Welcome! I’m so excited to photograph your family.
I'm so happy to be photographing your family this fall. I hope this guide will help you prepare for the session. If you have any questions or, if you need outfit advice, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Just send me an email: michelle@michellepanekphotography.com
Below you will find a Session and Prep Guide, a Model Release and a Questionnaire.
Please take time to fill out the model release and questionnaire. It will help me provide the best service for you!
This blog post is helpful too: How to Choose What to Wear for Your Family Session
My philosophy of photography is to capture the candid moments that happen as you hang out as a family together.
Don't worry, it's not completely candid photography. I will guide you into fun and meaningful interactions that will capture your family as you really are to get timeless and authentic photographs you and your family will cherish for a lifetime.
In this prep guide I will offer some best tips for having an awesome session, Including what to wear and what to do on the day of your session. Thank you for trusting me with capturing your family during this season of life!
What should you wear?
This is the BIG question, right? I always recommend choosing what you wear first. My recommendation is to find something you are comfortable in, the earlier the better. I suggest comfortable and day casual. Fancy may seem like a good idea, but it can look stiff.
I recommend that you wear fabrics that move and are comfortable to sit, squat, and maybe lie down in. During the session you might dance, twirl, etc and I don't want you to worry about wardrobe malfunctions. (If there Is a possibility I recommend using clothing tape!) Flowy, stretchy fabrics are good. Dresses and skirts always photograph well and elevate the photograph. If you feel most like you in jeans, then wear a flowy top with it and if you want to wear a long skirt, pair it with a fitted top.
Colors: I suggest warm tones, and light colors or variations of similar colors, and mixing patterns works well. I don't recommend matching or having everyone wear the same color. It's not as interesting for the eye. A mix of colors and patterns looks best and will elevate your photographs!
My recommendation: have at least one or two people in patterns, and 1-2 in solids.
Your outfits can make or break the photograph. You should plan early. Order clothes today so you have time to make a plan b if you need to.
My favorite colors for fall: dusty, muted colors of gold, blue, mustard, olive greens, white
Tips
Plan your outfits with enough time to order and return if you have to. No one wants to run around a mall scrambling to find something at the last minute! Also, you don't want to be stuck wearing something you don't really like! Outfits really make the photo, so put thought into it. As I've said, I really love dresses in photos, Even if you aren't a dress person normally, I would consider it for your family photos.
Pick your outfit first and plan everyone else around what you love and feel great in!
Wear flowy, comfortable clothes
Avoid stiff, tight clothes that are hard to sit in
Avoid clothes that are too low-cut or too short because most likely you will be siting and kneeling down
Don't forget to accessorize, but leave the Apple watch at home!
Wear more makeup than you do on a normal day. Go with a heavier hand so it shows up in pictures, because the camera dulls the color a bit.
Colors
Colors that coordinate well together instead of matching
Mix it up! A mix of 3-4 colors looks best
Avoid red and anything super bright, and don't recommend black as it adds a lot of darkness and overwhelms your images draws the eye only to the black, instead choose a navy or dark purple.
Natural, muted colors look great in spring because they don't compete with the bright greens and florals of the natural surroundings.
How to prepare for your session:
Let go of expectations Try not to stress or worry about how your kids will act, and go with the flow. Your kids might not be excited at first, just let them ease into it. We can feel awkward as adults, and so can kids. That's ok! I will work with whatever mood they're in and help them feel comfortable. Let me worry about them. You don't have to stress about their behavior, trust me.
Try not to stress about the session on the day of the session. Your stress will transfer to your family as well, and this could affect their mood negatively. As you probably know that can be hard for some kids to shake off (speaking from my own experience, here!) I know you want the session to go well, but stressing kids out about it might have the opposite effect.
Have a low key day at home, if you can. If kids have a busy day before an evening session, they tend to be tired and cranky. It's best to stay home and not do too much.
Have a snack before you leave so they don't get hangry! But don't give them anything that gets stuck in their teeth. It's also a good idea to have a wipe with you in case they need it before the shoot.
Prepare your family in advance. Tell them it will be fun and fast. It will not be painful, I promise!
Play fun music on the way to the session, keep it light!
Start getting ready early, so you're not rushing to get everyone dressed if you have little ones. You might need to add extra time for hair if you have daughters. Speaking of hair, hair that's down photographs better.
Please plan to be at the location a little early to allow for getting lost or finding parking and walking to meet me. Allowing extra time will help you not feel rushed and stressed.
Surprise your family to a treat after the session! I recommend not using it as a bribe, kids might then they are going to do something boring and horrible if they hear they will get a present for doing it, instead reassure them they are going to play and a nice lady Michelle is just going to take pictures of them playing. When it’s over say, “you did great, let’s get ice cream!” Next time around they might be excited to get photographs done!
What will happen at your session
First thing to know is please, please, please don't ask your kids to smile. I want to get natural smiles and when you ask your child to smile you will get the unnatural strained grimace. I will never say, say cheese! I don't want a yelling face, either. My goal is to get genuine happiness and laughter. I will ask you to look at each other a lot. Don't worry if you child is smiling. We will get smiles.
At the beginning of the session we will start with what I call the "money shot": the whole family all together. We will get one of everyone looking at the camera. Then we will mostly focus on images of connection of you looking at each other.
Next will be fun family shots. Depending on size of children, expect to sit, hug, snuggle, maybe put a child on a parent's shoulders (if there are two parents and a child is still small enough for this), and dance.
We may play telephone and other easy games for the purpose of getting laughs
I will then move on to get pictures with one parent and each child.
Then I will do individual portraits with each child, and next a few pictures of the siblings together.
I end with another family shot as kids are warmed up and sometimes this tends to be some of the best shots I get!
Please note: this is the schedule for full sessions only. Mini sessions will do full family shots, siblings shots and each parent with all the kids together, we probably won’t have time for one-on-one for each child with each parent due to the shorter session time.
If there are any special shots anything you love me to capture, for example (little boy sucking his thumb) (daughter twirling with daddy because they like to do this at home) please remind me at the session and I will try to get it!
What happens after?
You will receive your photos two weeks after the session. You will receive an email to see your gallery. If you have purchased the full package you will be able to download your photos right then. If you have chosen a package or 25 images or less you will need to select your favorite images in the amount you purchased. Once you make your final selection of images please send me a text that you are done selecting the images. Then I will email them to you to download. It is best to download the images onto your computer.
Personally I recommend saving the images in two places. On an external hard drive like this: Seagate Portable 1TB External Hard Drive and also save somewhere that backs up to the cloud: iCloud on your mac or Google drive.
Finally I recommend printing with Mpix. They are consistently great quality and affordable for all your printing services. Many other cheaper places like CVS, Walgreens, etc will not print colors accurately. If you are framing your prints I highly recommend going with Mpix.
