Fashion Catwalk photography technique

Hi all,

One a my important client asked me to shoot a catwalk show.
Usually I work in advertising/magazine/fashion and I have the time to set up and shoot as I see it.
But here I will have to share my place with other photographers and point and shoot.
I will work with a 1Ds2 as the client wants the highest possible resolution.

I have never been very succesfull when photographing people that walk towards me when I'm shooting (which is the case of a catwalk).

Can you give me some advice on how to shoot a catwalk, what settings you use on the camera, use of flash, which lenses, etc...

I would very much appreciate your advice.

All the best,

Eugene

Eugene Hertoghe said:

Hi all,

One a my important client asked me to shoot a catwalk show.
Usually I work in advertising/magazine/fashion and I have the time to set up and shoot as I see it.
But here I will have to share my place with other photographers and point and shoot.
I will work with a 1Ds2 as the client wants the highest possible resolution.

I have never been very succesfull when photographing people that walk towards me when I'm shooting (which is the case of a catwalk).

Can you give me some advice on how to shoot a catwalk, what settings you use on the camera, use of flash, which lenses, etc...

Click to expand...

Eugene,

The catwalk show is something like shooting dance where there are predictable peak actions which you have a few seconds only to get. So you need to be familiar with what is happening. Have you been to enough such events to know the rhythm, if not you needed to get that experience beforehand.

Find out what you are responsble for! Is this for documenting for the stores internal use or will it be for a press kit or for print or other use. Must you cover all the models? What close ups if any do they need of shoes, accessories, skirts tops etc or just want your representative artistic coverage? Are any parts of the collections critical? Need a printed shot list of any such criteria, brands or girls names.

There must be an assigned place or range that you can go to or else you might be in a "catch as catch can" position. There maybe nothing you can do about that! In any case get there early to stake out your position at the end of the runway.

You need a long lens to get the girls as they appear and then be able to track them as they approach or leave. When they are really close at the end of the runway, they will pause and get into one or more poses. If you catch her eye she might even prolong the pose for a split second if you are lucky, but you have to be ready and be able to zoom and frame on her. She will often have a second pose or 3rd pose in another direction. If you have the rhythm, it's not difficult at all!

If you cannot get the end of the runway, you can do well at the side since they will pose or march out with a great initital attitude and then although the end of the runway close up pose will be lost, the model will make alterations in her position and often those angles capture even way up front to the place you'd rather be are still great. Shooting is opportunistic.

Remember that the desginers want their models to look great at every point on the runway, so you have to be able to harvest that look at any position in the walk. Often, one of the pauses on the easy back after turning will be perfect for you when you are at the side.

I'd consider the 70-200 2.8 IS L or the 28-300 IS L to get more reach.

Take a bunch of grey card reference shots. Although the lighting may be weird, designers generally want fabric to show well so the models and clothes will usually be lit well. Use flash on manual with flash exposure compensation dialed back if necessary.

Just a start from my own limited but happy experience!

Asher

For a brief education. Here the Marthé + Francois Girbaud collection 2008 is shown being prepared fro the runway. Here the stage is rather wide, but stages vary in width. The main thing to see is that the walks are quite rhythmic and predicatable so timing is not very hard as one can sense things are about to peak or change.

Note that the changes in angle at the end of the walk are generous to people who are not necessarily at the end of the catwalk.

Even if you are experienced, tell me that the fashions aren't fabulous! Cleck here] . It is slow but if you need to know, watch it!

Asher

Thanks Asher for your time on this! I appreciate it! And I liked the video!

As for the lenses I can use the 70-200 IS f2.8, 135 f2, 85 f1.8 or 85 mm f1.2, 50 f1.4

I'm still worried about which program to use. Most say to use A-servo. But I've never been succesfull using this mode. What am I missing here? Using only one focus point? Or multiple? Or all? What's the trick?

I will have to do full body shots and my client is the shoes designer and the models famous sportsmen(women). The feet are the parts of the body that moves the most! So I guess I have to use the highest possible speed?

Keep to one lens or at the most two. The 70-200 and the 50 1.4.

The light for the shoes may vary. I have found that for shoes I'll shoot fairly close on the side when they first come out and use the 50mm fairly wide open.

The feet are moving to an exact rhythm. Run the video full screen and shoot the feet!

Asher

I have shot a few runway style fashion/event sets and I love my 70-200/2.8L IS for those events, so I have to highly recommend that one since you have it. I keep the 85/f1.2 in reserve for those rare times the flash doesn't work or they don't allow for some reason. It is the only lens with a chance to get what I need a lot of the time. However, if you need full length then Asher's recommendation about the 50mm is probably better.

I am usually shooting for the models not the designer, so the 85mm works better for what I need.

My experience is I get time for about 4 shots at most and if lucky I get one good shot, but I am usually on relatively short runways. I try to get a full length when the first come on and then zoom in for half body and the zoom in some more for head shot and then time permitting zoom out again for close in half body at the turn.

I recommend practising with the zoom if you are not used to this.

I usually use autofocus in one shot mode, but on the rare times I switch to the 85, I also switch to AI servo mode as it works better if I don't have flash.

I don't shoot these kinds of shows a lot (about once or twice a year ), but that is my experience to date.

Oh and I usually use a single focus point, but I suspect that is more out of habit then anything else.

Thx Tim for your info!

Dear All,

Mission accomplished. The client and ad agency are very happy.
It was the presentation of the new outfits for the Belgian athletes for the olympic games in Peking.
The setting was very unusual as we were almost near the stage (with +/- 8 broadcast camera's & +/- 12 photographers!).
So I used the 1ds with a 35 mm(1.4) lens and my 1d with a 50mm (1.2) and a 28-135 lens (with flash).
The duration of the show was only 20 min. So I experienced a big rush of adrenaline when switching camera's, lenses, cards,...
Not really my kind of photography but I enjoyed the experience.

Thank you all for your advice and support.

All the best,

Eugene