beach family potraits

[Haro 25]

Hi there,

I was asked by a friend to take some portraits of her and her 3 daughters at the beach. She immediately suggested wearing a white color but I wanted to do something a little different. White is the most common color used for beach photography and so I wanted to steer a bit from it. The sand on the beach here is very white and so using colors might make for a great contrast between the background and subjects (at least that's what I hope) I told her what about if she relates colors of her children and her to their personality and so she came up with yellow, purple and pink for her kids. The color ( red) she chose for her personality didn't really match the others so she suggested either white or turquoise. Both colors match with the others but I can't make up my mind if we should put emphasis on a color combination for example 4 matching soft tone colors or letting the colors of either the mom or kids stand out. I would really appreciate your input.
Thanks in advance

check my uploads on Flickr: HaroldKelly's Photostream

[kristenh]

Harold, i'm not coming at this from a professional point of view, but you remember all that business in the '70s about "doing your colors" and so forth? there really are colors that some people can and can't wear- i think it would make sense to ask the mom to put some thought into that. i'm sometimes amazed to look at what is pretty much the same photo of one of my kids- same lighting, etc.- but one in a blue shirt (just as an example) and one in green- huge difference, with the green being far less desirable and making my kid look dreadful.

so.... if it were me, i'd have mom look through old photos or just pay attention to what colors the kids are wearing for a little while and make her choices based on that. if, for example, they are pale and blonde kids, pink and lavender might look better than red.

and then of course try and get the colors to flow together for the whole group. i do agree with you that white is getting a little trite and i personally love color. what about a range of pastels, as its the beach?

[Haro 25]

Hey kristenh,

Thanks for your comment it was very helpful. I especially liked the part about letting the mom check out from older pics which colors suit each kid. I will really go for pastel colors since those colors won't overpower the composition. The skin tone of everyone is dark brown so that might work out nice with the pastel colors and the white background. Thanks again for the tips.