Fashion Project for portfolio. Guidance pls

[SoulCapture]

Hello Mates! So I have a question for everyone! My friend is a fashion designer. She is coming out with her new line within the next month. I asked her if I can use her clothes to build part of my portfolio. She said yes ofcourse and she asked if I could just take pictures of clothes only for her lookbook in return. Our mutual friend is a MUA and hair stylist and is onboard as well. My friend doesn’t consider her clothes to be high fashion; it is urban apparel (think urban outfitters!). She has a model that has worked with her before than I can take pictures of with the clothes. And I can use some of my own models if I can acquire any.

The thing is I only have a small grasp of where to start. I want some really nice pictures for my portfolio; I am aiming to be a fashion photographer. So I was thinking of doing some studio photos and because its urban clothes I wanted to environmental ones as well like downtown, railroad tracks, abandoned warehouses, etc. I am writing down some ideas of locations, props, and themes. I was thinking hip hop as my theme.

I guess I just wanna know if I am heading towards the right direction with all this. Hopefully these will be the first fashion photos for my portfolio. Since I have a model, mua, fashion stylist, should I take advantage and shoot some glamour photos too? I wanna know how the whole process works.

Thanks,
Cado

[JFSanders]

Sounds good so far. Show us a shot or two when you can.

Jim

[SoulCapture]

Thanks Jim. I will most definitely post a few in the critiques. Prolly within the next month. Keep ya eyes peeled!

[zona5101]

No matter what you're shooting the most important thing is LIGHT! I know that sounds like a completely elemental thing to say...but you are working on a list of locations and what not, you should also be working on a list of lighting ideas, lighting diagrams, and a scrapbook of lighting examples...having an idea of how you want to light things to show off textures, create mood, etc...

[SoulCapture]

Yes very true. Thanks for bringing that up Bruce. I have a AB800, and westcott 60" convertable brolly. I thought of some small set ups already but im limited to one light. So far i have looked at a couple of techniques, but they seem to fall more for headshots. Like the butterfly lighting (paramount). I have a month to play around with some set ups and will most likely jot down the diagrams i like. Do you have any links that i can use as a vast resourse to start scrapbooking some lighting techniques?

[cyber3d]

My advice (I was an apparel designer myself) is to shoot in 2 or 3 styles if you have the budget. Since it sounds like you have the rights to use them in your folio you may as well shoot to satisfy everyone!

As a photographer, I suggest you review other fashion photographers style and emulate them (even if you do you won't be "copying" them - it's going to look different. So don't worry about that aspect). This way you will quickly find out which style of shoot is comfortable to you and suits you best and what style of shoot does not feel comfortable to you.

My 2 cents.

[zona5101]

Here's one to start...
A quick start guide to the one light setup StudioLighting.net

but you're really going to want to feature the clothes so not all portrait light setups are going to be the best choice. Generally for people we want a nice soft wrapping light with corresponding soft shadows and fall off. By doing so we can make skin look better and reduce imperfections. Not necessarily the goal when shooting objects such as clothes. More times you are going to have split lighting or other more raking angles to show off texture, less diffusion so there are harder highlights and deeper shadows...

[SoulCapture]

Thanks a lot. Yea I figured some of the portrait techniques weren’t going to be helpful. What you said about getting the textures to show by lighting it at different angles makes a lot of sense. I wrote that down.

I have a small question. What did you mean by if I had the budget? and in different styles are you referring to like : “lifestyle,” “photojournalist,” and “candid”? sorry if that was a dumb question.

[cyber3d]

I have a small question. What did you mean by if I had the budget? and in different styles are you referring to like : “lifestyle,” “photojournalist,” and “candid”? sorry if that was a dumb question.

Well. Budget. Since you are starting out I figure you don't have unlimited funds for stylists, hair and makeup, location rental, prop rentals, lighting setup, assistants to work reflectors, lights, refreshments, while you concentrate on getting that elusive 5 perfect images out of 300 clicks. I was in the active wear industry here in SoCal and we had a permanent studio set up in house though we'd shoot location a lot. Just getting to watch all that was involved with the crew, the models etc. it was eye opening to see how much it can cost.

By different styles ... typical lookbook should show the clothes in various situations. A number of different environments. Which BTW, also costs money.

As a beginner, if you can do all this without a decent budget (or my favorite method: lie, cheat, steal that would be really cool. But, do as much as you can. Be innovative, it's an opportunity to shoot!

[SoulCapture]

ohhhh ok. Yea my budget is actually really tiny. Fortunately the fashion designer is a close friend of mines and the MUA/Hair stylist I've know for 13 years. They are very supportive and are helping me out for the free 99. But I told them about how we can do TFP and I can help them out for their portfolios. I am able to have free access to another studio strobe, stand, and brollie from a different friend.

i'm pretty sure projects can manifest itself into an abundance of money, so i try to network as much as possible. The on location i think might be free if i can pursuade them. I have a lounge in downtown in mind that my other friend promotes for.

For the lookbook i actually have an idea to build a big light tent. The designer just wants pics of the clothes only, no models. You think the light tent would be koo? Kind of like how products are shot with that pure white background. Hopefully this would just cost me gas money.