# Anatomy of a Fashion Shoot



## chuasam (Feb 13, 2012)

On Sunday, I did a shoot for clothing retailer Honeymoon Muse. I've decided to share the background pictures with the Forum.

Here is the model being made up by the MUA (Makeup Artist) and the Wardrobe stylist is fussing with some clothing.





Here's a magazine that we were looking at for inspiration




This is the studio we used. It had 10ft seamless in grey and black. Four Photogenic monolights mounted on ceiling rails.
I used 2 softboxes and a snoot at the back for most of the shots.




*
We shot 5 outfits. Here's a few choice pictures. These are non-retouched pictures as the shoot was less than 24 hours ago. I will start showing the pictures to the client and she will choose which ones she wants me to set my photoshopmonkeys at.*

The Clothing the stylist had drawn harken back to the heydays of the 80s. For those old enough to remember that era...enjoy.






















my $15 swing ($8 for rope $5 for board $2 taxes)


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## tirediron (Feb 13, 2012)

Interesting series.  I had a quick look at the store's website and it looks like quite a departure from what they're using now.  Your idea or their's?


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## chuasam (Feb 13, 2012)

the client wants the client gets. She wanted to do something bright and creative. Cool! you're in Sooke. There's a restaurant there that I've always wanted to try.


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## tirediron (Feb 13, 2012)

Makes sense; most of what I saw on the 'site was a little.... bland?  This will definitely pep things up.

Which one is that?  Mom's?


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## chuasam (Feb 13, 2012)

why Sooke's Harbour House of course. It has to be horribly expensive or else I'd have eaten there.
There's fashion for wearing (rather bland) and fashion for the sake of fashion (sometimes High Fashion) which one would never wear in public.


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## tirediron (Feb 13, 2012)

I've lived in Sooke for 20 years, and I've never eaten at the Harbour House.  It is a pricey place; sort of your "High fashion restaurant".


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## Cpi2011 (Feb 13, 2012)

Very nice and gorgeous set of photographs. What a great idea i love your creativity very much. Thanks a lot for sharing....


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## chuasam (Feb 14, 2012)

Thanks CPI2011.
Here's the first image to be completed.




I handled the lighting and set as well as the photography. I have to give credit to my awesome team.
My stylist is really good and my makeup artist is absolutely amazing.


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## chuasam (Feb 15, 2012)

I <3 Robots


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## chuasam (Feb 15, 2012)

Sometimes I tweak the colours


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## chuasam (Feb 17, 2012)

I broke down and finally made a watermark *LOL*




I'm proud of the enhanced abs


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## thinkricky (Feb 18, 2012)

Not my cup of tea.


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## chuasam (Feb 19, 2012)

thinkricky said:


> Not my cup of tea.


 it's okay, not everyone is able do to portrait photography


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## DiskoJoe (Feb 22, 2012)

chuasam said:


> I broke down and finally made a watermark *LOL*
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I love this shot. Best one you posted. Now you need to kick that water mark up some. That is not fancy enough for fashion. Maybe a cooler font and box it in like its a brand name tag. Put it in a corner. The placement here takes away from your photo and if this gets stolen it would be pretty obvious that its yours.


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## chuasam (Feb 22, 2012)

DiskoJoe said:


> I love this shot. Best one you posted. Now you need to kick that water mark up some. That is not fancy enough for fashion. Maybe a cooler font and box it in like its a brand name tag. Put it in a corner. The placement here takes away from your photo and if this gets stolen it would be pretty obvious that its yours.


*LOL* thanks Joe.  It isn't fancy enough for Fashion Editorial but it was for an online catalogue.
oh the Watermark...I'm not so much afraid of the picture being stolen. The reason for my watermark is so that viewers are led to my site. Most of my work is out there and completely unwatermarked. All of the artists and photographers out there that I admire do not use watermarks either. But they're well known and don't need to generate traffic to their site.

Here's a few
Brooke Shaden
Jonathan Hobin
Joanne Ratkowski
Lara Jade

and...
my favourite pet photographer ever Tim Flach
even my friend KC who is an amazing wedding photographer

Not One of the really good photographers use a Watermark. Why do I have one? I'm not there yet. I look forward to the day when I do not need a watermark again.


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## chuasam (Feb 27, 2012)

Yesterday, I did another shoot. This was mostly headshots, and model tests and updates for my portfolio.
Here are some of the unretouched files.


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## chuasam (Feb 27, 2012)

Here is the first of the edited files:


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## DiskoJoe (Feb 28, 2012)

chuasam said:


> DiskoJoe said:
> 
> 
> > I love this shot. Best one you posted. Now you need to kick that water mark up some. That is not fancy enough for fashion. Maybe a cooler font and box it in like its a brand name tag. Put it in a corner. The placement here takes away from your photo and if this gets stolen it would be pretty obvious that its yours.
> ...



Well I could tell that it was more of a signature as opposed to a water mark but your photo is sooo much better then your signature that the sig takes away. Just have a pro design you one thats something more sophisticated. I am very serious. Your work deserves a signature that complements it. Better design equals better recognition which is exactly what you are looking for. I do have a business degree and entrepreneurial certifications so you can take this as free consulting advice.


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## chuasam (Feb 28, 2012)

Thanks Joe, I reckon that I'll hold off having a proper signature for now. My little tagline is more like a way to get people to know who took the picture. 
Meanwhile...


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## 2WheelPhoto (Feb 28, 2012)

Beautiful shots. If you don't mind me asking, your client doesn't own the pics and rights to the images?  

Usually in Tampa the photographer doesn't dare release the photo's until after they are printed and public, they're considered property of the magazine, advetising agency, or an agent.  And sometimes before print of course they go to the client's graphic artist after the shoot for various changes and backgrounds/text added, etc etc


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## chuasam (Feb 29, 2012)

2Wheel,
It depends on your contract. For bigger clients who pay more, they can purchase exclusive usage. Rarely do they own the rights to the pictures (that would be very expensive for them). Often, editorial clients have an embargo on the pictures so that they can use them first. Yes, often you deliver the image for the client to put through the mill and churn out something on the other end.

Unfortunately, I'm new to commercial photography and I deal with very small clients. I am also a retoucher so I tend to do my own post-processing. I haven't done an editorial shoot in a very long time; that had a whole different set of requirements.


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