Deciding what to wear for family photos in NYC is the part everyone overthinks. I get more messages about clothes than about anything else, usually a few days before the shoot, usually with four photos of shirts attached. So here is how I would think about it, in the order I would think about it.
The goal is not for everyone to look styled. It is for nobody in the frame to pull your eye away from the faces. Get that right and the outfits disappear, which is exactly what you want when you look at the photograph in five years.
Start with one person, then build outward
Pick whoever is hardest to dress. In most families that is a toddler with strong opinions, or the one adult who owns three shirts. Choose their outfit first, pull two or three colours out of it, and dress everyone else from that small set.
That is the whole method. It gives you a family that looks connected without looking like a uniform. Four people in identical white shirts and jeans reads as a school photo. Four people in cream, oatmeal, soft olive and denim reads as a family who got dressed on the same morning.
Two or three colours, spread around
Neutrals earn their reputation for a reason. Cream, sand, oatmeal, grey, navy, olive, rust and denim all sit next to each other without arguing, and they age well. A photo full of trend colours looks dated faster than you expect.
Then let one person carry something with a bit more depth: a rust knit, a deep green dress, a mustard cardigan. One stronger colour anchors the group and stops the whole thing going flat. Repeat it somewhere small if you can, like a scarf or a pair of shoes, so it looks intentional rather than accidental.
Avoid putting the brightest colour on the smallest person unless you want every eye going straight to them. It is a fast way to lose the adults in their own photo.
What to leave in the wardrobe
Large logos and slogans date a photo and pull focus. Character shirts do the same, and they are the first thing you will notice in ten years. Neon reflects onto skin and gives everyone a faint green or pink cast under the chin that takes real work to remove.
Tight stripes, small checks and fine herringbone can shimmer strangely on a screen. Anything with a pattern that small is a risk. If you love a pattern, go for a larger, softer one and keep it on one person.
All black in a shady park loses every fold and seam, so the clothing turns into a flat shape. All white in bright sun does the opposite and blows out. Somewhere in between is where fabric actually looks like fabric.
Texture does more than pattern
A cable knit, a linen shirt, corduroy, a soft wool coat: these give a photograph something to hold on to when the colour palette is quiet. Texture is how you keep a neutral outfit from looking plain, and it photographs far better than a busy print.
Layers help for the same reason, and they are practical. A cardigan or jacket that comes off halfway through gives you two looks in one session without anyone changing in a public bathroom.
Dress for the park, not the studio
Almost every family session I shoot involves walking. Prospect Park's Long Meadow is a genuine field. Central Park has hills and gravel. DUMBO is cobblestones, and cobblestones and heels are a bad pairing that I have watched go wrong more than once.
Wear shoes you can move in. Clean sneakers photograph fine, and they let a five-year-old actually run, which is where the good frames usually come from. Bring flats even if you plan to shoot in heels for part of it.
Autumn. Peak colour in the city usually lands from late October into the first week of November, and rust, mustard, cream and deep green sit beautifully against it. Bring one more layer than you think you need, because the temperature drops fast once the sun is behind the buildings.
Winter. Coats are in every frame, so treat the coat as the outfit. A good wool coat in a solid colour does more for a winter family photo than whatever is underneath it. Hats and gloves are worth bringing for the kids even if they come off for the first ten minutes.
Spring and summer. Light, breathable fabrics that move well. Linen, cotton, and dresses with some length to them look wonderful in the wind coming off the water at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Avoid anything so loose that it needs constant adjusting, and check that a white shirt is not see-through in direct sun.
Kids: comfort wins, every time
A child in an itchy collar will tell you about the collar for the entire hour. Whatever you choose, have them wear it once before the session so it is familiar. Soft fabrics, nothing new, nothing scratchy.
Let older kids have a say in one part of their outfit. A seven-year-old who chose their own socks is a seven-year-old who is on your side for the next sixty minutes, and that matters more than the socks.
Bring a change of clothes for anyone under five, plus snacks that are not going to end up on a cream jumper. Nothing red, nothing sticky, nothing with chocolate.
The bed test
The night before, lay every outfit out on a bed, side by side, in the order people will stand. Step back and photograph it on your phone. On a small screen you will instantly see the problem: the one shirt that is too bright, the two patterns fighting, the person who has vanished into the background.
Swap that one item and you are done. This takes five minutes and it solves ninety percent of what people worry about for two weeks.
If you want another set of eyes on it, send me the photo. I would much rather answer a text about a jumper the night before than have you standing in a park wishing you had asked. It is also worth reading how to feel natural in front of the camera before the day, because clothes are only half of why people feel stiff in photographs.
When you are ready to plan the shoot itself, the family session packages list what each option includes, and you can get in touch to find a date. Autumn dates go first, usually by the end of September.