The ever evolving fashion industry and increasing rate of creative advertisements have escalated the demands of a professional Fashion Photographer. But just knowing how to hold a camera and clicking some good shots does not guarantee that you’ll become a successful fashion photographer.
There are several fundamentals of fashion photography that one has to keep in mind to rise in this field. Many new comers try fashion photography without knowing certain fashion photography tips or fundamentals and when they don’t get results they end up demotivated thinking that there is no magic left in their lens.
So if you’re also thinking about trying your hands in this field we have some fashion photography tips for you which will be of great help to you. We will also discuss about some types of fashion photography in which you can implement these.
Table of Contents
1. Choose a suitable camera
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2. Adjust the position of Subject
Position of the subject matters as it’s the thing you want your viewer’s attention on. The best place to put your subject is center of the frame. If you’re placing your subject at any side, be it left or right, it’ll lose focus. Placing the object in the center immediately catches viewer’s eyes. It’s one of the fashion photography tips that you’ll use frequently.
3. Keep the background appropriate
Once you have the right camera and decided an appropriate position for your object, it’s time to decide what are the other things you want your viewer’s attention on. Simply put, you need an attractive background to make your image more appealing.
You need to decide background based on what color your subject is and also keeping the composition and color-balance of photograph in mind. If background is of same color as the clothes your model is wearing, then apparently you won’t be able to capture the vibrancy in the clothes.
4. Decide the posture
One of the crucial fashion photography tips is about deciding the posture of your object. The way your object poses is going to affect your photograph as it’s the main point of viewer’s attention. Tell your object to lean a little bit or make some modern poses with hands. Look for some modern techniques that are being used to make your model look elegant and refined.
Try that model looks into the camera and not around because that’ll take away viewer’s attention towards the negative space (space in the photograph other than your object) in your pic.
5. Work on the lighting
To extract out a great shot, you must work upon the lighting. Lighting tips for fashion photography can become handy here. If you’re working with natural light, then the exposure can be edited later on. But a common mistakes made by the photographers working in the studios is that they try complex lighting condition which uses too much flash. Keep it simple and just give your object appropriate exposure to light which can highlight the elements in your photograph where you want to direct viewer’s attention. Using too much flash will only worsen the conditions.
6. Use the daylight
Talking more about the lighting tips for fashion photography, daylight is the best source you can utilize. Instead of spending money on expensive light gears try to use the daylight more and more. Try different angles and positions as seating your model in an open ground or near a window. Notice how the daylight falls and while editing you can also adjust the exposure.
7. Learn and apply Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule in fashion photography tips. In this you mentally divide your frame into nine square boxes. Now you’ll be having four points where lines will seem to intersect. Place your object at these spots to get a better and balanced composition.
Dividing your frame in one third is also included in this. For example, the two horizontal frame you keep for the object and in one top frame you capture the background.
8. Keep gender specific postures in mind
Well there are some poses in fashion world that only suit up upon specific gender. For example if you’re doing male fashion photography and you tell your model to lean against a wall with one of his knees pointing out, you would like to have his hands in a different posture than female counterpart. In fashion photography generally, females are captured as stylish and flexible while in male fashion photography, they are captured as bold and impactful.
9. Try Different Angles
Once you have placed your object or model at desired place try to capture them with different angles. This gives you the benefit of utilizing all the points where the light falls. Then while editing you’ll have a lot of options to choose from and you can deliver a better output.
10. Let the fashion be highlighted
Ever wondered why fashion photographers are different from the regular ones? Well, here’s the reason. Fashion photographers understand how to direct viewer’s attention to the product that is being sold. The focus point of the photograph should be the fashion you want to be highlighted and not some other background or any object in negative space.
Do not bring any props that divert viewer’s attention.
11. Work on white balance
White balance is photography is adjusting the colors to give the photograph a more natural touch. Generally, camera captures the colors you want but adjusting white balance is sometimes a good technique. If you move to a new location then don’t forget to adjust the reset the white balance.
12. Pick up a theme
The last and one of the most important fashion photography tips is that you should be able to tell a story through the photograph you have captured. It is obvious that you won’t need words for this but your photo should revolve around a theme. If you’ve explored some good fashion photographs, magazines or blogs you would’ve noticed they all have a specific theme.
Types of Fashion Photography:
Catalogue Photography:
This is the main-stream of Fashion Photography and is done to promote some product or accessories. In this background is usually grey or white and most of the details of product are captured.
Street Fashion Photography:
This type of photography is mainly linked with regular public and not with some fancy model. This is used to depict how the fashion on the street works and how general people can improve their fashion sense. This puts the trend into the real world and is done outdoors so you’ll need some fashion photography tips regarding lighting and angles we have discussed above.
Alternate Fashion Photography:
The fashion world is very dynamic and what’s in trend today will not necessarily be in the trend next week. But, in the world too there are some trends and styles which left their mark. Alternate style targets these trends and tries to revive them.
We discussed with you some fashion photography tips and types of fashion photography where you can try your hands on. Fashion Photography is one the high paying fields if you know your work quite well.
We at 2Sg Photography , Having The Best Fashion Photographers in Lucknow.
The increasing reach of social media has given us many influencers and models lately which look for fashion photographers to enhance their portfolio.
But it’s not just like you’ll pick up the camera and click some shots and boom!! you’re in demand. It’ll require practice, patience and hard-work. Go out there, do experiments, apply techniques and tips and improve your learning through doing.
ALL THE BEST!!