COLOUR PALETTE & COORDINATION

Choosing a colour palette is actually very important when it comes to a family photography session. You can choose from 2-4 different colours, that compliment one another.

The easiest way to do this, is looking at different tones, such as, pastels, earthy, neutral etc.

For example, in the image here, white, pink and blue work well together. As well as with the location.

If you’re struggling in putting colours together, you can’t go wrong with a neutral palette. Here are some ideas you can browse through on my Pinterest board.

KEEP IT SIMPLE & COMFORTABLE

My outdoor sessions take place in fields, parks and woodlands. Places where I want children and parents to have a little fun and enjoy the nature too.

I want you to feel your best and most comfortable at the session. I want you to look back at your photos and see your true self, your childrens little personalities and connections. Choosing a lovely outfit that’s comfortable, really helps achieving that.

Although most of my families like to dress up a little, I always advice to keep it more simple, a nice summary day dress or jeans and summer shirt always work well.

WHAT DO I NEED TO AVOID?

The biggest no, no when it comes to picking an outfit for a photo session is anything with big logos, cartoon characters, text or huge prints.

You and your family is the main focus in all the photographs, therefore it’s of importance that we don’t draw attention away from that.

Also avoid miss matching colours.

LIGHT

Light is the absolute key to photography. Without good light it’s hard to take a nice photo. The same applies to smart phone photography. The direction of light and how harsh it is, plays a big part in the final image.

When taking a photo, always make sure your subjects face is lit well. I always try and find a room with the best light (where it’s not too harsh or too dark). If the rooms in your house are fairly dark, try and get as close to the window as you can.

ANGLES

Try different angles. If you’ve found a room with good light or you’re taking photos outside, play around. A lot of the time we pick our phone up and are guilty of, just snapping away. Looking straight on to the subject, with the phone held in upright position.

Try to photograph from above or below (maybe when your little ones are busy playing). Simply turning the phone landscape can also give you some more interesting images.

CAMERA SETTINGS

Camera settings vary depending on the smartphone manufacturer. But these are the things that can be done on every phone:

Turn your grid on – to help make sure you’re taking your photos straight (I’m terrible for taking my photos on a slight angle without a grid). And play around with where on the grid you’d like to place your subject.

Focus point – always use it to make sure exactly what you want is in focus.

Keep HDR turned on (High Dynamic Range). This helps balance highlights and shadows, creating an image that resembles more of what our human eye sees.

Stay away from camera flash. Unless it’s unavoidable, for example at night or really low light situations. It tends to make the image worse. When used you’ll find that you might have over lit skin, unwanted red eyes and a flat look to your images. And generally it just ruins the quality.

Avoid zoom at all costs. When using smartphone zoom, it doesn’t just zoom in, it actually crops your images. Resulting in a very poor quality photo.

EDITING

There are various apps you can download onto your phone for free or at a small cost. My favorite ones are Snapseed and Lightroom Mobile.

Lightroom Mobile is fantastic but can take a little while to get used to. I do use it on all my smartphone edits. And mainly stick to adjusting Light (so exposure, contrast and highlights). As well as crop tool, and I occasionally adjust the temperature.

Snapseed is also pretty great, there are some amazing looks you can choose from or edit your photo manually. Again, I keep it pretty simple. Either changing my images to black and white or playing around with exposure and contrast.