What does a fashion photographer do?

When I was just beginning in fashion photography, I thought I need to style my own shoots - have shoes match clothes, etc.

I also thought that I should build a large network of creative people to be able to arrange shoots I needed.

While these are certainly useful skills to have, they are not really what most photographers are hired for. You may argue, but consider that styling can be done by a stylist, and shoot arrangements - by photography directors or assistants.

What are the things that can't happen without a photographer? I kept asking myself and others in the industry and here's what it came down to (for me; arranged by importance from top to the bottom):

- capturing the mood through various lighting techniques, angles and composition;

- directing the model. You should get a hold on techniques that will help them relax or otherwise. While art directors can arrange everything including the pose, it's still necessary to communicate to model to be able to capture the best of her. And most of the times - there's no director, and you need to do all poses and expressions by yourself, and that ads to the pressure;

- shoot a lot - developing your style is important - that's how you'll stand out in the competition;

- since most fashion photographers don't like it when someone else retouches their shots - you need to be able to do that well too;

- stay organized and focused. Once you start shooting - you're the one who can tell when it's over. All these people involved - depend on you to get the work done. Good time management is also the key in pre- and post- production phases, as well as dealing with your business daily;

- have a sense of style. You have got to love clothes, be able to notice clothes and ... love clothes. That's why you're a fashion photographer :);

And all other things come in as necessary. You have GOT to know people, so get out there with your portfolio and promote yourself - A LOT. It'll probably take the most of your time at first, so don't get disappointed :).

Let's talk about Fake HDR

There's plenty of HDR articles out there and we all know by now that HDR is a pretty cool thing to try, but most of us use that technique in places where it isn't really necessary and this is what I want to talk about.

If there's no really high range involved in the image you're trying to capture, then one exposure is more than enough to pull out shadows and highlights and create that fantasy looking (or more natural if that's what pleases you ;) ) image of your subject.

If you shoot raw, there're a lot if things you can pull out of the image for a more dramatic or detailed look, so I went out and captured a few shots of local architecture and see if it'll look more interesting when I use this technique with them:

These were the default RAW settings (and the original image):



This is what I've done to them (moved some sliders around):



Exposure went lower; fill, recovery and blacks - way up higher, and I moved them around randomly to see - just what kind of effects can I achieve with them - it's very interesting!

Again, this is not an HDR, because there's no High range involved (neither it's needed, as you can see - the light was pretty low range - overcast, no harsh shadows...)

This is more of an MDR - medium dynamic range - or even an LDR :). And you can easily create such images without tone mapping or long processing from different photos.

So, this may not be much, but with your imagination, it can help you convert some pretty boring looking stuff to get more intriguing results:



And this is what you can (and probably should) do in the Split Toning tab:



In other words - here we adjust color for highlights and shadows. You can make an image look like it was taken in some other star planetary system or more natural, like here on Earth: shadows are cooler and highlights are warmer :)

Going green?

Then this little article is for you.

I'll make it short by listing some simple ideas/techniques that we can use to help eliminate post-products and increase reusability:

1) Going green? Go digital. Film and processing/printing is oh so toxic. Don't get me wrong, I LOVES film. But for non-art everyday business - DIGITAL is definitely my first choice.

2) Make image delivery all digital where possible.
- External drives for the archive may turn out to be the power eater, you may want to consider using those online storage providers. But if you gone solar, that problem is probably not a problem :). Online providers are not linked to your home or office though, which makes the archive available to you from just about anywhere in the world.
- Burn less CDs/DVDs where client is happy to get photos by email or through other digital transfer means.

3) For your studio - try buying used materials for canvases

4) Go paperless - invoices, statements, contracts... you name it. All in the computer, nothing gets printed

5) Online proofing - let clients pick the images online.

6) Look out for "green" batteries, solar chargers. Here's one of the sources, I have not tried it myself yet, but am looking into getting us some of those!

7) Follow discussions of eco friendly photographers, they are always looking out for quality eco paper and inks, you can get some very nice suggestions out there, based on your needs. I, personally, subscribe and participate in LinkedIn group "Green Imaging Network". But you can also find useful threads in other photographer's groups, as people become more and more aware of their responsibilities to the planet.

8) Use recycled to print your marketing materials or order from eco friendly printers

9) You can also follow this blog, as I'm constantly searching and trying to systemize what I find about green ways of photographing :)


Next, I'm planning to systemize all information I have about green photographer's friends - paper, printers, ink, service providers. STAY TUNED!!

Photographer's friends: GELS

Gel is what we call a colorful transparent film that is applied on the light head in order to modify the color of the subject or background.

Now that we're done with a boring part - here's what we can do!

What happens if you stick a golden gel on your strobe and direct it at the black background:


If you point it at the white background, chances are you won't see any color. Same goes with some colors and grey backgrounds. Black is best.

Personally, I can't imagine my life without color. For me - it's all about color and when I discovered the gels, I felt a tremendous relief - now I didn't have to spend all that money on various colorful backgrounds! And when I was playing with the light, and light fell on the model accidentally, I discovered the mood I can achieve by letting is spill like that:



Or you can leave a flash directly behind the model (set a zoom longer if you're using strobes with zoom like I do), and you'll get a nice halo around your model - sort of a vignette, that you don't have to create later in photoshop - but that goes with any light.

Here's what you can do if you add some sort of a grid to the light:



Just make sure it's at the right distance, depending on whether you want harsh shadows or smoother. If you leave it too close to the flash, you won't see any shadows at all, and if it's too close to the subject - the lines will be harsher.

You can use gels outdoors to create an effect of sunset/sunrise - stick a golden gel on a flash and use it with any light modifier whether it's a reflector or a softbox.

You can match it with model's clothes - like in this portrait, some red spill on her hair matches the shirt:



Again, that worked because she had nice black hair. Would it have worked if she was blond? Probably, at another angle... I would try to highlight using it's transparency - put the hair directly between camera and light instead of leaving light above the hair.

The possibilities is what we're looking for. If I have gels with me, chances are, I'm going to end up using them, where appropriate, and, sometimes - inappropriate. Heck, why not - that's how we learn :)

What I use are the little chunks from swatch book that you can get from B&H. They are also sold in rolls and pieces, but for those who use off camera flashes - this may come very handy:



Enough to stick it on a flash head with a piece of tape.

I hope this is useful, feel free to add to it or ask questions - always happy to help with what I've tried and seen myself.

Photography business isn't all about shooting

I think - on the back of my head I always knew it, but when I picked up my first photography business book several months ago (you know, just to kind'a see what's going on down there, no pressure...) - I realized that it's very hard to pull this business off alone! You have GOT to hire people to do all the non-creative work, otherwise you'll be stuck in balancing your book, doing taxes, coming up with contracts, licking stamps, composing and ordering marketing material, delivering stuff, and what not!

There're shoot stylists for a reason, there're art directors for a reason, there're set constructors as well as photo and personal assistants - all for a very good reason.

That said... now that I'm on my way of actually doing it - taking on a photography route full time - I find myself constantly listening and looking around for who might be a good person to hire - and help me out with work that accountants, lawyers, assistants, second shooters usually are good at. Networking is a perfect niche to provide with all such answers, but most importantly, I find that if I'm open and flexible enough, people show up in my life in just the perfect time for them and me.

I had perfect teachers just when I was ready for them, perfect opportunities - exactly when I was prepared enough to pull them off, as well as a perfect creative team - all freelancers - who came into my life happy and ready to work with me and pleased with what I can provide them with.



So, look out, heart open, and LISTEN - the next person who's going to let you leverage your business - may be the person who rings you next :)

A day on fashion shoot

Someone asked me - what's my day like when I'm shooting, and that gave me an idea to write about. I think many aspiring fashion photographers would be interested to see what it's like, at least I remember myself when I was just starting and - I WOULD be!

There's this whole process how one would plan a shoot, it's mostly a theory, because not always things go as planned. We try our best, but then guess what? "A funny thing happens"! Or may be when I'm older and more experienced I'll be able to say - "hey, here's how I always do it and it works like a charm!"

So, there's no magic formula, but this is how I was taught. In fashion everything revolves around clothes, so the way you pick your location is all about matching it with clothes, and the way you pick your light is all about fabric and the location you picked for your story :). I'll talk about those some other time, so consider that you have clothes, and the location and the model and the stylist and the make up artist and the hair stylist - you have everything and everyone /like I'm blessed to have recently (you guys ROCK!!)/.

In the morning I wake up slightly nervous, I'm still not past the "stage fright" stage. I wake up really early and the exercise really helps to get back into the content state of mind. Anything that'll help you feel confident will do. If you meditate - do it. It'll calm you down. If affirmations work for you - yes! The main thing is get your mind off of being nervous and anxious and get into the place where you only focus on creating the best image you're capable of.

So once that's done, I pack up my car trunk. What usually goes there (no matter whether I think I'll need it or not, experience shows that I never know even if I think I'm sure):

- all my light stands with all my light modifiers (except the XL dome) and flashes;
- fresh /charged/ BATTERIES;
- manual reflectors with silver/gold/white covers and the hand extension to stick on the light stand if needed;
- all my lenses;
- three camera batteries - charged; all my memory cards - I don't have too many - 16GB total, but that's been much more than enough up until now;
- GELS! I love color and if I use artificial light, I'll find the place where they'll be appropriate. You can probably see that in my portfolio. So far I'm only using nikon flashes, so all I need is the paper tape and the book of gel samples - there're so many of them! And they cost $1 at b&h, can't beat that!
- Sometimes when I know there's going to be enough space, I take me XL lite dome. It's my fave, the light is so diffused, it almost looks natural.
- I have a turkey pan beauty dish that I made based on one of the web articles - very handy! Not 100% as good as a real beauty dish, which is on a waiting list of equipment I'm going to get the moment I find it absolutely necessary. Look up turkey pan beauty dish on google - it takes you about 8 bucks to make it and the effect is quite all right! So, sometimes I take it with me, it helps a model to relax, once they see what it really is (a turkey pan!!), it becomes a good subject to joke around.
- Tripod. I always take it, in case we get a nice night light to work with, so I can use slow shutter speed with flashes. Never got to use it on a model shoot. One thing about it - you're stuck with the tripod and can't play with angles as freely. That thing sure slows you down a lot. But if you're after an amazing light effects - can't do without!
- Ladder. A MUST! I use it all the time. Angles, angles..
- The more I type, the bigger the list gets. It's actually never ending, you can have a lot to add here, it depends on who you work with and what else you might need. Hey, one time I had to take by 9 feet backdrop paper roll with the stands and all! That was a heaviest bulkiest thing in the car with me that day... good thing volvos have the backseat centerpiece coming up and down, you can stick the roll in the hole there. Actually you can stick two of them in there, the hole is big enough for both white and black paper rolls. So here we go - get a volvo *giggles*.

...
So I'm packed, get some coffee with me in a thermos and off I go.

Get to the place, the model is usually not there yet, but everyone else is. You can discuss what you're doing, go over the clothes again, look at the location again, you actually have plenty of time to get yourself prepared, because once the model arrives, it'll take more than an hour to get her hair, make up and outfit ready. By that time you already figured out what's the first set, what's the light, picked the poses, discussed them with the model and you shoot!

First set is tough. But it's not tougher than the last one, unless you only shoot for 2-3 hours, which usually ends exactly when you have your best creative juices flowing ;). So if you're shooting all day, watch out for the last set. I like to prepare for it in advance, just at that perfect moment when the creativity is at it's best. Everyone is tired on the last set. You, model, stylist, make up, space is all used up...

Also, DON'T save your BEST set for the last. I'll be disappointed, because no matter how prepared I am, I'm still going to rush through it, it just always happens. I hope this will improve over time, but now I just know and I'm prepared the best I can :). Works so far.

Between sets there's time while the model changes and has her look refreshed. Well, that's when you're working with only one model. But the thing is - there're a lot of times out there, when there're MANY models on the shoot! And that's when your 'booty' gets on fire! :)

But not to worry, that's why there're photographer's assistants, and that's why photographers get paid for pre-production time. Because you need much more time to prepare for the shoot that you'll need for the shoot itself. Actually every shoot is ALL about planning, but I'll talk about it some other time.

Planning is the MOST important. When you've planned every look and pose and lighting setup - everything is nice and smooth.

I like to think of people on the shoot and make sure the catering is arranged as necessary. Someone always pays for it and it's the client. But photographer or a shoot director has to make sure it's arranged.

So there's nothing better to do than to be a photographer! If you enjoy all the hassle and responsibility and the CHALLENGE - you're the luckiest photographer out there.

Good luck shooting~

Circular polarizer

It's not that often that the difference using this filter would be so interesting and dramatic while shooting landscapes. I used it to control reflection on other projects, but here're two pictures taken at almost the same moment that offer the illustration on how the photograph can be affected by a polarized filter: