How to Get Natural
Family Photos

The Single Biggest Factor: Timing

More than location, more than outfits, more than anything else — the time of day you choose for your session determines how the photos look and how everyone feels during them.

For outdoor sessions, the hour before sunset is when the light is softest and most flattering. It's warm, directional, and forgiving. Morning light (roughly within the first 90 minutes after sunrise) works similarly well. Middle of the day, especially in summer, is harsh and unflattering for portraits.

There's also a practical side: children who are fed and have had some outdoor time during the day tend to be more cooperative in the late afternoon than in the morning. For very young kids, mid-morning (after first nap, after breakfast) can work well. Know your own children.

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Where to Have Your Session

The Dublin area has a lot of good options for family portraits. Here are the ones we use most often:

• Howth: Cliff walks, the harbour, the village. Works particularly well for golden-hour light with sea views.
• Phoenix Park: Open space, deer, old trees. One of the few places in Dublin that gives you proper countryside feel without leaving the city.
• Malahide: The castle grounds, the beach, the estuary. A good mix of formal and natural backgrounds depending on what you want.
• Killiney: Clifftop views, dramatic coastline. Better for smaller groups that can move around comfortably.
• Your own home: Often underrated. If you have a garden or a space that means something to the family, home sessions can produce some of the most natural-feeling images precisely because everyone's already comfortable there.
• Wicklow and beyond: For something more dramatic — forests, mountains, wider landscapes — we travel. Just mention it when you get in touch.

If there's a specific place that means something to your family — a park you go to every Sunday, the beach where you spent last summer — we'd rather shoot there than at a generic backdrop. Let us know.

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What to Wear — The Short Version

Coordinate, don't match. Families where everyone wears exactly the same colour look like a corporate team photo, not a family. A coordinated palette — where colours complement each other without being identical — looks much more natural.

Good rules of thumb:

• Pick one or two anchor colours and build outfits around them
• Earth tones, neutrals, and muted colours photograph well outdoors (navy, sage, cream, rust, warm grey)
• Avoid bright white and neon in direct or outdoor light — they can blow out
• Avoid large logos, text, or very busy patterns
• Dress children in something comfortable that they won't spend the session pulling at or refusing to wear
• Layers add interest — a jacket, a cardigan, a scarf

We send a more detailed wardrobe guide when you confirm your booking. But the above gets you most of the way there.

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Managing Kids During the Session

Here's the honest version: you don't manage them, really. You let them be themselves and we photograph what happens. The sessions that produce the best images are rarely the ones where children are being perfectly behaved. They're the ones where something real happened — a child ran away, someone said something funny, a toddler decided to sit on the ground and everyone laughed.

What you can do practically:

• Bring snacks. Not as a bribe during the session (that usually backfires) but as fuel for before and after.
• Don't hype the session to children in a way that makes it sound like a big deal. The more casual it is, the more relaxed they'll be.
• Build in time before the session for them to explore the location a little — especially outdoors. Kids who've had five minutes to run around settle faster than ones who arrive and are immediately expected to stand still.
• Let them be involved. Children who get to choose a spot or decide what to do next feel less like subjects and more like participants.

We're experienced with children of all ages. Babies, toddlers, teenagers who don't want to be there — we've seen all of it. Don't stress about it going perfectly. The imperfect moments often end up being the favourite images.

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How Long Does a Family Session Last?

Standard sessions run between 1 and 1.5 hours. This is usually enough time for a real variety of images without anyone running out of energy. For larger extended families or if you want multiple distinct setups, sessions can be extended — we'll quote based on what you're after.

Don't try to cram too much in. A focused 60–75 minutes with everyone present and relatively cooperative produces better results than a two-hour session where the kids hit a wall halfway through.

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What About the Weather?

This is Ireland. We always have a backup plan. If the weather makes an outdoor session impossible, we'll either reschedule or move indoors, depending on what works better. We keep an eye on the forecast the day before and have a conversation about what makes most sense. No cancellation charges for weather.

Overcast days are actually often better for outdoor portraits than full sun — the cloud acts as a diffuser and you don't have people squinting. Don't be too quick to reschedule for an overcast forecast.