3 Simple (But Important) Things to Remember When Scheduling Your Family Photos

I realize that you may not be thinking about scheduling your family photos for the fall right now. But you might want to start thinking about it…

If you’re like most people, you want those coveted Fall photos on your holiday cards. But don’t be like most people and wait until the last minute to schedule your family photos. Photographers book up fast for these sessions. 

And if you’re complacent on having Fall photos and don’t mind having photos during another season, that’s cool, too! 

Regardless, I have 3 things you should remember when scheduling your family photos.

How you plan on using your family photos matters.

One of the first things you need to consider is how you will be using your family photos. Will you be hanging them on your walls? Putting them in a photo album? Gracing the front of your holiday cards with them?

If you’re wanting to put them on your holiday cards, then you need to plan in advance. So many families want their holiday cards to have updated family photos on them, which means a lot of people are scheduling their photo sessions at the same time. And because of this—photographers get booked up pretty quickly for these sessions. So my best advice here is to plan in advance. Pay attention to when your favorite family photographer is booking sessions. And don’t sleep on it..

Or, if you want to really stand out from the crowd (whether you’re using your photos for cards or not), why not consider another time of year? What about a fun July 4th family photo session? Or an end-of-summer session? There’s no rule book that says you have to have your photos taken in the fall.

Prepare for the time of day.

If you’ve been around my blog, email, or social media, you know the absolute BEST time of day for your session is 1-2 hours before sunset or at sunrise. This time of day gives off the best lighting. Promise.

Photographing in the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest casts harsh shadows and lines. Super unflattering. Taking photos when the sun is lower in the sky means you’re going to get softer light and softer shadows. Everything is going to look more beautiful.

Another tip on preparing: Prepare well especially if you have kids. I wrote a whole blog post on entertaining your kids during photo sessions. Take a look at it before you schedule your family photos.

No matter what, I want you to enjoy your family photo session and love your images so much that you want to put them everywhere. 

Want to go ahead and get your family photo session scheduled? Let’s set up a time to chat!