Generally, in the fashion world, there are two groups of people, those who set the trends and those who follow them. It’s pretty much the same in fashion photography. Fashion photographers are presented with two choices. You can copy the “big names” and if done right this will definitely keep you in the game or you can experiment, take a risk and reach higher.
A few weeks ago I had a great pleasure to shoot for Dark Pink London fashion brand. It is a rather young brand but over the past couple of years, they have really taken London by storm. As the company grows and matures their advertising guidelines get more ambitious and conveniently there is a decent budget to support it.
We are lucky to live in times when selling clothes, fashion, shoes, accessories, you name it, is easier than ever. You no longer need a big pile of cash for rent in a prime location, elegant interior, fancy furniture, attractive sale representative etc. Instead of all those things you only need one – your website. Sounds easy but since now all your efforts, hard work, investment and simply success or failure depend on this one thing, you better get it right. Long gone are the times when you had to spend thousands of pounds for custom built e-commerce website.
Today I would like to share with you a nice fashion photography editorial I have shot recently. I have to be honest with you, although I have a real passion for photography like in any other job some days are better than others. This particular day has been great from start to finish.
Have you noticed that most of the cool fashion and commercial images have one thing in common? Yes, they are all shot at beautiful, luxurious or exotic locations.
Commercial trends and fashion photography have changed a lot in the past few years but this one thing remains constant. For one simple reason… It works! There is only one problem. Sending entire team (photographer, models, make up artist, hairdresser, wardrobe stylist, assistants) plus all their equipment, tools and accessories to not even very distant and very exotic location quickly adds up to ridiculously high bill and not every business can afford it.
Today I’d like to walk you through my preparations process before a fashion shoot.
I chose this particular one for couple of reasons. It had some extra factors that you normally wouldn’t consider and it makes rather cool story.
So let’s start from the beginning.
I stumbled upon this location while shooting different job near by. I liked it so I came back the next day for a closer look. I took some iPhone reference photos.
I love the geotagging function. It let’s me easily find where exactly this photo was taken.
You’d be amazed how many old photos of really cool locations I have but can no longer remember where they were taken.