I occasionally get asked for advice on what to wear for photos, especially for families. The easiest choice is always to dress everyone the same–all in white, all in black, etc. Besides being easy, this freezes your family in time. It also shows unity. If this is what you are going for, mission accomplished!

For many, rather than unity, they want their pictures to capture personality. Dressing alike may feel more like a uniform and make the kids more tense. It is for this group of thinkers that I have created “What to wear,” a periodic topic that will appear on Wednesdays, because I like alliteration. These special posts will share some ideas of how to pull together outfits for family pictures. I am not a style maven, and I certainly don’t expect you to run to the store to purchase everything in these pictures. The purpose of these are to spark ideas. All fashions in the following images are from oldnavy.com and gap.com.

For each look, I’ll dress a mom-dad-son-daughter. If your family doesn’t look like that, don’t worry; mine doesn’t either. Again, these are just for ideas on colors and patterns as you dig through your closets.

Bold and beautiful:
Your family is colorful, fun and definitely not uniform. This look is for you. Pull out your daughters favorite dress (big prints work great in pictures), and use the main colors to create the palette. I love that these show layering, which is totally practical for fall portraits.

Casual blues:
You don’t need to dress up for pictures! Stay comfortable and mellow in monochrome. Pick one color and choose different styles for the whole family in various shades. I find that blue works really well for monochrome, but maybe that’s because I have a house full of boys