What to wear for tree farm photos — boots, layers, and quiet colors against evergreen so the walk still looks like your family.
What to wear for holiday card photos — quiet cream, terracotta, forest, and charcoal that still look like your family on a 5×7 in February.
Fall family photo outfits in the Abel palette — warm terracotta, deep forest green, and charcoal — make outdoor autumn sessions feel moody, grounded, and genuinely timeless.
You know that Sunday. Session's next week. Mom texts "what should we wear?" You open twelve tabs. You screenshot a dress, a shirt, a pair of pants, and by 4 p.m. you've built a mood board nobody can shop. They show up in a neon hoodie and a logo tee. You spend the first ten minutes trying to hide it. I don't ask anymore. I just pick it and email them.
A photography style guide for clients is that note. I pick the outfits, they get one link they can actually shop, and they show up ready. It's a client wardrobe guide for family photographers, and it's how I stopped losing the Sunday before a session.
A photography style guide is the client style guide I email a family before we shoot. It's the outfits, written down, in one place they can actually tap. Not a folder of screenshots that dies in the group text. Not "wear something neutral," which means something different to every person in the house.
It isn't a brand book, and it isn't logo guidelines for the studio. Those are about how the business looks. This one is so Mom, Dad, and the kids look like they belong in the same frame.
I write the clothes the way I'd text them. Mom gets a dress, Dad gets a shirt, the kids get dresses and pants they can live with, and baby stays soft. That's a photography clothing style guide they can actually shop.
Under those clothes, a few colors hold the family together so nobody clashes when they're standing in a line. I also tell them what to leave at home, the neon and the logo hoodies, so it doesn't show up on the field.
They shop one link. I email it 10–14 days out, so there's time to order and try things on. If a size is wrong, they reply and I swap that person. That's the whole thing.
A mood board got me to 4 p.m. with nothing they could order. The guide is the clothes they can actually buy.
Swap the names and the date. The note says when you're shooting, what each person wears, what stays home, and the one link. Then email it.
Copy this to the family
Hey [family] — can't wait to shoot y'all on [date].
I'm picking outfits so you can shop once and be done. Mom, I'm putting you in a terracotta maxi. If you want something shorter, there's a rust sweetheart midi, or a forest babydoll dress if you'd rather go softer. Dad, forest linen shirt and charcoal pants — you'll look like yourself, I promise. For [girl], the charcoal smocked dress. [Boy] gets a forest tee and charcoal joggers. Baby gets a charcoal long-sleeve skater dress.
If a size is off, just reply and I'll swap that person. Leave the neon and the logo hoodies at home, yeah?
Shop it all here: [link]
Email it 10–14 days out. Not the night before. Not from the parking lot. Ten days is enough to order and try on. Fourteen is kinder if sizes are a question.
The tiles below are one fall field family dressed this way, an example of a photography style guide. Abel's just the colors underneath — terracotta, forest, charcoal, a little cream. Proof, not the point.
Mom gets dresses. Terracotta maxi if she wants the long one. Rust sweetheart midi if she wants something shorter. Forest babydoll if she'd rather go softer.
Dad's the easy yes. Forest linen shirt, charcoal pants. He looks like himself.
For the little girl, the charcoal smocked dress — short sleeves, dark and simple.
Boy gets a forest tee and charcoal joggers so he doesn't look like a tiny copy of Dad.
Baby stays soft in a charcoal long-sleeve skater dress.
I don't email a vibe. I email colors they can actually wear. Abel is the one I used here: terracotta, forest, charcoal, camel, cream.
Terracotta's the warm one. Forest holds up in a field in October. Charcoal keeps everybody from going muddy. Cream is the softer dress, not a second loud color. Six people, a couple of colors, one family in the frame. If you shoot light and airy, you do the same thing — the guide keeps the outfits soft on camera.
I pick the colors. I pick a dress for Mom, a shirt for Dad, a dress for the girl, pants for the boy. I drop them on one link and email it.
Shutterstyle is how I do that now, so Sunday isn't tabs. I'm not hunting screenshots at 4 p.m. I build the guide once, email it 10–14 days out, and the week before the session is about showing up.
Make the client style guide
Pick the colors, pick the outfits, email one link — so the family shows up ready.
Try Shutterstyle free →Ten to fourteen days out. Earlier if sizes are iffy. Later than a week and they panic-shop, and that's when the neon shows up.
Shoppable guide. A mood board's a feeling they can't buy. A guide has real pieces on it, so they can order the dress and the shirt instead of guessing. Screenshots get lost. One link doesn't.
Layer it, shoot, and email the next one before they shop. Don't make a thing of it on the field. The real fix is getting the note out before they buy.
Neutrals means something different to every person in the house. Tell Mom which dress. Tell Dad which shirt. Tell the girl which dress. One link.
Same shape, different outfits. New family, new date, new field. You're not starting from zero — you're picking this week's clothes. The photo style guide is that same note, written for them.
No. A brand style guide is the logo, the fonts, how the studio looks. A photography style guide is what the family wears. If another photographer asks for a style guide for photographers, I email the photoshoot style guide I already use — Mom's dress, Dad's shirt, one link — and leave the brand book alone.
You don't need a template sitting in a folder. The shape stays the same: Mom, Dad, the kids, baby, what stays home, one link. If you want photography style guide examples, the fall family above is one. Next session, I write the note again and pick new clothes.
Planning your own family photos?
Browse more palettes and what-to-wear guides on the Shutterstyle blog.
See more palettes →Styling clients as a photographer?
Save these pieces into a shareable client style guide your clients will actually follow.
Build a guide in 5 minutes →That's the job. Pick the clothes. Email the link. Get your Sunday back.
