Fall photoshoot tips

Fall photoshoots are my personal favorite. Not only as a photographer but also to enjoy with my family.  For many reasons, one being the weather starts cooling down. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of the heat. With cooler weather I actually feel like doing more activities outdoors. I mean no one wants to be sweaty during a photo shoot. Second, it’s the start of the holiday season. Halloween and Thanksgiving is like bliss in the air again. They’re also so fun, specially if you enjoy a  themed shoot. Can’t forget the amazing fall wardrobe. I could finally bring out my coats and blazers and boots which I honestly love so much. I wish I could wear them around all year. Fall style is definitely one of my favorites personally. I’ve been a professional photographer for four years now and I’ve learned a lot on how to help families prepare for their fall photo shoots. As a mom myself, I’m a sucker for family photo sessions, couple photo sessions, mommy and me, you name it. I personally love capturing memories of my family. So as a client myself I’ve also learned a few tips that I feel are super helpful in planning for your fall photoshoot.

Tip 1 book early

I’ll start off explaining my past train of thought when I would book a photo shoot for my own family. Fall is kind of a tricky time because it’s during the prep to go back to school, the beginning of the school year, and the beginning of a new season. Many go shopping for new season decorations etc. So me as a busy mom I didn’t prioritize booking my photoshoots early. Typically, I tend to screenshot it and save it for later and that was 100% not a good idea and here’s why. By the time I actually got a booking most of the time and dates I preferred were already taken. So I ended up with a date that didn’t work best for my schedule and a time of day where I knew I wouldn’t get the best photos. I’m a procrastinator by nature so this is something I had to prioritize if I didn’t want to regret it later. Now speaking as a photographer, booking early does give you your ideal time of day for the shoot and date as well. Normally, golden hour are the first time slot‘s that are booked. Golden hour is probably the best time of day to have a photo shoot. The light is not so harsh and balanced enough to make everyone look flattering. Also, I’ve noticed that once the fall season comes around everything gets booked up super quick. Most moms use fall photo shoots as their own back to school portraits for their children and family. So they’re super quick to go. Definitely book early if you’ve been wanting to do a fall photo shoot. There’s only two months in fall and only about eight weekends. If you want to book do it now.

Tip 2 plan wardrobe

So once you got your desire date and time for your photo shoot, the next step will be to plan your wardrobe. Usually stores start rolling out super cute trendy fall clothes and if you’re able to get your hands on a few fall staples do so early. I wrote a whole guide on what to wear for your fall photo session so if you want to go ahead and check that out i’ll link it below. The most important thing I cannot emphasize enough is that when planning the wardrobe do not match with other family members. Please remember these keywords do not match instead color coordinate. When you match identically even in color you risk blending in and it can be a little distracting. Think of it this way, when you look at the photo and everyone’s wearing the same color or the same exact outfit the first thing you think of is “they’re matching” and you don’t really see past that. By color coordinating you start up with one color and you find a color in the same family shade that compliments the other color but does not match. This is super important because when you look at a photograph you want to look at the individual and not so much on what they’re wearing. This doesn’t mean you should take away from not putting effort in your wardrobe. Put effort but not enough to the point where it distracts from you. A super helpful tip I learned myself was once I decided on the outfits we were all going to wear I needed to try them on and make sure they fit and that I like how it looks. Do not do the mistake of waiting till the day of your session to try on the outfits only to find out that they don’t work, they don’t fit, and simply don’t look good. You’re going to be freaking out and set up the energy of the day to be negative rather than positive.

Tip 3 coach family

This tip applies to families specially if you have younger children. A common fear my clients share with me is of their toddler not cooperating during the photo session. They often share with me that they have been wanting to do a shoot for a long time but hesitated because of the fear of their child having a tantrum and a resulting in a waste of money. I have had a little toddler and I know exactly what it’s like to worry about your little one running around not wanting to stay put or being cranky throughout the session. I can see why many families avoid doing photo shoots specially when the children are young. But it doesn’t have to be that way, something that works great for me and my client is coaching your family before the photos. I know some moms tell me that their kids don’t like their photos being taken and that’s probably because the experience behind that has not been great for them. It’s always them being in the middle of an activity when a parent pulls out the cameras on their face and tells them to smile and that’s something they don’t want to do. So what I recommend is that you find a moment during the day where your child is in a good mood and a happy mind set. Maybe after a nap or after they’ve had some food. Set them down in a location of the house where it’s not super distracting and practice taking photos of them with your phone just so they can get familiar with the concept. Show them the phone, show them the camera, hand it to them and tell them what it does. This will create a more positive experience around having the photos being taken.

As enjoyable the fall time might be it is super important to plan for our photo shoots that way we make the most out of it and have a good experience. I hope that these tips helped you and your family.