How to photograph your family heirlooms like a pro

Heirlooms can be unexpected—such as the gorgeous glass doorknobs shown here: “I was born into the bedroom with the glass doorknob and I didn’t leave it until I got married at age 23,” the subject remembers; she uses the object as a jumping-off point for stories from her life in that home (she even took the doorknob with her when the house was sold—a true heirloom). This is an example of a family heirloom photograph that has been styled and arranged in an environment, used as part of a broad family history book.

Whether you have centuries’ worth of expensive heirlooms handed down through generations or a few sentimental objects from a single ancestor, you should consider photographing your heirlooms to preserve their stories and provenance.

An heirloom’s preciousness does not derive from its financial worth, but from its meaning to you. Some of my most treasured heirlooms are valuable only to me—a crocheted blanket my mom made for me, a few shells I gathered on beaches during travels with my grandmother, and a wooden spoon that they both used that I now cook with daily. And yes, I consider each of those worthy of photographing—because they hold stories and love that I want to pass on.

Styling and photographing heirlooms can be as simple or as sophisticated as you’d like, depending upon your skill set and needs. Here are some guiding questions and helpful resources to empower you to photograph your heirlooms like a pro.

Decisions that will guide your heirloom photo shoot

What heirlooms do you want to photograph?

Knowing how many and what types of objects you want to photograph is a necessary first step. Make a list of the objects (some to consider: jewelry, letters, portraits, works of art, family Bibles, furniture, kitchen gear, instruments, clothing, china, military medals or uniforms, firearms, collectibles). Which do you want to photograph?

How will you be using the photos?

The two main ways I utilize images of family heirlooms in my books are 

1. in a straightforward family history catalog, where the heirlooms are the main point of the book; or 

2. in a broad family history book with a narrative focus, where the heirlooms are just one way of revealing a family’s stories.

For a straightforward heirloom catalog, the images need to clearly identify each object, perhaps show them from different angles, and hone in on relevant details. To achieve this:

• Photograph each heirloom on the same backdrop. Using a large white foam board, available at any craft store, is an easy, clean option.

• Maintain consistent lighting—either natural light from a window (in which case I recommend you schedule your shoots at the same time each day to ensure steady shadows) or artificial lighting (such as from studio lights, a camera flash, or directional light from a lamp). Strive to make each image look like they belong together in the same catalog.

• Consider including a ruler or tape measure in some shots to clearly depict an object’s size.

I photographed this hand-turned plate, made by my client’s father, on a clean white background and from various angles, because it was being used in a catalog of family heirlooms. The lack of styling yields not only a timeless image, but a straightforward record of what the objects look like.

For images that will be included within a larger narrative book, you have many more options (and therefore, more choices—and more challenges). Consider:

• What is the tone of your book? The design aesthetic? You will want to photograph the objects in a way that complements these.

• In what context will the images be shown? This will influence how you style and shoot your heirlooms. 


  
  For example, in a recent book telling the story of a Jewish man who fought in the Red Army during World War II, I shot the subject’s military medals on clean white backgrounds, but in a stylized way—at an angle, with strong shadows, so when placed in the page layout they appear to be sitting on the book’s pages; I wanted the awards to stand on their own, visual reminders of the subject’s valor. 


  
  For another client, whose book encompassed generations’ worth of family history, I shot various heirlooms in styled settings that fit into the warmer, nostalgic tone of the book—an inherited cast-iron pan was styled with other items in their kitchen during a cooking session, capturing not only the textures of the heirloom, but its familiar use with a passed-down recipe; while a stack of letters that an ancestor had saved was tied beautifully with twine and styled with a handkerchief, floral stems, and one letter open for reading, an invitation into their intimacy.

This styled heirloom photo uses candles and flowers to add dimension and texture, natural lighting for soft shadows, and a simple wooden surface as a warm yet simple backdrop.

Where are the heirlooms?

Logistics can play a major role in how you photograph your family heirlooms. If you are the keeper of them all, then life is easy—skip this question! However, if your heirlooms are divided among various family members, or tucked away in a storage facility or bank vault, you will need a plan of attack.

• Can you arrange to have all the heirlooms brought to a central location for one or two days of shooting?

• If not, can you enlist the help of a family member at each location to make tackling multi-location shoots easier? Or ‘assign’ photo shoots to a different individual at each location?

• How will you achieve consistent lighting across various locations (or change up your visual approach based on location)?

• Have you thought of everyplace your heirlooms might be? Consider the homes of other family members; storage facilities, bank vaults or lock boxes; your own attic, basement, shed, closets; 

Bonus: heirloom photography resources and ideas

Some easy heirloom image ideas:

• Shoot a framed photograph in its environment, instead of scanning the image itself.

• Shoot an everyday heirloom (one you use often, such as your grandma’s wooden spoon or your great-uncle’s woodworking plane) while you are using it—your hands and the surroundings will bring life to the object.

• Have a collection of items such as baseball cards? Choose one or two representative items to make the center of your photo’s focus, but scatter many of the others around—you don’t need to see every item in a collection to understand its vastness or its value.

• Shoot engagement rings on the hands of the wearer or in an elegant velvet ring box.

  
  

A few keys to getting great shots:

• Remember, the subject is the focal point of the image—any props or backdrops you include should add texture and visual interest, but not distract from the main subject.

• The angle you choose to shoot from will impact how the heirloom is seen. I recommend always shooting from a few angles—you might be surprised by which one resonates in the end.

• Keep the trim size of the book in mind when shooting your heirlooms, as this may influence the orientation of your photographs.

• Go for dimension and layering, but not a cluttered feel, when arranging props and heirlooms for your shoot. A simple dishcloth or ribbon, when styled beautifully, might be enough.

• Reflective items such as mirrors and glass can be more difficult to shoot. Search YouTube for a tutorial on how to approach these objects.

• “A ‘narrative’ is a little story or subtext that gives the shot its purpose,” prop stylist Robin Zachary writes in her beautiful book, Styling Beyond Instagram. “By combining any given theme and narrative, you can create endless options to give purpose and meaning to your images.” Be creative!
  
  

A few of my favorite (affordable) styling resources:

• Foam board

• Contact paper

• Surfaces

• Acrylic cubes as risers

• Flowers or herbs

• Steamer

• Fun-tac

• Textured hand towels

Related reading:

• For tips on how to learn more about your family heirlooms, check out this piece in Family Tree Magazine.

• For more ideas about preserving the stories behind your family heirlooms, explore the posts below:

A coffee table book about quirky heirlooms? Yes, please!

The latest addition to my own coffee table: this warm-and-fuzzy, beautifully photographed book from Shana Novak, The Heirloomist: 100 Treasures and the Stories They Tell (Chronicle Books, April 2024).

Back in 2016, when Modern Heirloom Books was yet a newborn baby, I was working on one of my first big projects—a retrospective of a family-owned film company that was celebrating 30 years in business. It was an in-depth undertaking, with multiple interviews with the founder and a series of interviews with a handful of other players in the company’s history. One of the most fun aspects of the initial research was first watching a bunch of their early footage, then getting to explore the basement archive of the physical media that held the original films. Having spanned three decades, their stash of films covered a whole landscape of moviemaking technology—formats included 35mm, 16mm, 2-inch video, 1-inch video, three-quarter-inch video, VHS, DV, DV-Cam, HDV, Beta, Beta SP, Digi-Beta, DVC-Pro, DVC-ProHD, XD-Cam, and on…and on. So, of course I wanted to photograph some of them for the book—a little visual timeline, if you will.

The photographer I tapped to capture these images was experienced in both editorial and commercial work, and we were connected through our tenure in national magazines—and her personal brand, The Heirloomist, was in many ways, like Modern Heirloom Books, a newborn business baby at the time. I adored her clean and creative approach to photographing things, but more so was drawn to her instinctive sense that she was photographing the stories behind the things. That’s what mattered to me, and it’s what mattered to her, too.

A spread from an heirloom book I created in 2016 celebrating the 30th anniversary of a family-run business—it shows an old film canister photographed by Shana Novak for the project. For this client, their films help tell their story, and the striking visuals help bring that story to vivid life.

I have been thrilled to watch from the sidelines as Shana Novak (aka The Heirloomist) has turned her love of quirky heirlooms and photography not only into a thriving business, but now, into a beautiful coffee table book from Chronicle! The Heirloomist: 100 Treasures and the Stories They Tell (Chronicle, April 2024), as you can no doubt tell from the subtitle, is a book after my own heart.

“The definition of heirloom, in my family, is clearly open to interpretation,” Shana writes in the book’s introduction (I won’t give away exactly what she is talking about—you’ll have to pick up a copy of the book for yourself). 

And it’s that element of surprise that I love most about the book. Sure, there are what some might consider ‘traditional’ heirlooms within (think jewelry and baby shoes, for instance) but it’s the unexpected items—and the personal stories attached to them—that resonate with me.

“It’s garbage to anyone else but me,” one subject says about a fork—yes, a fork—that she treasures…with good reason, as the brief, vulnerable story accompanying the photograph of the fork attests. There are wonderfully touching, funny, and warm stories about heirlooms as idiosyncratic as a twenty-something-year-old Etch-a-Sketch (perhaps my favorite heirloom in the book) and a Styrofoam cup.

Memories are attached to these things, memories that those who hold onto the objects cherish—and through the majesty of her photography, Shana honors those memories in a most unique and lasting way.

Some of the treasures in The Heirloomist are expensive, and some are worth nothing from a monetary perspective. “But all are priceless, precisely because their stories will play your heartstrings like a symphony,” Shana writes. Indeed, they will.

For anyone who loves stories, I recommend this book.

For anyone who loves photography, I recommend this book.

And for anyone who might want some inspiration around telling the stories of your own family’s unique heirlooms, I highly recommend this book.

What (unique, unexpected) heirlooms are stashed in your family archive?

Note: This is an unsolicited review of a book I purchased at full price. I did not receive any compensation or free products in exchange, and any endorsements within this post are my own.

More Modern Heirloom inspiration: Heirlooms can be unexpected—such as the gorgeous glass doorknobs on this spread: “I was born into the bedroom with the glass doorknob and I didn’t leave it until I got married at age 23,” the subject remembers; she uses the object as a jumping-off point for stories from her life in that home (she even took the doorknob with her when the house was sold—a true heirloom). Read more about interesting graphics to consider adding to your family history book here.

The best graphics to add to your family history book

Shooting some of your family’s most treasured heirlooms for your book not only provides beautiful visuals to accompany your stories, it ensures that the details of those heirlooms will get passed on. These happen to be my bronzed baby shoes from 1970.

One of the more fun parts of putting a family history book together can be deciding what to include to visually illustrate your family’s stories.

Your first line of business is to sort photos and memorabilia and digitize it. (Some helpful resources for that include “How to Decide Which Photos to Use in Your Life Story Book” and, if you’re still in the early stages of planning your book, “How to Organize Your Family Archive as a Resource for Your Life Story Book.”)

Once all that’s done, consider these three types of visual media to add color, texture, and graphic appeal—all while helping to tell your stories clearly—to your family history book:

1. Family tree charts

2. Photographs of family heirlooms

3. Historic maps

Family tree charts

Family tree charts can be a simple ancestor chart such as this one, embellished with an illustrated tree and roots; or they can be extensive all-in-one genealogy documents listing multiple generations, with all relations including ancestors and descendants (the larger a family gets the more challenging it can become to print an all-in-one tree in your book; in that case, multiple graphics of each family line are recommended).

As the steward of your family history, you are abundantly familiar with the names of your ancestors—and, more importantly, of their relationships to you. But consider this: Future readers of your family history book will be separated by generations from their kin, and will not intuitively understand those relationships. A graphic family tree chart provides them with a visual reference that they can easily flip to for confirmation—Yes, that is my two-times great-grandmother!—and clarification—No, Great Uncle Pete was actually on my paternal side!

Search Instagram, Pinterest, and Etsy for “custom family tree” and browse the myriad styles out there. You’ll want to create a family chart that feels consistent with your book’s design (is it modern? traditional? fun?)—so either emulate one you like in your preferred design software, or hire a graphic artist to create one for you. Many designers provide you with a large-scale print to be framed but will also provide a high-resolution digital file for you to include in your book for an extra fee (trust me, it’s worth it!).

Photographs of family heirlooms

No doubt you’ve got some heirlooms sitting around your house that hold meaning (of course they do, otherwise why hold on to them?). Families often pass down the lore behind family heirlooms via good old oral storytelling, and I’m all for that. But to ensure that the provenance of those heirlooms, and the stories they hold, don’t get forgotten as new generations inherit them, it’s key to record their details.

A few notes on heirlooms: The word ‘heirloom’ connotes for many an item of import, and often one of high monetary value (think of Great-Grandfather’s grand piano or your mom’s passed-down diamond engagement ring, for instance). Value can derive from more than money, though (think of the family Bible in which family members have recorded—in their own handwriting—births, marriages, and deaths for more than a century; or the family recipes on grease-stained index cards that are pulled out every holiday).

Make a list of all the heirlooms, big and small, that hold meaning for your family (and remember, some may be kept at the homes of other family members). Then, decide on an approach for preserving their stories.

• One idea: Use your smart phone to take clear photos of all the items (some from multiple views), print those out, and write their details on back (include who it originally belonged to and to whom it was passed down; any relevant dates; and bonus points if you also record a narrative remembrance about the heirloom, as well!). Make copies of these for interested family members, and store one in a bank vault or safe location so it’s secure in the long-term.

• Another option: Use a high-quality DSLR or hire a professional photographer to get beautiful shots of your heirlooms to include in your family history book. For this use you want to capture photographs with studio lighting (pro-grade lighting set-ups are now easily portable, so photographers can bring them into your home) and that show strong detail. You can either create a full chapter devoted to your heirlooms and their stories, or you can pepper these photos throughout your family history book, including them where relevant (a shot of Grandma’s well-loved wooden spoon near her stories of holiday cooking, perhaps, or a close-up of that third-generation quilt near the ancestor who worked on it).

Using proper lighting and adding props to your family heirlooms help make the resulting photos worthy of inclusion in your heirloom book. How much more boring would these blue glass rosary beads be if they were shot simply from above on a table with your smart phone?

Heirlooms can be unexpected—such as this gorgeous glass doorknobs shown here: “I was born into the bedroom with the glass doorknob and I didn’t leave it until I got married at age 23,” the subject remembers; she uses the object as a jumping-off point for stories from her life in that home (she even took the doorknob with her when the house was sold—a true heirloom).

Historic maps

Reproducing maps within your family history book will help orient readers to the geography of your family and add a wonderfully historic feel to your book. Fair warning, though: While there are numerous resources for finding royalty-free digital maps spanning centuries, you’re in for some intense research to find exactly which map(s) will best illustrate your family history.

This article, “Old Map Collections That Every Family Historian Should Know About,” is one of the most comprehensive and helpful, listing 11 sources for researching vintage map collections.

• One of my favorites is the David Rumsey Map Collection, which includes more than 150,000 maps that you can easily download and use. The interface can feel overwhelming, but there are gems to be found, including 1950s road maps from Shell Oil Company and

• The Library of Congress map collections home page is a little more straightforward to navigate and has advanced search capabilities. Here you’ll find everything from maps and charts from the time of the American Revolution to fire insurance maps that get granular with street-level details; from WWII military situation maps to railway and other transportation maps.

You can also purchase basic city and country maps from stock photo agencies or freelance illustrators, or scan in maps from your family genealogy archive. Always be sure to check copyright details to ensure you have legal permission to reproduce chosen maps in your book.

An example of a vintage map you might include in your family history book: This one is an 1872 topographical map of Adams, Brown, Highland, Pike, and Scioto Counties in Ohio, originally published by Stedman, Brown & Lyon, Cincinnati, 1872; courtesy of David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. The Rumsey collection allows for downloads of varying sizes so you can ensure you have the highest resolution for printing in your book.