Fashion

[Paul Bestwick]

As a pro photographer in the field I work in I do a great job. Ok, weddings being the mainstay, add to that families, kids you know the type of work I am talking about. I love weddings, they are my first choice of asssignment. Now, I have a main street studio. It is on street level with a huge window so passers by get to see the work.
Now here is the twist. You do great work in a chosen genre & people assume you are expert at every type of gig. Now it is like Ferrari saying, hey this guy is a great rally driver, we should make him our F1 driver......yea right. Well not quite the same here but here is the deal. I get an agency contact me, they know my work & seem to like it.....no actually they do like it so that is why I got the call. I know the girl who is the creative director or something like that. I actually shot her for an ad a couple of years ago.
Anyhow, they send me a tear sheet of some cool model shots & indicate that this is what they would like & I am the man. OK.....so I might have an ego but I am not a complete ****wit. That being the case my first reaction is to tell them to find someone else for the job. My second reaction is ....dude, you are a people photographer, you can do it....just work it out. Well I guess I have never bitten off too much previously so what the hell, I am gonna have a go. Allright, so you guys get the drift huh. I have asked this question privately & been ignored...............must be uncool to communicate with lesser mortals I suppose. So I figured I would ask the brothers here at OPF............ first have a look at my site www.studio58.com.au & then any advice you have which would help me further down the track would be most appreciated.
I remember back when I started out & was clueless about the entire field............I have learnt that you can learn. Fortunately I have always recognized my limitations & now as ever, never too proud to seek out help & advice from those more advanced.
Thanks,

Paul

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Paul,

I myself an NOT a fashion photographer. Here is my take. Looking at your website (which I now have had the pleasure of visitng a binch of times for all sorts of good reasons) it's obvious that you need not have any misgivings going further. Just make sure you have the stylists and all the full crew to undertake a first class fashion shoot. To me it is all tie up in how you set this up. If they will cover the costs in addition to your charges, that's fine. Ask what the budget is. I'd then look to see whether you can get super qualified help for that amount an make a profit.

If one is going to get into this area, you need your lighting, which for sure you have mastered. Now it's the pizzazs, for which you need the creative skills of the stylist and a set designer (if not yourself or the art directer) to go first class. Don't delegate choosing the models to anyone else. Shoot them before hand so you really know what you will do and what they can do.

Don't assume they will provide the best clothes. You may have to be getting some stuff ready yourself. It's good to have a stylist that brings racks of clothes too.

In any case, there's a lot more freaky people in this than the most difficult mother's of the bride you have met! Some of the people my Fashion Photo firends have to work with are really son-of-bitch arrogent beings, built to be just plane egotistical, narcistic and unreliable. So, for all the glamore, it's work! I wish you a lot of success.

I hope the financial reward is huge for you!

Emotionally it can be a roller-coaster ride but the results of a good shoot are plain marvelous!

So my best wishes!

Asher

[Ray West]

Hi Paul,

Like Asher says, except he knows far more about it than me. Depending on timescale, how much I could spend, how much I wanted to do this, I think I'd start by rattling Frank Doorhof's cage, see if he's at home. Go to his website, http://www.doorhof.nl/ get his dvd's. Ask him over for holiday, or get the next flight to Holland. But then, that's what I think I'd try to do, your reality may be different.

I would guess your move may be to get the best mua/stylist that you can, you seem set to go otherwise.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Paul Bestwick]

thanks Asher for your encouraging response, as far as lighting is concerned I have much to learn.
Your suggestions are welcome, however in sleepy Hobart I think I would be the entire crew........and a stylist from the agency. Ray thanks for pointing me in the direction of Frank....that is the type of work I aspire to & your course of action is one that I would seriously consider.
Thankfully we have a forum where it is possible to discuss issues & seek direction........often there is useful advice at hand.

Cheers,

Paul

[Paul Bestwick]

Hi Ray,

I have ordered some of Franks' instructional material. Thanks.

Cheers,

Paul

[Klaus Esser]

As a pro photographer in the field I work in I do a great job. Ok, weddings being the mainstay, add to that families, kids you know the type of work I am talking about. I love weddings, they are my first choice of asssignment. Now, I have a main street studio. It is on street level with a huge window so passers by get to see the work.
Now here is the twist. You do great work in a chosen genre & people assume you are expert at every type of gig. Now it is like Ferrari saying, hey this guy is a great rally driver, we should make him our F1 driver......yea right. Well not quite the same here but here is the deal. I get an agency contact me, they know my work & seem to like it.....no actually they do like it so that is why I got the call. I know the girl who is the creative director or something like that. I actually shot her for an ad a couple of years ago.
Anyhow, they send me a tear sheet of some cool model shots & indicate that this is what they would like & I am the man. OK.....so I might have an ego but I am not a complete ****wit. That being the case my first reaction is to tell them to find someone else for the job. My second reaction is ....dude, you are a people photographer, you can do it....just work it out. Well I guess I have never bitten off too much previously so what the hell, I am gonna have a go. Allright, so you guys get the drift huh. I have asked this question privately & been ignored...............must be uncool to communicate with lesser mortals I suppose. So I figured I would ask the brothers here at OPF............ first have a look at my site www.studio58.com.au & then any advice you have which would help me further down the track would be most appreciated.
I remember back when I started out & was clueless about the entire field............I have learnt that you can learn. Fortunately I have always recognized my limitations & now as ever, never too proud to seek out help & advice from those more advanced.
Thanks,

Paul


Hi Paul!

Doing exclusively fashion-photography for about ten years during the 70th/80th and doing advertising-photography since then with lots of people-shootings let me tell you: fashion- photography is a VERY special thing!
Question 1 is: what do you understand in "fashion-photography" and which are your aims?
Question 2 is: what kind of potential clients do you have in mind?

The most interesting way to do fashion-photography is without a question shooting for good fashion-magazines. This is hard to get to - you would have to be located in a major city, where the magazines are located. I lived in New York and London for a time and they´re THE places - of course Paris, Milan, Berlin and Tokyo too . .
Doing fashion-photography for fashion-manufacturers isn´t so very different - but it is payed much, much higher ;-) (the famous magazines tend to see it the way that you could be happy just to see your work on their pages - and they´re absolutely right! So you can´t make a living from shooting fashion for well known or famous magazines. But it opens all the important doors.).

The way to find out if you´re the "fashion-type" of a photographer is to ask some real good models, stylists and visagists to do a testing with you - maybe they´re interested.
Sit down and create a real fashionable concept. Don´t shoot it like everybody else - there´s thousends of highly ambitioned youngsters out there with very good ideas!
Don´t make "nice" and "friendly" fashion pictures - nobody in this industry wants that. They want actual live-stilish looks - get some ideas from video-clips or dive into Vogue, Elle or some more revolutionairy fashion-magazines.

But FIRST OF ALL: try to find out if this is really YOUR kind of photography! Let me be frank: i don´t see it in the pictures on your site. Not the agressive, demanding, non-compromising style you HAVE to have to shoot fashion with success.
You have to be "wild at heart" - absolutely. I don´t see that!

But - try to find out, what´s hidden, what´s "behind things" you do in shooting people in a fashion-style way! You´ll never find out without doing it . . :-)

Sorry for my "clear speak" . . . ;-)

best, Klaus

[Asher Kelman]

Klaus,

You are on target!

One needs an edge that is recognized. Then the fashion will stand out too.

Glad you are here to add your experience!

Asher

[Klaus Esser]

Klaus,

You are on target!

One needs an edge that is recognized. Then the fashion will stand out too.

Glad you are here to add your experience!

Asher

Hi Asher!

Interesting board you have! I hope, i´m not too "direct", as we say here . . . ;-)
Fashion-photography is - just like the fashion-industry itself - a very complicated business.
And you´ve got to be very (!) "hungry" and very (!) ambitioned to enter it in a way it works out to become a sucessfull and enjoying Job.

But first it´s important to understand what it´s all about with "fashion-photography" . . :-)

best, Klaus

[Paul Bestwick]

Hey Klaus,

greetings from Australia, thanks for taking time to reply. Honestly, I know my limitations & know that I don't have what it takes to be shooting at the level you refer to. You would have been within your rights to judge me more harshly then what you did & I suspect you were being polite. Kudos to you by the way for what you have done, you have my full admiration. I see myself as just a guy in a small city with not a lot happening in terms of the matter we are speaking about. I will be happy to stand out above the pack in my locale, &, that is my aim. I don't need to be shooting at the standard to get a gig with Vogue. I reckon that if I was number 50 on that list I would have achieved well above my expectation. My aim is to be better then I am now & better then I ever thought I could be. You know, not loads of talent but diligent with what I have.
The futere is bright indeed. Thanks agian for your response.

Cheers,

Paul

[Klaus Esser]

Hey Klaus,

greetings from Australia, thanks for taking time to reply. Honestly, I know my limitations & know that I don't have what it takes to be shooting at the level you refer to. You would have been within your rights to judge me more harshly then what you did & I suspect you were being polite. Kudos to you by the way for what you have done, you have my full admiration. I see myself as just a guy in a small city with not a lot happening in terms of the matter we are speaking about. I will be happy to stand out above the pack in my locale, &, that is my aim. I don't need to be shooting at the standard to get a gig with Vogue. I reckon that if I was number 50 on that list I would have achieved well above my expectation. My aim is to be better then I am now & better then I ever thought I could be. You know, not loads of talent but diligent with what I have.
The futere is bright indeed. Thanks agian for your response.

Cheers,

Paul


Hi Paul!

I´m glad, you´re not too pissed off by my comment - when i reread it, it seemed a bit harsh . . ;-) . . .
But i really did mean it positively!
I wanted to stress out the need of trying oneself and looking where the own guts are (hope, i expressed ist correctly - i´m a bit out of training with my english :-) ).

To live and work in a small town doesn´t mean anything - it´s a mind´s question to work "small" or "big".
Fashion photography is a faszinating thing - try it, if the opportunity is there! And try yourself by comparing your ideas and the visualisazion of this ideas with the contemporary fashion-photography.

And then - forget it all and build up your own and unique style.

THAT is not only importand just in fashion-photography . . :-)

best, Klaus