Fashion shoot for 3rd Year

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a third year fashion promotion student looking for a photographer to set a photo shoot to capture chosen clothing for her final fashion campaign for Grazia. Although very busy with my own units of work I was very keen to do this shoot as I was recommended and she was willing to give me a chance even though I did not have any portfolio of studio work to show her yet.

Tara Martin wanted really simple lighting seen in studio fashion shoots you would usually see in advertisements so I chose to use two lights reflecting off polyboards onto the backdrop and a large softbox straight in front of the model to give an even light over the whole scene. I used a Canon 5D to give me high quality images while allowing me to move easily while shooting.  

Polyboard & lighting set-up

 

 

Softbox set-up

Tara also wanted to use a variety of backdrops to experiment with what worked best with the clothing. We started with 'cappucino' which was between cream and beige which we used to create a vintage, 'English rose' look. We also used a blue to try out more vibrant colours to try and enhance the colour tones of the clothing & finally we changed to a yellow/orange background to relate to the Grazia colour scheme. 

Before the shoot, Tara showed me a series of different references where the models were both stood still as well as moving to enhance the clothing in different ways. So during the shoot we just tried out different ideas as we went along as we had plenty of time to experiment.

 

 

 

Using wind machine to create movement

I had the brilliant support and help from the lovely Sacha Stevenson who photographed the set, process and progress throughout the fashion shoot as well as helping me to decide and set up the lighting and choose & put up the backdrops when they needed changing.  
During the shoot I managed to shoot over 900 images so after the photo shoot we loaded them on to my hard drive and I gave Tara plenty of time to look through them and choose her favourites for me to edit. She was particularly taken by a mirrored effect seen in a campaign as well as simple editing and this other edit where a series of images are merged together to create the look of movement to show off the shape and movement of the clothing.
When editing the images, other than the photographs where I merged different shots of the model together I simply used curves and clone stamp to minutely enhance contrast and colour as well as tweak lose hairs etc.      
These are just some of the images that I edited to allow Tara to choose a selection from them for her campaign:

 

 

 

 

I am really pleased with the results from the shoot and I think Tara certainly was too. She was so pleased with the results she also asked me to edit some other images she had previous had shot as well as removing the background colour from her campaign logo.
Once Tara has finished producing her campaign publication I look forward to seeing my images in their final form and I will hopefully be able to upload them on here.

Fashion: Model Characterisation & Styling Inspiration

For our shoot we are planning on having a dominant female character from the East & although we have decided on our model who is Asian Peruvian we have started to research the sort of scenes & characterisation we hope to portray in our final image. 
The female character will be dominant and confident as well as being a sexual protagonist, from this I researched and found a few different references we could use on the day of the shoot to lead and mould our model's personality & posture. The fashion shoots will also help us to direct our male model in the way that he will be composed in relationship to the female. 

The first shoot I came across was the 'Hitchcock Beauty' fashion shoot featuring the Asian model, Ming Xi. 

 

I really liked the use of key lighting on the main character as well as colour to make the female character the most dominant figure in the images; props are used subtley in all of the images too to highlight the 1950s/60s time period such as the telephone, film noir blinds & fashion. However there is still a hint of a modern twist to make it fashion forward which I hope we will be able to create in our final fashion shoot images. 
 
The photo shoot 'China Girl' by Sebastian Faena is a very good example as reference for our shoot due to the very bold, dominant and assertive female character in the images which seem to portray a sensual, voyeuristic editorial. The model, Bonnie Chen gives off elegance and seduction in a modernised way, despite modelling with a cast of men her characterisation seems strongest and most dominant.

 

 

These images are very sexually charged and while the female is leared on by the male figures in the scenes she owns them by the way she holds herself and stands amongst them in the scenes.
I continued to search for fashion shoots that contained this sort of characterisation in Asian female models and came across a few different editorials.

In this editorial photographed by Vinvent Peters for Love Story featuring Du Juan & Edwin Kadarisman in Numero China August 2011, the female character is very obviously dominant despite the way in some of the images she has been obscured by the male model. While in others she is smaller than the male model but due to the depth of field she has become the main focus which is the sort of effect that we plan to create in our scene. 

I also came across this very stylised fashion shoot by Greg Kadel for Tuxedo Glamour editorial featuring Sui He & Xiao Wen. Again despite all of the models sharing equal rolls in the images due to the use of colour the female character stand out more prominantly; I laso like the way that the women are blurred in most but this movement creates and eye-catching effect.

 Finally due to our more recent ideas of having the male character as an unsuspecting character such as the hotel manager or bellboy I really liked this catwalk where the female models were accompanied by their own personally chaffeur. The use of costume as well as height and posture creates this feeling of dominance in this image which I think we should consider more when looking at costume for both models.

I continued to research the use of the colour red to create danger and dominance in the frame through both the main colour of the clothing the female model will wear as well as the accessories.

 In these different shoots and editorials they highlight the different ways that colour can be used to highlight the main subject of our image. The fashions are also interesting to look at, I really like the use of red fur, bags and shoes and small details to pick out rather than an actual red dress.

 This idea can also be seen in these images of a Ralph Lauren editorial featuring Asian characters, I also like the use of oriental patterns which we could feature to exaggerate this conflict between East and West.

 This editorial for the Valentino Spring Summer 2012 campiagn features mainly very neutral colours combined with bold highlights of red to exaggerate the importance of certain characters in the scenes. I think this relates well to our shoot as our room and the male model will be very neutral colours eg. browns and creams while the female model will probably wear clothes with bold colours & prints inspired further by this research.

I also looked again at different 1960s fashions & simply colours or patterns that I think would work well in our shoot combined with Asian models to help us decide what would suit our model.

 I really like this shoot based in the 1960s, firstly the decor is really interesting, particularly the last one which I think has the same feel of that which we wish to create. I am also intrigued by the fashion combined with the 60s bouffant/beehive hair styles and bright red eye shadow.

 These other catwalks and editorials feature different colours, patterns and textures but I feel they all give off not necessarily a 60s look but definitely an oriental feel which I really think we must feature in our shoot. I will use this research on fashion to further develop our fashion ideas and continue to work with the stylists when styling hair and make-up.


Due to the fact that we are definitely using an Asian model I have only been focussing on Asian female models in the fashion shoots & catwalks I have been researching as well as only European males where they have been featured.