In the last post i tried to define fashion photography. And now i’ll give some tips to the ones who are interested in fashion photography. This is a first part of a tips series about fashion photography which will continue to be published during this week. You need a good camera, a tripod and a lighting system for taking fashion shots.

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Research and Learn

Just like in every other kind of photography, you need to search a lot of magazines, view lots of pictures, to have enough knowledge about it. Examine the lighting, poses and expressions of models in these pictures. Also you have to be familiar with your equipment; first of all your camera, than lighting system. Practice until you get totally get used to them. You have to be able to adjust your lighting and camera settings for any condition to be a good fashion photographer.

Also for beginners, it is important to learn using daylight since they do not have a studio, shooing outdoors is the way for getting good results. Early morning or afternoon are really good times for taking fashion shots. To learn more about using daylight; read Colors and Using Light in Portrait Photography

Team

In fashion photography and glamour photography, you need a team that consist of a hairstylist, stylist, make-up artist and a photographer. If you are seriously interested in fashion photography, you need to have all these specialists in your team. For starters maybe you can be a one-man team, but this will only work in your learning stage, not in semi-pro or pro level. If you are just trying fashion pictures and don’t have an intention to be a pro, learn about make-up and hairstyling just a little and try to perform them before your shooting session. But as i told, this system work only when you are learning and trying to get used to the camera and lighting system not for professional works. If you need to be in the market eventually you need these specialist in your team.

After working different stylists, make-up artists etc. you’ll find some of them more successful and more reliable. Bringing all these specialists together will create a team for fashion photography.

Finding Models, Make-up Artists, Stylists and Hairstylists

Modelling agencies, can provide you not only opportunity to contact and find models, but also provide chance to find make up artists, stylists etc. For the beginners, starting with semi-pro models are better for learning and test shots. Another channel that you can find models, stylists and make-up artists is internet and all its tools; such as forums, communities, web sites, groups. Search for the groups and communities on the internet. This will increase your chance to find specialists and models at you level when you are a beginner. Because agencies generally have the contact information of professional make-up artists and stylists. But i really doubt most of them will want to work for a beginner fashion photographer with a small portfolio. I personally believe internet is a better source to find the specialists in your level.

Internet provides you the greatest source to make necessary connection for the job, fashion photography. Also design schools are good for making connection with the designers. Especially young and passionate designers will be more willing to work with you. Speaking of young designers, i also want to remember you, younger stylists, hairstylists, make-up artists, designers and models are willing to work for free in exchange of a copy of the film or digital image. In fashion sector portfolio is everything and young specialists surely want to increase the amount of work in their portfolios. Also read my article about finding models. And working with models

Equipment and Studio

I’m not going to explain all the equipment you need in detail. I guess you already have an opinion about that. Simply you need a camera, tripod and a lighting system. In addition to these equipments, some extras like batteries, memory cards or films, reflectors, flashes, diffusers can be needed in fashion photography. Again internet provides a great source for the photography and studio equipments. You can buy used or new equipments on e-bay for reasonable prices.

Having a studio is really costly and unlikely to have for younger photographers, but eventually you’ll need one. Not for professional purposes but for learning you can build your home studio for really cheap prices. Read my article about building your own studio.

Keeping you equipment simple but effective gives you a ease of mobility. Also less experienced models can feel uncomfortable while working with a huge pile of equipment. A quality digital SLR camera, a tripod and reflectors are the only things you neet to begin.

Markets

This part is for the photographers who are living in the USA. New york market for fashion and fashion photography is really hard to get in and compete. As a foreigner (to US) i can say that European market is easy to penetrate compared to US. Especially European cities like Paris (France) and Milan (Italy) are providing rich sources in terms of fashion and fashion photography. These fashion capitals of Europe have more runway shows and fashion magazines, which makes it easier to find jobs and chances to gain experience as a photographer, for a photographer. Europe is also provides chance to find, undiscovered talents and beauties, especially in countries like Scandinavian countries and eastern European countries there are a lot of beautiful talented and willing young semi-pro models. Consider this option If you also want to be a talent hunter. In other European countries, fashion industry may not be as big as Italy and France but still they provide a nice opportunity to have a bright career. It is easier to shine in smaller fashion industries of these countries. A quality portfolio will help you to get noticed by the local and international fashion magazines.

Also remember; your portfolio only shows the technical abilities and knowledge of you. If you want to separate yourself from the sack, you need to show signs of talent and creativity. To show these your pictures should be different, aesthetic and impressive. My advice about this, is getting inspired and increasing level of knowledge about not only fashion photography but also other genres of photography. Also cinema, fine arts and all other kinds of visual arts can help you to get a different perspective. Sometimes a picture that you see on internet, that taken just for fun, can make the bulb on your head shine.

—- End of Fashion Photography Tips —-

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>> Fashion Photography Tips Part 5; Markets

Fashion Photography Tips Part 4;

Equipment and Studio

I’m not going to explain all the equipment you need in detail. I guess you already have an opinion about that. Simply you need a camera, tripod and a lighting system. In addition to these equipments, some extras like batteries, memory cards or films, reflectors, flashes, diffusers can be needed in fashion photography. Again internet provides a great source for the photography and studio equipments. You can buy used or new equipments on e-bay for reasonable prices.

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Having a studio is really costly and unlikely to have for younger photographers, but eventually you’ll need one. Not for professional purposes but for learning you can build your home studio for really cheap prices. Read my article about building your own studio.

Keeping you equipment simple but effective gives you a ease of mobility. Also less experienced models can feel uncomfortable while working with a huge pile of equipment. A quality digital SLR camera, a tripod and reflectors are the only things you neet to begin.

There are lots of photography equipment that you can use for nature photography, but even most simple camera can be enough most of the times. And having a tripod and a shutter release cable will make the things easier for you under low light conditions.

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If you want to have significant results, increase the depth of field by using a narrow aperture such as f/16 or f/22 to keep every detail in focus in the scene. And as you know narrow aperture, lets smaller amount of light into the camera so your shutter speed may decrease and this is when a tripod comes in handy for preventing shaking.

Light

In nature photography, we mostly use daylight. Best light conditions for nature photography are “Golden Hours” which are first lights in early morning and the last hours of evening when the sun sets. Don’t miss that hours! Waking up early in the morning and giving up a couple of hours of sleep may reward you magnificent photographs of nature.

You can take pictures, in the different hours of day, but none of them will be as impressive as the “Golden Hours”. Especially in the noon when sunlight comes with a vertical angle and creates strong and dark shadows, taking nice pictures is really hard.

Rain

I already told that there’s no bad weather conditions for photography, actually bad weather conditions makes extraordinary images for us to capture and rain is one of them. Rain is the thing that keeps nature alive so it is one of the most beautiful natural events. One day try getting out to the nature or streets after rain but don’t forget to protect yourself and your camera from getting wet. Colors are more saturated after rain.

Equipment

As i mentioned earlier in this post, it is hard to tell must-have equipments, since even the most simple camera can be enough to take gorgeous shots. But of course some equipment will help you to take better pictures. A wide angle lens is good for mountains, valleys and large plains, while a tele lens helps you shoot animals and plants from a distance. If you have 300 mm-f/2.8 or 600 mm-f/4 lenses that lets a considerable amount of light in and allows you to shoot a distant subject with a fast shutter speed, then you have a great opportunity to take wild life shots.

Filters are also important at nature photography. Especially ND, natural density filters, increase the contrast and saturation thus helping you to capture better nature pictures. Nd filters, eliminates the reflections from non-metallic surfaces, including, glasses and water. Since you are taking nature pictures, eliminating reflections of water can be one of the things that you need. UV filters and skylight filters are useful too for eliminating UV lights. And graduated filters helps us to increase the contrast and saturation of the sky.

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And yes it is possible to use cheaper and home made equipment and get significant results. Search about it on the Internet there are tons of web sites that shows you how to make photography equipment cheaper.

Today our topic is Making a backdrop which is easy.

You need;

• A large piece of cloth
• Curtain hangers
• and a relatively thick wooden or metal stick – curtain rods

Here we go;

Go to your local cloth store and buy a large piece of cloth. You decide the width and color of the cloth. Make sure the cloth is long enough, some of the cloth should be lying on the ground. We want to cover both the wall and the ground with our backdrop. It can be twice as long as the wall, it will be enough to cover up enough space on the ground.

Curtain hangers are the metal hooks designed for holding curtain rods on the wall, you’ll need a pair of these. You also need curtain rod to hang the cloth. You can find them any hardware store for reasonable prices.

Attach the hooks to the wall, place the curtain rod on them and hang the cloth to the rod. You’re done. But make sure the cloth is straight not wavy like a curtain, so try to keep it plain.

When you are finished taking pictures you can just wrap the cloth around the rod.