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New month new post! Ahh yes, time for us at Lensa to work that neurons in search of ideas. Some 2 to 3 months ago, a friend of mine showed me a blog by Scott Schuman, a photo fashion blog, and i was blown away by the quality of the photos.

These were real people on the streets, wearing lovely, crazy, chic clothing, all looking like they ought to be in a fashion magazine instead. The Sartorialist as the site is called, and the name couldn’t have been any better, showcases fashionable people around the globe, and this is not just the people wearing high end clothing, no, the Sartorialist includes kids, cowboys, stylish grandama’s and grandpa’s and anyone with their own unique look.

This is just one of the many amazing sartorialist shots by Scott Schuman at the sartorialist.

Inspired by the photos at the sartorialist, i decided to give taking fashion shots a go. Now i’m not a fashion freak, but i do love good design and i appreciate the time taken for people to express themselves through their attire. Here are some of my personal tips along with a few of my shots, on how to take  fashion shots.

Now it’s called fashion shots and not modelling shots, as modelling is much more expressive and alot more harder. Essentially, what a fashion shot is, is that its a portraiture of a person with their attire included in the frame. It’s trying to convey the personality of the person in a single frame through their posture, facial expression and the outfit. It maybe hard to convey all these with a stranger, but through time practicing and generally being a warm person, these skills will become second nature to you. Practice on your friends as they’re more willing to be taken a photo of.

• Choose your background. For the shot above, i was attracted to the somewhat vintage nautical look. And lady luck was on my side as the street i was in at that time was filled with antique shops so i took this to my advantage. My main aim was to complement the attire with the surroundings so you get the whole vintage feel to it. Likewise you may want to go contrast and make the subject clash with his or her surroundings. Georgio Armani won’t have his picture taken unless he has a dark background to contrast his white hair. Try to imagine how the final image will be. Have some sort of rough sketch in your mind and then start off from there. Creativity is the limit.

• Near to full body portrait in a frame. Though you dont need to fill it from head to toe, depending on what you’re trying to focus on. You might even go for a waist and below shot because you want to focus on those crazy coloured skirt and neon shoes. What ever interests you.

This shot could have been lovely, should my eyes have been alot better.

• Always sharp shots. You want your subjects to be as sharp as possible. They’re the main attraction. People’s eyes should go directly to the subject upon seeing the photo. An awesome subject with amazing lighting but the subjects not sharp just kills it instantly. If you’re using a manual focus lens like i am, take your time to focus, or better still, take a few shots. A slightly soft image of a subject would work depending on what your trying to reach across to the viewers.

The contrast between the grey jacket, multi colored check and yellow scarf is what drew me to take this photo. That and because she’s a good friend of mine ; )

• Observe the lighting. The surrounding light plays a major role in determining an uplifting picture from an equally bland one. I prefer afternoons where the light is low and the light isn’t so harsh on the subject. Proper lighting can also set the mood of the picture.

Red red red ! little miss red riding hood

• Properly exposed model is the key. Correct metering of a subject makes a whole world of difference. Does it matter if the background is overblown? Nope, not really. The main concern should be the the subject and their attire. No one wants to know if it was cloudy or sunny on that  day. Metering in on the subject is as simple as pointing the lens at the subject, preferably their skin, then locking onto the exposure value, recompose your shot and snap.

• Experiment on angles. Dont be lazy. Work that angle! Shoot low, on your knees, get even lower on your tummy, or find a chair and shoot high. You want that subject to look as good as possible. Remember that some people look unflattering from a certain angle, so it’s your job to find the angle that makes the subject look good. For most shots i prefer shooting waist high by bending the knees.

• Shooting with the sun behind the subject. I noticed that with alot of Scott Schuman’s photos, his subject has the sun behind them. Logically, if the background is brightly lit, then the subject should be underexposed. But then again, this isn’t a scenary shot and depending on what time of the day it is, the sun could be used to our advantage. In the above photo, the sun was low in the afternoon and wasn’t so bright. I took careful measure and metered in on the subject. Then i estimated a value lower than needed and took the shot. Despite not able to see what the picture would look like, because i was using film, i had a strong feeling that the picture would come out properly exposed. And much to my enjoyment, it did.

Once you get a hang of it, you’ll get beautiful pictures of people in no time. Owh, and try to study other fashion photos by other photographers, just to understand what they’re trying to convey and how they manipulate light. Hope that was helpful for you guys. Now got out there and start running around chasing people. If you get caught, dont tell them i asked you to do it. ; ) enjoi_learning peeps.

P.S A BIG THANKS to my girlfriend for being my inspiration and willing model, thank you dear  ; )

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