When I was a kid our family photos were done in a "JC Penny" studio. We are dressed in our 90's bests and posed in little box formations in every Christmas card photo. While I am grateful for these photos of my family when we were younger (they are always good for a smile and laugh), I can't help but roll my eyes at the thought of my sister and I as perfect little ladies with matching puffy dresses, white lace gloves and shiny white shoes. God knows I rarely wear dresses and hate hate hate the feeling of tights to this day.
There is more depth to the photos you are getting.
Lifestyle photos are the modern day take on the family photo I described above. The idea of Lifestyle photos is to capture your family with more feeling of who each member is and how your family feels to you at this moment in your life. There is more than all the faces looking forward and saying cheese. There is love and touching and hugging and playing and laughing and maybe even some pouting or serious curiosity. These are the expressions and moments you take in on your family members faces and when seeing them in a photography make you FEEL your family instead of seeing everyone posed and smiling.
The photography session is a lot more effortless.
When you go into a lifestyle photoshoot, your expectations should be for your photographer to capture you as you are. The idea is for the photography to be a little bit of a guide as to where the lighting is best and where people may want to sit or stand but also a little bit of a fly on the wall just sneaking a peak into a family moment. When I am photographing families, I like to pose them and get the "everyone looking here" pose but then offer up a joke or make everyone tickle moms toes and wait for the magic to happen, because these are the moments and photos that resonate with your heart and your memories of your family.
You will most likely get a lot more image variety.
When you are being posed in a formal or studio type setting you will only use maybe one pose of your family setup in this way. Not many people print and frame and hang their posed family portrait in 4-5 variations on their wall right? You may however hang a gallery of different images of your kids playing and individual shots of your family and a group image of your family as a gallery. Lifestyle sessions give you a variety of images which is helpful when deciding which photos to print and hang in your home.
Tip:
Look through your photographer's work before booking and make sure you're confident that they will capture the beauty of families. If you're confident in them then you can just show up, spend an hour loving on and playing with your family and really enjoy your session.
I am wondering how many people have had and love the lifestyle type of photo session? What is your favorite part about this style?