Here's What You Need To Know For Gorgeous Spring Family Photos • Life by Melissa

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Planning Spring Family Photos is an event all in its own. From location and time to outfits and accessories, here is everything you NEED TO KNOW for planning your family’s photo session.

Spring Family Photos

Professional family photos are extremely common in todays society. They are a great keep-sake that captures your family as time continues to move forward and are absolutely wonderful to look back on. Many people will use these photos on Christmas cards, to print and hang in their home and on social media.

Although it seems like a simple event, family photos take time to plan especially if you have multiple people participating. As a seasoned consumer of family photography sessions, I am going to share with you everything I’ve learned to make sure I get exactly what I’m looking for.

What You Need To Know For Spring Family Photos

No one said this was going to be easy. However, if you plan correctly, the final result will be well worth your blood, sweat and tears!

1. Find The Right Photographer

This is the most important step in the entire process. Photographers have very different and unique styles from moody and dark to light and airy. The first step in planning your spring family photos is finding a photographer that delivers results similar to what you want.

Find these photographers through word of mouth, community Facebook pages and google searches. I suggest making a list of the names of photographers near you that suite your style and writing down their package information (cost, duration, number of photos, etc.). Use the process of elimination to find the best photographer for you!

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A post shared by FOCAL POINT PHOTOGRAPHY LLC (@focalpointphotography_hhi)

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A post shared by Lauryn Borst Photography (@laurynborstphoto)

2. Choose The Date & Location

Okay, this is seriously a very important step. After you found your photographer you need to decide what time of year is best for what you want. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. Think about humidity, think about snow, think about the high and low temperatures as well as sun rise and sun set timing. Think about the trees, think about the wildflowers and every other natural element that will play a role in your session.

More than likely you’ll take your spring family photos first thing in the morning or in the evening as the sun begins to set. If all this information overwhelms you, ask your photographer for help! Tell them you want spring colors in the background of your photos but also want to wear long sleeves. From there, they’ll be able to help you secure the date and often will suggest multiple locations they like to use!

If you have multiple young kids I HIGHLY suggest morning photos. Everyone is happy from a full nights rest and a lot easier to work with. For our family photos this year we went with a morning session over evening and it was so much more enjoyable to get up, get ready and get it over with!

3. Personal Prep & Outfit Planning Takes Time

It is true that some people can just go to their closet and pick out outfits for their family to create a perfect look for family photos. For majority of people, this isn’t the case. Therefore, you should start shopping early.

My personal process looks something like this…

Search Pinterest & family photography on Instagram for inspiration
Save photos of my favorite look on my computer or phone. Put clothing photos into a collage to make sure they look well together.
Order chosen clothing. Try on once arrives then hide in your closet until it’s photo time!
Book hair, nail, eyebrow and whatever else appointments you need relative to the photography session date.

Seriously, that sounds insane but it’s really not too bad. I personally try to make our hair appointments about 5-10 days before our photography session. That’s really all we plan. Trust me on this, you’re paying all this money for professional photos of your family. You do not want to hate them because your roots are glaringly obvious at every angle.

4. Relax & Have Fun

When the big day arrives, everything will fall into place. Do not look up 100 poses you NEED to try. Sure, if there are a couple, go for it. The most perfect photos are going to be the ones where you all are smiling and laughing and at least one child is not looking at the camera. The more calm and relaxed you are, the more natural and beautiful everyone will look in the final product.