1. Know your client’s style

Darren gave a few pertinent examples; he recalled that in Elle Sg, models had to be portrayed with more “life” and quirkiness than Vogue models, for example. This will heavily influence the mood during the shoot as well as the casting of the models.

2. Cast the correct models to get the look desired.

An extension of the previous point, he did say that he will usually cast the girls who suit the magazine style, instead of someone he feels looks aesthetically pleasing. The aim of this, he muses, is to ensure that there is less hassle down the road during the submission of the materials to the clients. In the end, we all must understand we are paid to do what the client wants, not what we are after.

3. Scout ahead

Know more about places to go when doing location based shoots. It is always handy for the photographer to know a variety of shooting locations so that an optimum venue can be chosen for the desired mood.

4. Keep lenses to a minimum when starting out

Darren says that he started out with just two lenses at first, the quintessential 50mm 1.4 and the 85mm 1.8. These two lenses and their equivalents are available in all major mounts across multiple makes and models. My personal favourite is the 50mm 1.4 made by Nikon and Canon, a veritable light sucking device which remains conveniently small.

The reasons for keeping things simple is to keep a beginner’s budget low, force one to adapt using angles and positioning instead of conveniently using the zoom to frame the shot.

5. Always touch up the shot afterwards

The moniker fashion comes attached with the perception of flawless models, breathtaking outfits and clean, no nonsense lighting. Generally. The photographer is expected to do color corrections or toning, image corrections in photoshop or any other image editing software.

Something to note here would be that the software need not be the industry standard photoshop, which costs an arm and a leg should one splash the cash. Freeware like GIMP or even the paid but more affordable Photoshop Elements may be employed to great effect.

 

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