Tips for amazing editorial fashion photography

Simple tips that would help make your editorial fashion photos even more amazing, and your sessions more exciting :-

1. While there’s nothing wrong with experimenting with complicated studio lighting setups, try you luck at going more natural with minimal artificial lighting from time to time. Employing natural window light with some reflectors or fill can keep your setup simple and often yield wonderful results. 

2. This point partially ties up with the previous one above. Try making your subject or model look as if they’re not actually being externally lit. Instead of blasting your model with strobes, experiment with making them look as if they’re being naturally lit. This, by the way, is harder to achieve than just setting up your lights according to some predefined complex setup and taking a few shots. Every location, whether indoors or outside, have its own characteristics as a result of how each element in the scene interacts with the available lights’ direction and qualities. And those elements together influence each others’ way of interaction with that light. So succeeding at figuring out how to blend in your light with what’s already there at that specific time and place without actually giving yourself out is a much more creative process than just canceling out all external light effects and overpowering the scene with just yours. Try it out sometime, it can be an interesting challenge and it can bring you many rewards in return. 

3. Break the ice with your model and encourage them to just be themselves around you and your camera. Give them the chance to walk around the set, laugh, act, or even dance. Try to capture the true essence of a natural candid shot within your editorial or fashion project. 

4. Experiment with location. Shoot outdoors during sunset or sunrise. Shoot indoors at different spots: try the staircase at times, revisit your old garage with all those rusty tools. And remember to vary your angle of view from shot to shot: try a close up with a longer focal length and then a documentary kind of photo with a shorter one to capture more of the surrounding setting. 

5. Set yourself apart from the rest. Figure out your own style and taste, and then let it shine in all you create. Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there. If you think a particular approach is more “you” than another, suggest it to your client! This will help you more enjoy your work, thus dedicate yourself more to it and have fun at the same time. Everyone likes to do what they love and at the same time get paid for it! Do what you like, and you’ll never have to work a day in you life! 

6. Go easy on the editing. No one is perfect and neither does your photos have to pretend that they are. A little freckles and lines can add to the character and convey actuality and reality. People have some imperfections as a result of a thing we all know as “life”, and these give them their character and make them who they are. I’m not saying you shouldn’t fix imperfections that would degrade the quality of your work, I’m just saying try to go easy in the post and try to incorporate those characteristics within your shooting style to bring out the true inherent complex of attributes that defines the person you’re shooting. 

7. Try to scout for new interesting and unique locations that you feel would give your photos that extra edge. You don’t really need to get in the car and drive for hours and hours looking for places for your next photo shoot. Just try to keep an eye out for something that looks interesting or different when you’re out hanging with your friends or having a picnic or whatever. You don’t really need to have a camera with you at the time, just take a shot of the spot you think might be good for an on-location shoot with your cellphone and geo tag it or add a few notes that will enable you to go back to your archives and pick a setting or location that seems suitable for an upcoming job when you need to. 

Copyright by : Thedphoto.com.

Image courtesy by : Zoomonme.com.