Fashion Photography Workshop

Before May half term we all completed a Fashion Photography workshop with Talia White. I've never really done fashion photography before so to say I was nervous about shooting a professional model would be an understatement. Before the model arrived Talia showed us some of her work to get a feel for what she does and to get some inspiration for when we take our own photographs.

For this shoot I used my Nikon D5300. For the first part of the shoot I used a 50mm lens, then  I swapped over to my standard 18-55mm kit lens to see the difference. It was clear to me that the 50mm was the much better lens for this shoot as it gives the images a greater depth of field. I also feel as though it makes the images sharper and generally makes them look more professional. I did much prefer using the 50mm lens for this shoot and put it back on my camera to take the last few photographs.

One of the major problems I came across during the shoot is making sure the models clothes are perfect. As the model moves around so do her clothes and as a photographer without a stylist its my job to notice when this happens. The sleeves of her top came down a few times during the shoot and her hanging straps were also on show occasionally, luckily I did happen to see that at the time. Unfortunately I didn't always see when her clothes were out of place and since looking back at the photographs I've noticed that her belt is sticking out in most of the photographs, this is something I cant fix with editing so I will have to pay more attention next time.

Another problem I had was trying to make each photograph different. If I was shooting a series of photographs for a magazine the client would expect several images, all of which should be noticeably different. Next time I work on a fashion shoot I will be more prepared with ideas for how I want the model to pose. I will also do more research into my location so I can quickly move the model around to stand in front of different backgrounds. 

I have since edited my final images from the shoot using Photoshop. To edit these images I changed the levels, turned up the vibrance, and added some actions. I had never previously used actions in Photoshop, but as these images needed to be of editorial standard I had to utilise a more professional way of editing. I used two skin smoothing actions on the images to eliminate any fine lines on the models face, and any goose bumps on her arms. I then added the 'sweet sunshine' action to brighten  all of the images and give it a golden summer glow as I intended the shoot to be summer/ festival themed. To finish the images off I added a vignette to give them a bit more depth and to draw the eye towards the model in the centre of the images.

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