Fashion photography requires a lot of patience, preparation and an eye for detail. The process involves choosing of theme, selecting the props, finalizing the studio dates and then, finally the photo shoot. The entire process leading to the D-Day has been elaborated upon in the following section.

The Theme– Once you have got a photography assignment, you need to sit and think about the possible theme for the given assignment. The given themes can be quite generic many a times, but it depends entirely on you how you could add a new perspective to it. For e.g. – travel is a pretty generic theme. But what thematic variables you could play with, is entirely up to you.

The Stylist– Once a specific theme has been decided, the next thing you do is contact a stylist for deciding on the colour scheme, clothes and accessories for the shoot. One thing that is of utmost importance is that you should have a good rapport with each and every team member who is working with you. Photographer Amy Green says that you should carefully select your team. The selected people must understand your viewpoint and should complement your approach with their suggestions and styles. After a good brainstorm, single out the ideas you want to work with.

Model – When it comes to deciding on the models, you can contact various modelling agencies and ask for the required kind of photographs. After going through them, you send the short-listed photos to your creative director.

Make-up artist– Deciding who could be the best choice for the post of make-up artist is an important decision. If you already know someone who is very good at this job, fine, otherwise you need to find one. Contacting their agencies/agents and getting their portfolios for a look is a good way of beginning. You need to get the make-up artist fully understand how you want the look of the model to be.

Hiring the other crew– The creative director, according to your needs, designates the most suitable crew to you. You could also hand-pick your own team. Once all these things are done, you need to work out on the entire schedule of the shoot with your assistant/s. and so; call sheets are made and sent to each and every team member on the project. But make sure, that you have received a confirmation mail from all the artists’ agents before you prepare these call sheets.

Prop-prepping– the entire required prop that you have decided over should be shopped for and stacked well in advance. Your stylist for colour and clothes helps you in selecting the right props depending upon the theme, the selected model and the overall feel of the composition.

Once the props and the team are in place, you need to book the required equipment for the required day and time.

Following are some tips for fashion photography:

As mentioned above, a proper preparation is essential for a smooth shoot. All the factors should be considered and itinerary well planned in advance.

Always listen to all the suggestions but follow only those that you can seamlessly adopt into your vision to enhance it further. If not, then listen and forget them. There is no point in incorporating everything that you hear; doing so could spoil the overall feel of your photo.

Go find your shot. You need to continuously move and take several shots from several different angles in order to determine and confirm the best shot. You never know what beautiful moment you will capture unless you try and explore.

Experiment with lighting. Try different variables of soft and hard lighting, high contrast versus low contrast, burned-out patches in the image and colour filters. The only key to bring out unprecedented beauty in your shots is your visualization. The more vivid you could visualize the more beautiful shots you shall be able to compose. Try and reach beyond the conventional rules of lighting. Burn it, diffuse it, cut it,

Keep multiple lenses and filters handy. You never know when you could discover a shot worth taking, in a required manner. Photoshop is not always that fulfilling when it comes to post-shoot effects. Try and cover up for as much of effects as possible during the shoot itself.

Depending upon your varying requirements of in-studio photography or street photography, there are various kinds of lenses for fashion photography. They are as follows: Variable Zoom Lenses- Such zoom lenses, with their adjustable focal length, can give a photographer greater flexibility while composing a frame. He has the choice of either composing a large shot or a close-up shot of his/ her subject.

Various lenses available are 18-55mm, 70-200mm and more. These vary from company to company. The various lens types that this category covers are Telephoto lens and Fish eye lens, both of which facilitate longer focal length capacities thus offering to capture greater wide angles. Out of these, fish eye lens is the most powerful when it comes to capturing a whole panoramic wide field. It offers a focal length of 8-10mm for circular shots and 15-16mm for full frame images.

Prime Lens- they offer razor sharp clarity but have no variable focal lengths. Some of the examples are 50mm and 80mm. So, these are certain techniques, starting right from the preparation and coming to the final day, along with the various kinds of lenses that are available to you for taking a wide range of shots.