6 Fashion Photography Pro Tips
May 15th, 2017
Zenfolio Ambassador Lou Freeman specializes in highly stylized conceptual fashion and glamour photography. She has practiced and shaped the art of fashion, glamour, fine interior, and lifestyle photography for more than three decades. Lou’s work has been featured in hundreds of editorial fashion magazines and fashion catalogs, and she is also renowned in publishing and advertising. Here, she shares her top six fashion photography tips.
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Stay on trend. Style trends are always changing, and in the world of fashion you need to stay current. Learn the trends ahead of each season, and stay on point with the current trends. You’ll also want to learn about the fashion designers and their preferred style of photography.
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Relationships are everything. Get to know all of the stylists for clothing, sets, and hair and makeup. Forming great relationships with all of these people will help your business grow and your reputation to soar.
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Learn all about light. Photographers must thoroughly understand seasonal fashion light and how to create it at the drop of a hat as the season changes. Learn all the styles of light and how to manipulate it well. Be able to balance it to ambient light to make the biggest impact and get the most out of the sources available. I highly suggest buying a great kit of lights that allows you to go on location and shoot with the same impact as in the studio. This will bring comfort and versatility to your work, and it will allow you to create almost anything you wish in terms of concept on any location.
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Update your portfolio regularly. Shoot often, and update your portfolio with new images regularly. Keep your website design clean to allow your work to shine. My work is updated 3-5 months ahead of each season change so that my clients are looking at my most current work. We are never more excited about our own work as we are when we first create it. So this is the time to show it.
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Focus on marketing. Ensure the maximum amount of people know about your work. Be sure to send out a newsletter, keep an up-to-date blog, and be active on social media to ensure your name is on the tip of the tongues of potential clients. Don’t hesitate to reach out to share the knowledge of the work and jobs you are creating.
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Know your strengths and weaknesses. Do an assessment, and be honest with yourself about what you are great at and what isn’t your strong suit. If possible, hire someone else to do the tasks that you don’t excel at so you can focus your time on what you do best. Doing this will free up your time and improve the quality of your work.
