INTRODUCTION TO FASHIONABLE PHOTO
Fashion photography (or fashion photography) is a genre that refers to the shooting for advertising purposes of clothing, hairstyles, makeup, jewelry or other fashion products. To become a successful fashion photographer, you need a team – models, assistants, hairdressers and makeup artists, dressers and just extra eyes and hands. Fashion photography involves high-quality stylized photo shoots.
Proper lighting, posing and facial expression, and most importantly creativity – all this helps to become a successful fashion photographer. A good start would be to look at fashion magazines and fashion sites and learn the techniques by which photographers draw the attention of viewers to a specific topic or product. “Boring” – this does not apply to the fashion industry.
Introduction to Fashion Photography
Freedom and control
As a fashion photographer, the fashion editor or stylist sets the direction for you. Photographing for advertising and editorial purposes is significantly different from photographing a portrait photograph of a family or children. Fashion editors know exactly what they need from photos. They usually have their own team of stylists and assistants to work with. And you, as a photographer, are simply part of this team. You must be able to communicate with team members and understand what is best for the common cause. The ability to work as a team is vital in the fashion industry.
Introduction to Fashion Photography
Equipment
Of course you need a camera. However, keep in mind that lighting, hair, makeup and post-processing all create a high-quality fashion photo.
Introduction to Fashion Photography
Try to get some lens models. Zoom lenses and fixed. Zooms can come in handy if, for example, you work at a high fashion show and you need to shoot at a distance. 35mm or 50mm fixes are great for shooting in a small studio, although many trendy photographers like to shoot portraits with 85mm lenses. The best lens for the job will depend on the purpose of the job itself. Just make sure you have several options in your bag.
Introduction to Fashion Photography Introduction to Fashion Photography
Lighting is very important in fashion photography. Lighting should be complementary to models, colors and details should be in the spotlight. You have to spend a couple of good flashes. Umbrellas, reflectors, studio racks for equipment installation will also be needed. Buy a variety of studio backgrounds, in different sizes and colors.
Camera settings
There is no specific set of settings that you should use in fashion photography. As with any photo, it will depend on what and where you are shooting.
The first advice any professional or teacher of the photography school will give you is to shoot in RAW format. She will give you more freedom during post-processing.
The second tip is to use single shot instead of burst shooting. This seems counterproductive when you shoot a fast moving subject. But holding your finger on the button, you will not be able to crop and re-frame as needed. And besides, a series of shots in RAW format quickly eats up free space on the memory card.
Third tip – white balance is very important. Moreover, configure it before the start of a fashion show, and not at its height.
Introduction to Fashion Photography
Photo editing
In addition to photographing, you also need to learn how to retouch your work to make it better. Post-processing is absolutely essential in fashion photography. Regardless of whether you need a little refinement to eliminate spots, adjust white balance, improve colors or make deeper creative changes, you need to understand Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop (well, or hire a professional photo retoucher as a team).
Photoshop has all the components you need for editing photos. There are dozens of tools in it, from simple retouching to performing complex photo manipulations, a huge number of filters and brushes, this is a rather “difficult” program for mastering.
If you want to make everything faster, then study Lightroom, this program is ideal for color correction, minimal retouching, etc. It has fewer tools, but there are very convenient tools for organizing your many photo archives.
Many photographers use both of these programs – they import photos from the camera to the computer and make basic edits in Lightroom, and then use Photoshop to make more complex processing.
Practice fashion photography on your friends
Before you start chatting with models, stylists and makeup artists, start with friends. As you study, you will make mistakes. And it’s easier to do this with people who are comfortable with you and who understand you and help you.
Learn how famous photographers create their shots and recreate them.
The goal is not to copy photos accurately, but to get acquainted with the creative and technical aspects of fashion photography.
