Why no commercial photo shoot will work out without a proper schedule
As you’ve probably read my last tip on the booking of the ideal team constellations you might now have a sketchy idea of how many people there are going to be on set of your campaign shoot. Thus, you can possibly imagine that all these people will need guidance throughout the day in order to avoid some sort of chaos taking place – especially when you don’t like to answer questions all the time. It might not be news to you that briefing your team is essential. But it can turn out that informing them about what is going to be done isn’t enough of a plan. Likewise, shall it be important to communicate the how and when because they enhance the logic and logistics of the whole production. It’s, therefore, smart to give all tasks and scenes definite time frames in advance by which everyone can repeatedly check if they’re able to accomplish the workload in time. Read it
Book your storybook team
With your concept in the shape of a mood board and as soon as you have a clear notion of the budget that you’d like to spend on your new campaign photos you can begin to book your professional team and everything you’ll need for the production additionally. Like it’s described in tip no. 4 there’s more to include in the calculation than just the main players (which are the models, the photographer, the hair & make-up artist, the fashion stylist, and possibly an external art director). After all, they could certainly all use assistants and some set runners who are there to help wherever they’re needed. In specific cases location supervisors or security guards are necessary, the latter especially when you shoot with valuable products like jewellery. And as we’re dealing with humans who have basic needs there’s no way around organising catering for the day. On top of all the fees for the people involved there possibly are equipment, location, and prop rents to be paid, or other things to be bought. Last but not least a fair part of your expenses are flowing into your license that allows you to actually use the resulting photos for your purpose. Read it
Let your mood board undergo a reality check
Following the guidelines of my last tip, your mood board may by now be ready to be seen by others. At this point, always be careful with the copyrights of the mood material because sharing will be a form of publication for which you actually need a license of each copyright holder and the models shown (and on top of that the legal prerequisites are different in every country). In order to be on the complete safe side here, you can find a good range of useful creative commons photos on stock photo platforms some of which even offer images for free, e.g. Unsplash, Pexels, or pixabay. If you’re seeking even more professional content that was for example published in fashion magazines earlier, you can find a good variety on gettyimages, however, you’ll need to invest a bit of cash in it. Besides the copyright aspect, this article treats a few further stages where you’ll be able to touch up the mood board and make it a masterpiece. Read it
Mastering the art of mood board creation
After reading the last article’s advice you might be eager to finally learn how to create a mood board by yourself, according to your own shooting idea. Ultimately, it’s the most creative part in a campaign shoot and it secretly makes you the true artist. Yet, for some, it might not be clear what a mood board is exactly, let alone what to consider a good versus a great mood board. By definition, mood boards can be different kinds of presentations that combine images, text, etc. on a topic to convey a feeling about it. Such a mood board can serve as a script that, at first, wins over a good photo team and then functions like a briefing that everybody draws on during the preparation and the production day. Therefore, mood boards are communication tools and a superior one clearly distinguishes which pictures are describing what elements of the photo shoot resp. which guidelines are who’s cup of tea. After all, you certainly want to avoid that the hair & make-up artist styles a model after a mood picture that was actually just there to characterise the light situation you wanted. Read it
How to get inspired for a campaign shoot
The last three tip articles have revealed to us who is needed to execute a photo shoot successfully. Now, as we know that we’re dealing with a team of at least 4 people (a photographer, a model, a hair & make-up artist and a fashion stylist) we want to make sure that everyone shares the same vision of what is going to be produced so that they can do their best in their fields. Therefore, this article and the following two are going to treat the most important puzzle piece of any photo shoot: the concept and its making. Read it
Hire a fashion stylist and your products will look their best
In the fashion industry, we usually say ‘stylist’ when we’re referring to the fashion/wardrobe stylist. Therefore, they are often confused with the hairstylist or even the make-up artist by non-professionals. Many people aren’t aware of the fact that a photoshoot with people requires a fashion stylist but they are indeed a necessity even if you advertise a car or a new toothbrush – not to mention when you want to sell the fashion itself. In the following, I’m going to name a couple of reasons why hiring a stylist will make the photos you commissioned look as professional as you imagined them in the first place. Read it
Why you should not shoot without professional hairstyling & make-up
Like I said in my last article a professional model is usually well-groomed and this limits the work in post-production to a necessary minimum. However, for your shoot, it’s, moreover, of great importance to have a hairstylist and make-up artist on board. While in the fashion metropolises these are two different jobs, in many smaller industries, one professional does both. Other than the title might suggest, the make-up artist is not only responsible for the facial make-up but also for the overall appearance of the model’s skin, finger- and toenails. In some productions, these tasks are divided too – be it because of the workload or the fact that someone’s a specialist in something required for the look, e.g. a nail artist. This also leads us to the fact that MUAs (make-up artists) can be allrounders but also have different styles and talents. Depending on your concept you might want to have a close look at their portfolios to find the right one for your production. Read it
The importance of the model for a successful campaign
In this chapter, we’re focussing on the team and its importance for your photoshoot. We can agree that we need a professional photographer (at least I hope you do) and this is why I’m just going to elaborate on the roles of professional models, make-up artists, hairstylists, and fashion stylists with the next three posts. This article is explaining what you need to know about models and why your campaign can be more successful when it’s photographed with a professional one who is signed at an agency. Read it
COVID-19 – what about the creative and media industry?
With the COVID-19 crisis, we are facing an economical disaster from which politicians are trying to save us. In Germany, Finance Minister Scholz and Economics Minister Altmaier reported at a press conference on the 13th of March that they will guarantee the liquidity of all businesses regardless of their size. Tax breaks (in the sense of postponing deadlines) and loans should be made possible immediately and even unbureaucratically, the latter with the governmental support for guarantee banks. These actions certainly make sense and in many cases, they represent a true solution. However, in plain English, it means that we need to get over the period of job cancelations with borrowed money that is to be repaid later on. In other words: we should run into debts! There’s more detailed information about these possibilities provided by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy here. Read it
Corona – was ist mit der Kreativ- und Medienbranche?
Die Corona-Krise stellt die Wirtschaft vor einen Abgrund, die Politik versucht sie zu bewahren. Heute mittag berichteten Finanzminister Scholz und Wirtschaftsminister Altmaier in einer Pressekonferenz, dass sie die Liquidität von Unternehmen aller Größenordnungen gewährleisten werden. Dies soll mit Steuererleichterungen (im Sinne von Fristverschiebung) und der staatlichen Unterstützung von Bürgschaftsbanken geschehen, die uns ermöglichen sollen Kredite aufzunehmen, sogar unbürokratisch und schnell. Diese Maßnahmen machen sicherlich Sinn und stellen in vielen Fällen eine Lösung dar. Dennoch bedeuten sie im Klartext, dass wir die Zeit der Auftragsausfälle mit geliehenem Geld überbrücken sollen, das zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt wieder zurückgezahlt werden soll. In anderen Worten: wir sollen uns verschulden! Genauere Informationen hierüber liefert das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie hier. Read it
Directions of light – Why you shouldn’t always look on the bright side
By reading my last three tip articles you had the opportunity to gain basic knowledge about different kinds of light such as natural light, flashlights, and continuous light. By bringing reflectors and diffusers into play the possibilities of modifying light beams to be soft or hard, wide-angle or focused, direct or indirect are game-changing. However, there’s one thing left to be discussed: the effects of the light’s direction on the model and fashion. Read it
When to use continuous light for your campaign photography
It’s almost needless to say but for the sake of completeness: continuous light is designed for film making. For photography flashes offer the most efficient way of lighting a set – they save energy due to releasing light for just a short amount of time, yet they are powerful and furthermore do they come with plenty sorts of light shapers, which are mostly easy to build up and attach. However, continuous light has one very clear advantage: you can see the light of the setup even before the first photo or footage is taken and it’s, therefore, a good way for non-professionals to start understanding light – or at least to be confident of the light situation created. Read it
A brief history of fashion photography
You want to produce the hottest fashion photography that gets you noticed as a photographer as well as the brand you’re taking photos of. For that, it’s helpful to completely understand the industry. There are certain tips and tricks you can introduce to your photo campaigns, such as for example inserting props, using natural light, or specific make-up and hairstyles for an authentic and modern photo result. However, when it comes to understanding the industry, you need to delve into the history of fashion photography. In this article, we’re going to look at a brief history of fashion photography and how looking into the past can impact the future. Read it
The power of using flashes for your campaign photos
In the absence of natural light, we are required to add artificial light to illuminate a scene, usually in the form of flashes. Clearly, this is mostly the case when we shoot indoors and don’t have enough daylight coming in through the windows or we don’t want to rely on it. Besides brightening the subject, flashes have another feature, which is the ability of “freezing” movement in a photo, because the period of time passing by during the lighting is very short. However, for super-fast movements special high-speed flashes AND cameras are required in order to capture the right moments with no blur. Flashes are either synchronised with the camera through a wire or radio, or they react to other flashes if they are in range. This is why e.g. a simple smartphone photo taken with a flash can at once trigger all studio flashes – so make sure to always take your making-of images without using the flash mode. Read it
The value of natural light for your campaign photos
Welcome to part three of my tips for better campaign shoots. After discussing a few fundamentals and the effects of different visual factors on your imagery in the first two parts of this guide, we go ahead with what you must know about light to be able to decide and communicate exactly what you want for your photos – first of all to the photographer that you work with. Why is this important? Because photography is basically just like a painting done by light. The direction, intensity, and kind of light used are determining how an image, and therefore your fashion will look like. Of course, you don’t actually need to know how flashlights function. But if you’re aware of how light can create the mood of your choice, you’re far ahead of many others and the outcome of your shoot will much more look like your previous vision of it. Agree? Great, so then let’s talk about the usage of daylight, flashlight, continuous light and their performance, handling, and the possibilities of shaping it within the next four articles. Today’s article is covering everything worth knowing about daylight and why you might want to use it for your images. Read it
The impact of props on your photo campaign
First of all, let’s clarify what really counts as props (short form of properties). According to the film dictionary of Uni Kiel, props are all objects on set including small items like e.g. telephones, food, plants as well as bigger ones like furniture, etc. Additionally, animals are called props too, even though they obviously require special treatment. Before we clarify if you need one or more of these props for your imagery, please take in what I claim to call classical props at fashion shoots. You can then decide, if these are an option for you or if you certainly won’t use them. Read it
How the right make-up & hairstyle make your photos authentic
By now, you might have a vague vision of your future photo campaign already, as you’ve learned how to apply styling in the last tip article and how indoor and outdoor locations appeal to enhance your message, etc. Another very important aspect is the application of the right make-up and hairstyle. This is able to render your photos to appeal the most efficiently authentic to your audience. In this article, we’re going to have a look at how important the right make-up and hairstyle are regarding four aspects: the actual concept, your customers’ lifestyle, current trends, and the model’s type. Read it
How the styling appeals
Which age is your target group? How bold is their style? Where and when do they wear your fashion? The answers to these questions may help you decide the extra fashion you need to add to your collection in a shoot, in case you don’t produce the overall look from head to toe. If you e.g. make shoes, you’ll definitely need pants, shirts, or dresses to combine on your model and vice versa. You may find the solution being cooperation with another label that with your help designs the perfect counterparts to your own collection. Yet, this might double your work prior to the shoot and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea – eventually, you’ve decided to produce e.g. just shirts for a reason. But that shouldn’t be a problem for your shoot after all. You’ll just need to have a proper styling that underlines your story without stealing your fashion’s show and we are going to analyse how to approach this in four steps. Regardless of whether one of your brand’s team is looking after the styling or an external stylist does, you should be able to decide, communicate, and possibly sample what you want through mood pictures. Defining the styling is one of the most important parts of the shooting concept. Read it