High Fashion Photography is a form of photography that is in a league of its own, there is nothing else quite like it. Most people probably see a fashion shoot in a magazine and while they recognize it’s a higher quality than their family portraits or baby photo’s they think it all happens the same way. Throw out a backdrop stick the person in front of it and snap a photo. They don’t realise it takes a team of people to do a fashion shoot, not a single person. There is a lot of factors that go into high fashion photography that you just don’t need for other photo shoots. In this article I will discuss some of the key points to having a successful photo shoot.

Lighting, as with most photography is very important. However with high fashion photography lighting is used differently. Where in a normal family portrait you just want a steady light that shows up each face nicely in front of the camera, in high fashion you can use the lighting to create shadows on certain parts of the model or clothes, have half the face dark and half light, whatever you want. These extra effects with the lighting is what seperates the great fashion photographers from the mediocre. Of course if you have a great team that helps too.

High Fashion Photography Teams

Having a great team of people at your disposal is essential to having good success in this field. Generally if you’re shooting high fashion you want to use the best make-up artist and stylist that you can afford. You should also have an assistant that knows how you use your lights and how you set up a shoot. Having quality staff will ensure a high standard of readiness and preparation for the shoot. If the model and the clothes look good and the set is perfect then the shoot is that much easier for you.

High Fashion Photography secrets to great shots

A good photographer will know that anything that isn’t in the photo is irrelevant. But what does that mean exactly? It means that if you’re shooting a model from the front it doesn’t matter what is on the back of the model because it won’t be in the photo. This means that you can have all kinds of pins, tape, etc hidden at the back pulling the clothes in just the right way for the shoot because it won’t be in the photo, but it gives you much more freedom to create the kind of shot you’re looking for. This goes for fans and the like also, you can see the effect of the fan or prop in the photo but not the prop itself. Keeping this in mind you can create some unique and lasting effects for your high fashion photography .