Large family portraits

If your extended family is anything like mine, we are always going a million different directions all the time. However, sometimes the stars align, and we are able to have everybody in the same room. Whenever that happens, we try to make sure we can get a good group photo of us all. Typically, this is just a snapshot, but every now and then we specifically plan for professional portraits of our large family group.

Coordinating outfits for a large group

If you're considering a large family portrait session, the biggest struggle will be finding a date when everybody is available. But once you have that under control, then it's time to think about what you all will wear. With a lot of people to consider, it might seem difficult to come up with outfits for everyone that will coordinate. However, it might not be as hard as you might think.

Pick a color scheme

Let's take for example this large family portrait session. As you can see, there were quite a few members of this family, including several different smaller family units. However, they still look great as a cohesive group. How did they get this done? It's simple, they chose a general color scheme that was easy for everyone to follow. In this case, they selected blues and greens.  This is a particularly easy color scheme to follow, as most everyone has a great pair of blue jeans, and blue can act as both a pop of color and a neutral. Plus, if the session is outdoors in the summer like this one was, there was lots of green landscape in the background, and the blue looked nice against the green tones of the grass and trees.

Outfit ideas for large family photos

Of course, blue and green isn't the only color scheme that would work.  The best way to start is to pick a main neutral, then a secondary neutral, then a pop of color. In the case of this family, their first neutral was navy, and their second was white. Their pop of color was green.

Another idea is brown as the main neutral, tan as the secondary neutral, and hunter green as a pop of color. This would look great in the fall, as would different shades of gray, from light heather to charcoal, with a single pop of color, such as yellow, red, or orange.

Plan a family photo session

If you are planning a large family session, wrangling together all the cousins is something I excel at. Give me a shout, and let's get a date on the calendar.