Pumpkin patch photo ideas for kids, toddlers and families

The pumpkin patch is the most-pinned fall photo idea there is, and the one most likely to end with a toddler face-down in the straw. These are the pumpkin patch photo ideas that survive contact with actual children, and why each one works.

Every picture here is one of our fall scenes, made by Headshot DP. Nobody in them is a customer.

The one giant pumpkin

Give a small child one pumpkin that is nearly as big as they are and they will hug it, sit on it or try to lift it. All three are the picture. It works best at golden hour with the rows of pumpkins going soft behind them.

The red wagon

The single best pumpkin patch idea for toddlers, because a toddler in a wagon is a toddler who is not running away. Pile pumpkins in around them.

Siblings on the hay bales

Stacked bales put brothers and sisters at different heights, which is exactly what makes a picture of two children look composed rather than lined up.

On the tailgate

Many patches have an old truck parked somewhere for exactly this reason. Sit the kids on the tailgate among the pumpkins and let their legs swing.

More pumpkin patch ideas

• Walking away down a row, holding hands, looking back over a shoulder.
• Choosing the pumpkin — crouched, pointing, arguing. The candid picture is often the best one.
• Carrying one that is too heavy. Faces of pure effort.
• The whole family on bales, smallest on top. See more in fall family photo ideas.

What to wear to the pumpkin patch

Warm colours that sit well against orange: cream, mustard, rust, olive, denim and soft pink. Avoid bright orange itself — a child in an orange jumper among orange pumpkins disappears. Knitwear, overalls and small boots all photograph well, and nothing you mind getting muddy.

When to go

The hour before sunset on a weekday. The light is warm and low, and the patch is emptier. Midday light is flat and hard, and weekend afternoons put strangers in every row behind you.

Or skip the drive

If the patch is an hour away, the forecast is rain, or the toddler has other plans, you can make these pictures from photos you already have. Add each child once, with a close-up of their face and one wider photo. Choose the pumpkin patch, the wagon or the hay bales. We dress them for fall and make new photographs of them in each scene.

You see one free preview of your own child first, small and watermarked, before you pay. Every scene is on the fall portraits page, and the Halloween photos for kids are ready too.

Questions

How do you get good pumpkin patch pictures of a toddler?

Give them a job and a place to be. A red wagon, a hay bale or one big pumpkin to hug keeps a toddler in one spot long enough for a picture, and the job gives them something to do other than look at the camera.

What colours look best at a pumpkin patch?

Cream, mustard, rust, olive, denim and soft pink. Avoid bright orange, which blends into the pumpkins.

Can I get pumpkin patch pictures without going to one?

Yes. We make new photographs of your children in a pumpkin patch scene from two ordinary photos of each of them, and dress them for fall. Everything you upload is deleted after 30 days.