt underneath and baby had cute outfit with kelly, pink and organge flowers. It turned out so good!! I originally wanted to do black and white, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like it. Our family is too colorful to be in just black and white. We looked at our wardrobe and found matching colors and went with it...... and they turned out great!!

One or two print shirts and then use the solid colors from the patterns.

You can do just about anything! Since you don't want everyone in the same shirt, another option is to coordinate the colors. Recently my daughter and I wore light blue shirts that were similiar. My son and husband wore dark blue polos. We all wore jeans. I also recently read that for family pics, the adults should wear long sleeves. You can pick one or two colors that go together and everyone wear the same color in whatever style looks best on them. Some could wear a pattern and others wear colors within that pattern.

With being outdoors, I would suggest to stay away from busy patterns and stay w/ solids because you won't have a plain background.

We have 5 children (that means 7 people in a picture!) and just did family pictures in September, outside also. We were told by the photographer not to wear red, that it sometimes doesn't reflect well and makes colors a little weird around you. We were told browns, blues, and any light colors are great. We stayed away from green since we were going to a park and there would be lots of grass and green trees. What we wore was blue shorts and khaki pants. We were going to do jeans but it turned out to be a very hot day and jeans would have been too much. So we put shorts (khaki) on the kids and my husband and capris on me. My kids each had a different pattern on their shirts but the same shade of blue (with white stripes, etc). I wore a white shirt and my husband wore a blue and white shirt. The pictures were AMAZING! We are having one made into a large canvas to hang on the wall

red would be nice if you're outside in the lovely fall atmosphere, or brown. we do a single color, just different styles of shirts. have fun! i bet they'll be awesome this time of year...

I haven't read all of your responses, but being outside, I would suggest wearing something simple (like solid colors) to keep the photo from being to busy. You don't have to have everyone wearing the same thing. Feel free to mix it up. Maybe you could wear layers so that you have a couple of options.

Pick colors that compliment each other (different shades of one color, all cool colors like blue, purple, and green, etc). I don't know how familiar you are with the color wheel, but colors that are close together on the wheel (blue and green) will create a more sedate, harmonious feel, while colors on the opposite sides of the wheel (blue and orange) will create a more high contrast, bold look.

We just did a group shot where the girls/women wore shades of pink and the boys/men wore navy or white. It blended really nicely.

a photographer friend of mine suggests that you pick three colors (khaki, red, and blue) (black, white, jeans) and mix and match. that way it coordinates, it's not boring, but it's pulled together. she also suggests some strong prints, flowers, polka dots, accessories, that pull all the colors together. it's daring, i know, but it makes for darling pictures.

If these are outside, choose plain vs. prints, etc. This time of year w/ so many colors, etc., choose your color carefully. You want CONTRAST.

we have done lots of things. Pick a color and go with it. We have done brown and had my son in tan, dark brown and blue striped shirt, mine was all dark brown, and my husbands was dark brown and tan striped. white and jeans, blue gets tricky though as does red. My suggestion is pick what you think you want to wear, take them outside in the sun on hangers and take a quick digital snap shot of them. Look at how they look together. IF they match great if not substitute as needed. Also wear similar pants. It will look funny if everyone is wearing light jeans and one person wear really dark ones. With out door shots consider your footwear. Most likely it will show up on at least a few of the shots.

Let me start off by saying that I was not born with the "fashion skills" that most people seem to have. I don't usually know what colors look best with what and what colors to wear with different skin tones. However, I was ecstatic how well our last family photo turned out. My daughter wore a dress that was black with large white circles on it. There was a small line of trim at the top and bottom that was pink and green. My son wore khakis with a green polo. I wore khakis with a pink polo and my husband wore khakis with a light gray polo. The pictures came out great. I loved that we didn't wear all of the same color. Even though we all wore different colors, the picture was held together by the colors in our daughter's dress. It also helped that she is 2 and still sweet & cute. My son is 4 so he is still cute and nice also. Good luck!

I read somewhere to coordinate with the colors in your home where the pictures will hang. For example, if you have a house with a lot of blues and whites, orange and red clothing may not look great hanging on your walls.

Since you are having an outside picture in the fall, maybe you could do autumn colors? We had my girls picture taken this summer, so we did red, white and blue. Easter one year was pastels. Christmas was black and red. We just pick coordinating colors and select clothes within that group - some solid, some pattern. Reds are little harder because there are so may different shades.

Try picking a color, like yellow or blue, and having everyone wear something in a shade of that color. Try it first to make sure it comes out right (there are some shades of the same color that DON'T go); it ought to help you all look coordinated without looking matchy-matchy.

if you have a minute, check out this post:
http://www.designmom.com/2009/11/ask-design-mom-week-—-fa...

I like coordinating not so much everyone exactly the same. I also think it's important to show everyones individual "style". Not sure the ages of your kids but you know their personalities...let those shine through, you will love looking back at them later on.

I have found it's easier to go to the store with an open mind, then see what catches my eye...

I always liked the khaki pants with the white shirts.... what you can do is have you and your husband wear white shirts and your sons wearing red or blue shirts.

I have always like some sort of coordination for my family pictures. All one color looks sharp and I thing brings out the "faces" of the people in the picture more, instead of the clothes. Sometimes, I have the girls dress with one color and the boys with a contrasting color. Sometimes, mom and dad will have print and the kids a solid out of one of their prints. Other times it has been a "rainbow" from oldest to youngest. Another idea that I like is to have the parents in a darker tone than the kids, but all the same color.

With outdoor pictures, which I LOVE, keep in mind the background you will be using. If there are vibrant colors (leaves this time of year), tone it down in your clothing colors to give a little contrast. White actually looks very nice against the rainbow of leaf colors. If mostly bright yellows and light orange leaves, use a green or maroon. However, if you are not using the fall foliage and have a lightly colored background, then go for the more vibrant colored clothing.

Hope that helps give you some ideas.

Pastels usually do not stand out in outdoor light. Choose medium tones that go together that also go with the environment. Take into consideration the site. For example, if it looks cold then you'll want to wear jackets or sweaters.

Hope this response isn't too late, but I wanted to tell you what we did. We all wore jeans and navy blue shirts with jean jackets. My son was less than a year old at the time and the jean jacket on him was adorable. Anyway, we were all relaxed and the pictures were fantastic. We coordinated well but all had different navy blue shirts.