Most advice about family photoshoots assumes everyone involved wants to be there. Which is lovely, and not always how it goes when you’re four thousand miles from home, two of you are jet-lagged, and the three-year-old has opinions.
So this is the practical version. Where to go with children, what hour actually works, what it costs, and what to do when someone melts down at Trocadéro. We photograph families in Paris most weeks of the year, and almost none of those sessions go exactly to plan. The good ones never needed to.
The honest expectation
Your children will not behave perfectly, and the photographs will be lovely anyway.
This is the single most useful thing we can tell you, and parents rarely believe it until they see the gallery. The images families end up printing are almost never the ones where everyone was looking at the camera and smiling on command. They’re the ones where a child is being carried upside down, or whispering something, or has just been told no about a carousel.
Those photographs are what your family actually looked like in Paris that week. That’s the point of them.
So the aim isn’t a well-behaved session. It’s a session built so that ordinary behaviour produces beautiful pictures.
Where to go with children
Not every beautiful spot in Paris works with a family. The ones that do have three things: space to move, somewhere to sit, and short distances between good backgrounds.
The Tuileries is our first recommendation for families with young children. It gives you gravel paths, ponds, green chairs to collapse into, and a carousel. The side allées away from the central path have the best light and the fewest people. In late October, the whole garden turns gold.
Parc Monceau is an elegant residential park with a colonnade around a lake, enormous trees and wide paths. Parisians bring their own children here. Crucially, it’s genuinely pleasant mid-morning, so you don’t need a sunrise alarm.
Champ de Mars is the answer when the Eiffel Tower is non-negotiable — and it often is, because it’s what grandparents want framed. There’s room to run, and the tree-lined edges photograph far better than the open lawn.
Trocadéro gives you the classic shot, and it demands an early start. Before seven, it’s calm; by nine, it’s several hundred people and a toddler’s worst morning. If you want this one, commit to the alarm.
Bir-Hakeim bridge is an underrated family location. The métro running overhead is a genuine hit with children; the space is wide, and the Eiffel Tower is framed perfectly at the end.
Luxembourg Gardens has the pond, the sailboats, plenty of room, and it’s lovely as the gates open, but you’ll need authorisation for professional pictures there.
Where we’d think twice: Montmartre is steep, cobbled, and almost entirely stairs. Beautiful, and hard work with a pushchair or a small child. The narrow residential streets need patience between cars. Neither is impossible, but neither is where we’d start.
[All our Paris photoshoot locations, grouped into routes →]
What time of day actually works
The photographer’s answer is sunrise. The parent’s answer is more complicated, and we’d rather give you the real one.
Sunrise gives you empty landmarks and the best light of the day. It works brilliantly with babies, who are often awake anyway, and with jet-lagged families arriving from the Americas, who tend to be wide awake at 5 am for the first few days. It works much less well with a four-year-old on European time.
Mid-morning, around 9 to 10 am, is the realistic sweet spot for most families with young children. Everyone has eaten. Nobody is due a nap. Parc Monceau and the Tuileries are both perfectly good at this hour.
Late afternoon and golden hour suit families with older children, and the light in the last hour before sunset is beautiful. But Paris is packed with people at this time.
Avoid the middle of the day. Harsh overhead light, hardest shadows, biggest crowds, and usually the worst mood of the day for everyone under six.
Work backwards from the nap, not from the light. A session in good light with an overtired child is worse than a session in ordinary light with a cheerful one. Tell us when your children are at their best, and we’ll build the morning around that.
A note on seasons: in June, sunrise is just before 6 am, which is a lot to ask. In December, it’s closer to 8.30 am, which makes winter family sessions far easier to schedule than people expect.
How long should it be?
Thirty minutes is enough for a family with a baby or a single toddler. Honestly, it’s often the right call. You’ll get one location, one look, and a child who hasn’t had time to get fed up.
One hour is what most families book and what we’d usually recommend. Long enough for everyone to relax and forget about the camera, short enough that nobody’s patience runs out. One route, two or three stops.
Two hours suits families with older children, multi-generational groups, or anyone who wants two genuinely different parts of the city. With under-fives, it’s usually longer than anyone enjoys.
If you’re unsure, book an hour. The first ten minutes are always slightly stiff, and you want time on the other side of that.
What it costs
Sessions run from €180 to €520 depending on length and how many photographs you receive. Most families book the one-hour session and spend between €270 and €370 once add-ons are included.
What doesn’t change the price: how many people come. A family of three and a family of eight pay the same. If you’re travelling with grandparents, aunts, cousins — bring them. It costs nothing extra, and multi-generational photographs are the ones families tell us they’re most glad to have.
Worth checking when comparing photographers: some charge a price per person, which changes the maths enormously for a family. Always ask whether it’s per session or per head, and how many edited photographs you’ll receive.
Surviving it with a toddler
The section parents actually came for.
Feed everyone first. This is not a small thing. A hungry child at 8 am is a different child entirely. Build in breakfast or bring something.
Bring snacks, and don’t hide them. We’ve photographed many wonderful moments involving a pain au chocolat. Crumbs are fine. Crumbs are often charming.
Let them run. The photographs where a child is tearing across the Tuileries are better than the ones where they’ve been placed on a bench and told to stay. We’ll build the session around movement rather than fighting it.
Don’t threaten or bribe for smiles. “Say cheese” produces the face you’ve seen in every family photograph you dislike. We’d rather make them laugh, which works far more reliably and looks like them.
Expect a wobble. Almost every session with a small child has one. We stop, we wait, we go and look at something, and five minutes later it’s over. It has never once ruined a gallery.
Bring one comfort object, and tell us about it. If a particular rabbit has to be in the photographs, that’s genuinely fine — in ten years it may be the detail you love most.
Don’t apologise to us. Parents spend a lot of a session saying sorry. There’s nothing to apologise for. This is what photographing families is.
What to wear
As Paris family photographers, we always advise you to pick two or three colours and let everyone draw from them. Not matching outfits — a shared palette. Identical clothing blurs a family into one shape; complementary colours keep everyone distinct.
Paris is cream stone, grey roofs, black iron and deep green trees. Cream, camel, navy, burgundy, olive and black all sit beautifully against that. Neon and bright primaries fight it.
Start with the hardest person to dress, usually a child or a reluctant teenager, and build everyone else around whatever they’ll actually wear.
Comfort beats elegance for anyone under ten. A child in an itchy collar will tell you about it for the entire session, and the camera will agree with them.
Layers. Small children are hot, then cold, then hot again. Early mornings in Paris are colder than the forecast suggests, in every season.
Shoes you can walk cobblestones in, for everyone. Bring anything delicate in a bag.
[Our complete guide to what to wear for a Paris photoshoot →]
What happens on the day
Before you arrive, we’ll have agreed locations and timing, and we’ll send you a photograph of the exact meeting point so you’re not standing in a park with three children wondering where we are.
The first ten minutes are a warm-up. We mostly walk and talk. You’ll notice we’re photographing while nobody is paying attention — those are usually the keepers.
Then we play. With younger children, the session genuinely looks like a game, and the photographs come out of that rather than out of posing.
We’ll do the formal one too. Most families want at least one photograph where everyone is looking at the camera, for the grandparents. We’ll get it, usually early, while patience is at its peak. Then we’ll go back to the good stuff.
Your gallery arrives within five days, or within twenty-four hours with express delivery.
If it rains
Go ahead. We mean it.
Rain empties the landmarks, wet stone reflects beautifully, and children are usually delighted by puddles in a way that photographs extremely well. Paris rain is normally brief, and we’ll move toward covered locations if it isn’t.
If you’d rather not, rescheduling is free.
[Why we’d rather you didn’t reschedule →]
Making a trip of it
A photoshoot slots neatly into a morning and leaves the rest of the day free. If you’re building an itinerary around it, we’ve written about [things to do in Paris with kids] and [the best family hotels in Paris] separately.
The families who enjoy their session most tend to do it in the first couple of days, while everyone is still excited and before the trip has worn anyone out.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a family photoshoot in Paris cost? Between €180 and €520 depending on session length and the number of edited photographs. Most families spend €270 to €370 including add-ons. Prices are per session, not per person.
What’s the best location for family photos in Paris? Parc Monceau and the Tuileries are the easiest with young children — space to move, places to sit, short walks. Champ de Mars, Trocadero (early in the morning) and Bir-Hakeim are best when you want the Eiffel Tower in the frame.
What time of day is best for a family photoshoot in Paris? Mid-morning, around 9 to 10 am, works best for most families with young children. Sunrise gives the best light and emptiest landmarks, and suits babies and jet-lagged families.
How long should a family photoshoot be? An hour suits most families. Thirty minutes is often right with a baby or a single toddler. Two hours works well for older children or multi-generational groups.
Do you charge extra for larger families? No. Prices are per session regardless of how many people come, so grandparents and extended family cost nothing extra.
What should families wear for photos in Paris? Two or three complementary colours rather than matching outfits, prioritising comfort for children, with layers for cold mornings.
What if my child won’t cooperate? Almost no session with a small child goes entirely to plan, and it rarely affects the gallery. We build sessions around movement and play rather than posing, and we’re happy to stop and wait.
Can we include grandparents in the photoshoot? Yes, and we’d encourage it. Multi-generational photographs are the ones families most often tell us they’re glad they have, and there’s no extra charge.
When you’re ready
Tell us when you’re in Paris, who’s coming, and how old your children are. We’ll suggest a location and an hour that fits your family rather than the other way round.
[Check availability →] · [Our prices] · [Where we shoot] · [What to wear]
