What Is Fashion Photography? 6 Tips For Photographers

Interested in fashion photography? Think of fashion photos as combining fine art, portrait, and product photography to sell clothes, a product, or a lifestyle. While the term may seem to cover just one sub-type of photography, it’s actually an umbrella term for different styles.

What Are the Different Types?

If you’re thinking about setting up a fashion shoot, you’ll have to first decide what type of fashion shoot you’re aiming for. Here’s a breakdown.

High Fashion

Photography that’s high fashion focuses on fusing creativity with style to create a unique vision and look. You can see high fashion in galleries or magazines, but they typically stand out for their bold, non-apologetic, eye-catching looks.

Editorial Fashion

Editorial photography is similar to lifestyle photography but the images tend to be created for brands or for a particular context. In addition, editorial shoots usually have an editorial team deciding the concept and theme.

Street Fashion

Street fashion captures people in their natural, everyday environment: on the street or going about their everyday business. The art of street fashion may look understated, but they are often staged to look like everyday life.

Runway Fashion

Runway fashion is a more spontaneous way to photograph fashion as photographers capture models walking up and down the runway. This type of photography can be challenging as it means setting cameras to high shutter speeds to capture movements and working with low light levels.

Catalog Fashion

Catalog fashion’s main goal is to sell a product: clothes, shoes, makeup, or jewelry. Most often, backgrounds are neutral so they don’t distract from the model and the product. And models often pose to better highlight the products they’re selling.

Look Book

Look books combine a little of catalogue fashion with editorial photography. The purpose of look books is to showcase a brand’s new collection. However, rather than just being a bland set of photos against neutral backgrounds, look books tend to get a little more creative: placing models in specific backgrounds, telling stories that fit the brand, and creating moods.

Glamour

Glamour photography is a fusion of fashion and portrait photography, with the model as the central focus. All the makeup, hair styling, and costumes are done to enhance the model’s qualities.

Advertising

Advertising fashion photography is all about advertising the product. You’ll often find this kind of photography on buses, buildings, and magazines. Because brands differ in style (perfume, clothes, shoes), the creative demands will be specific to that brand. As a result, this broad interpretation allows for quite a bit of creativity.

6 Tips For Getting Eye-Catching Fashion Photos

So, you’re prepping for a fashion photo shoot and want to get your photos just right. Before you start shooting, find inspiration from some of your favorite photographers. See what mood they evoke, their lighting style, and how they place the model. You can learn so much just by figuring out what the experts are doing and how they do it. Then, when you’re ready to set up your own shoot, here are some tips to follow.

1. Find a Way to Make Your Model Comfortable

Remember, that both you and your model will probably be a little nervous. On your end, more practice will help put you at ease. As for your models, you may want to talk a little with them before the photo shoot to put them at ease. This is especially true if you’re working with a new model. If some of the shots feel a little forced or unnatural, talk to them throughout and snap the off-guard moments when they look more natural.

2. Tell a Story or Convey a Mood

Think about the mood or the story you’d like to convey when you take a photo. Is the story about a businesswoman going to work while she sips her coffee? This will need a specific background. You may want to go with an action shot: she’s busy stepping across the street or hailing a taxi. You could also choose to emphasize a moody setting: a dream sequence or something intimate and feminine. Create a mood board and use references to further flesh out the idea in your head.

3. Select the Right Background

Choose your background carefully. If you haven’t thought too hard about your background, it could become a distraction. However, if you’re looking to artfully integrate it into your shot, think about where you’ll place your model. Do you want an urban background so that your model is part of that story? Or do you prefer a plain background in a studio? The background can help make or break a photo.

4. Choose the Right Lighting

Lighting is everything, and the correct lighting will determine your mood. If you’re looking to create the perfect atmospheric shots, lighting is key. Want harsh black-and-white contrasts in a studio? You’ll need a strong key light and a reflector, at the very least. On the other hand, you may prefer to place your model out in an open field using natural light. Remember that your scene will look different at sunrise, midday, and sunset. If you’re in a studio, take test shots with your lighting setups before your model arrives. If you’re shooting outdoors, try visiting the location at different times of the day to see when the light is the most flattering to people’s skin tones.

5. Composition and Angle Matter

New photographers tend to forget about composition and angle until the last minute, but these two factors are extremely important. Luckily, you can practice different compositions and angles with your model. Try different poses on different sides of the camera, not just the center. You can also try low angles, high angles, and even extreme low angles. Have fun and experiment with different lenses, too. A zoom lens that softens your background will give you an entirely different look than a wide-angle lens.

6. Decide What the Outfits Will Be

Costumes are obviously the focus of your shoot as they can enhance your story and your mood, so pick them carefully. You may also want to adjust how you shoot based on what your model wears. If it’s something flowy, an action shot could create movement and add visual interest. On the other hand, a tight dress that creates a silhouette will call for another shooting style.

Shooting fashion can be lots of fun if you master these tips. Need an expert fashion photographer to teach you more about the ins and outs of fashion shoots? Reach out to us to book a workshop.