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rabbitstu · 7 years ago

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Fine Art Photography – Echoes of Hall Place

Echoes of Hall Place is an art project that brings together Fine Art Photography with a Public Art installation and community interaction.

I was commissioned to develop the work by Centrepieces, an arts and wellbeing charity and the London Borough of Bexley Council. The commissioning agents have been wonderfully supportive giving a wide range of artistic freedom. The work has been installed over January and February 2018 for viewing by the general public at Hall Place, a historic house in the South East of Greater London, UK.

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Hall Place has a wonderful history stretching back to Tudor times. Echoes of Hall Place is a fine art photography installation celebrating the history of the estate and connecting it with the present and looking to the future. The completed collection is displayed outside of the mansion’s visitor centre and comprises of 6 portraits. These are of contemporary subjects wearing period clothing. The portraits echo the type of visitor Hall Place may have seen over the years. Inside the visitor’s centre is a large mirror decorated with Tudor roses reflecting the history of the house and of course visitors who choose to look into it! Those choosing to use the mirror are invited to take a ‘selfie’ and share it through Social Media using #eohp2018.

In developing the visual concept I have been influenced by the technique Chiaroscuro. The past quickly becomes a shadowy place and chiaroscuro is used to represent that in the portraits. Artists such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Holbein used chiaroscuro. In the era of cinematography, Gordon Willis has used the technique in notable works such as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.

I decided not to directly represent any real historical characters in this project. Hall Place does have links with the Black Prince and Francis Dashwood (of Hellfire club notoriety) but I wanted my portrait subjects to be open to a looser interpretation by viewers than representations of ‘real’ characters would allow.

The subjects in the photographic portraits were all volunteers who either had a direct link with the vicinity of Hall Place or were supportive of the aims of Centrepieces. Whilst I didn’t avoid using models (some of the subjects did have modeling experience) it was the link to the aims of the charity or local geography that was most important. I wanted to bring forth the past and link it to the present ongoing story of Hall Place.

The resulting fine art photographs are 6 portraits that take the viewer from the Tudor origins of Hall Place through to the Victorian era, then on to the Roaring Twenties and finally World War 2. I chose to stop at WW2 because that seemed to be the place in the history of Hall Place when it really begins to head towards its current municipal role.

Today Hall Place is somewhere the public come to enjoy the grounds, the Tudor mansion and various exhibitions and events. I needed some way of demonstrating that Hall Place, whilst steeped in history, is still very much alive and has a continuing story. Also, I wanted to reflect on how portraiture has expanded from the relatively isolated experience of the painting of nobles and the landed gentry into increasing democratization through the current ‘selfie’ via smartphone phenomenon.

To this end, I developed the concept further to incorporate a large mirror, decorated with Tudor emblems. Centrepieces’ artists, through workshop sessions I ran, created Tudor Roses to decorate the mirror. The mirror invites the public to reflect on their own role in the ongoing history of Hall Place and contribute by creating their own selfies. The Tudor inspired decorations on the mirror remind us of the long history of the estate which will continue to echo into the future through the sharing of the selfies on Social Media. Echoes of Hall Place is a temporary installation. The portraits that adorn the walls will soon be removed and the mirror is taken away. However, the digital era means that echoes of it will continue to reverberate through the selfies and other shared assets. The past echoing into the present and looking to the future.

I am available to work on further commissions both in the public arts and privately please do contact me to talk about it further.

Credits

Lead Artist & Photographer – Stuart Smith Editing and Retouching – Stuart Smith Art Technician & Project Support – Karen Larkin Models – Richard Banks, Helen Banks, Darren Gilbert, Irene Whelan, Fiona Johansen Sewell, Paul Larkin Photography Assistants – Christie Cassisa & Pam Mackinnon Additional Artwork – Centrepieces Thursday Workshop Mirror Installation – Paul Larkin Installation Assistants – Karen Larkin & Lucy Smith Mirror Donated by Central Glass and Glazing Costumes and accessories kindly by Rose Bruford College, Ju Ju Coture & models

Links to organisations mentioned in article

Centrepieces CIO Echoes of Hall Place at Centrepieces London Borough of Bexley Hall Place

#eohp2018

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rabbitstu · 7 years ago

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Game of Thrones White Walkers invade London's Tourist Hotspots ready for season 7

Game of Thrones White Walkers have invaded London's Tourist Hotspots ready for season 7

London recently faced a sinister invasion from Game of Thrones White Walkers led by their leader The Night King on the black armoured horse. The Game of Thrones White Walkers invaded various London tourist hotspots. Photographs courtesy of Tim Taylor licensed under CC. The dangerous looking warriors showed no fear as they took the cobbled streets of the UK’s capital. Photographs courtesy of Tim…

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#buckingham palace #entertainment #Game of Thrones #london #media #Night King #Night Walkers #Queen #Royal Family #TV Shows

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rabbitstu · 7 years ago

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The closing weekend of the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival saw the focus shift to Woolwich.

The proudly multicultural London town played hosts to diverse acts from around the world to make up Woolwich GDIf 2017.

Table Manners by Avant Garde bringing a new meaning to a dinner party at Woolwich’s Public Market.

Table Manners by Avant Garde were not frightened to add the crowd into their performance at Woolwich GDIF 2017.

Table Manners by Avant Garde even included a table mounted wedding ceremony!

Namlo Band reflected the Nepalese culture to be found in Woolwich

Namlo band performed a number of songs for Woolwich GDIF 2017

Namlo band performing in the centre of Woolwich.

The Greenwich and Docklands International Festival (GDIF) is a free annual outdoor performing arts festival, which takes place across East (Tower Hamlets) and South East London (Greenwich) every June. GDIF was founded by its Artistic Director Bradley Hemmings as an independent festival in 1996 and is produced by the charitable organisation Greenwich+Docklands Festivals (GDF). The festival organises over 200 performances during 10 days, which are attended by over 80,000 people each year. (Wikipedia)

For more information visit GDIF.

More on FierS à Cheval.

Greenwich and Docklands International Festival 2017

Greenwich Fair Opening Night 2017 Greenwich and Docklands International Festival 2017 - Greenwich Fair Opening Night Greenwich Fair 2017 Opening Night saw a spectacular display of giant white horses dancing and cavorting around the world famous Cutty Sark clipper ship.

#Compagnie des Quidams #Cutty Sark #FierS à Cheval #French #greenwich #Greenwich and Docklands International Festival 2017 #Greenwich Fair 2017 #london #London events #street photography #Street Theatre #Stuart Smith Photography

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rabbitstu · 8 years ago

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Red House Flowers and Architecture - London

Red House Flowers and Architecture – London

The Red House in London, on a spring day, is a beautiful mix of flowers and architecture. A wonderful place to visit. It is currently run by the National Trust. Red House is a significant Arts and Crafts building located in the town of Bexleyheath in Southeast London, England. Co-designed in 1859 by the architect Philip Webb and the designer William Morris, it was created to serve as a family…

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#architecture #bexleyheath #flowers #london #national trust #red house #william morris

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rabbitstu · 8 years ago

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London Nature - Squirrel Vs Crow

London Nature – Squirrel Vs Crow

Despite being an urban jungle London has lots of natural sights to see. Here is a little glimpse in on the natural life of London with a crow spotting and attacking a wounded squirrel. Crow Stalking Squirrel Crow Attacking Squirrel Crow Squirrel Standoff

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#city #crow #natural london #nature #squirrel #urban jungle

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rabbitstu · 8 years ago

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Happy Chinese New Year of the Rooster – London Pictures

Happy Chinese New Year, it is now the year of the Rooster and London plays host to some of the biggest celebrations outside of Asia. I was lucky enough to be in Trafalgar Square and nearby Chinatown to create some photographs of the spectacular celebrations.

Red is a colour strongly associate with Chinese New Year, particularly good fortune and joy. The colour dominated the streets. Paper red lanterns surrounded events stage in Trafalgar Square. The streets of nearby Chinatown were a cascade of red lanterns.

Various displays were on throughout the day, with spectacular floats. Performers carrying out Lion Dances visited premises in Chinatown accompanied by a non-stop beat of drums and cymbals. The Lions prancing up to reach the greens and red envelopes hung from buildings. Bringing good luck for the Chinese New Year to the businesses and homes.

It is great to be able to witness and share in the celebrations of different cultures. So wishing all my Chinese friends “Xin Nian Kuai Le” (Mandarin) “San Nin Faai Lok” (Cantonese).

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Gear Used

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Camera Body – Silver

Lens: Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-40mm 1:2.8 PRO Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras

Credits

Date of Photoshoot: 29 January 2017

Location: Central London, UK – Chinatown and Trafalgar Square

Photographer and Image Editing: Stuart Smith

Article Author: Stuart Smith

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rabbitstu · 8 years ago

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How to Create a Beautiful Successful Fashion Photoshoot Production

Fashion photoshoot production. Part 2 of a series of 3 consider pre-production, production & post-production. This is for those planning or commissioning a fashion photoshoot.

Preparation and Planning into Action

Following on from pre-production it is now time to consider the fashion photoshoot production. In Part 1 we looked at the elements needed to be brought together in pre-production for a fashion photoshoot. Part 2 is taking the preparation and planning and bring it all into action to produce a fashion photoshoot and create some great images!

With the plans and team in place, it is time to get on set and get on with the fashion photoshoot production.

Who is in charge of the Fashion Photoshoot Production?

Although, ultimately a team effort, someone in the group needs to adopt or be assigned the role and responsibility of a Production Manager for a fashion photoshoot. The Production Manager will basically make sure everyone and everything is in the right place at the right time. For many fashion photoshoots, either the Photographer, their assistant or the Art or Creative Director will adopt the role of Production Manager. A very large or big budget shoot might have a specific person take on the Production Manager Role but for most, it will either be taken or shared between the Photographer and their team and the Art Director.

Prior to a fashion photoshoot, whoever has the Production Manager role should make sure that everyone has all the key information that will make the shoot run smoothly. Information that needs to be known by everyone includes:

Location details – including any GPS oddities that might be known about.

The schedule of the fashion photoshoot – who needs to be on set or in make-up and when.

Key contact details – especially, who to contact if anyone is running late or lost!

Catering

It is really east to get carried away in the creative buzz of fashion photoshoot and to forget some crucial things, like eating and drinking!

Depending on how long a production is lasting catering might range from water, tea, coffee and simple snacks etc. through to full meal breaks. It can be very useful to have some bottles of drinking water always available.

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Setting-up

3 things need to be set-up for any fashion photoshoot

The Cameras and Lights

If shooting at a location (indoor or outdoor) then the Photographer will need to be especially aware of the ambient light on the set. The Fashion Photographer and their assistants will need to make assessments of how the photoshoot can exploit the lighting conditions or decide if they need to use additional lighting to overcome the ambient light to produce the desired creative effects.

The lighting choices and size of the location will affect what lenses, apertures, and exposure speed the Photographer selects to make the photographs with.

Some fashion photoshoots use only available ambient naturally occurring light. This has the big advantage of reducing the amount and cost of kit needed and also will help create a particular ‘look’ for the fashion photoshoot production.

However, natural light is unpredictable. For example, I am based in the UK and it is easy for light conditions to go from cloudy and dull through to bright and harsh several times over a 30 minute period.

So many fashion photoshoot productions will rely on strobes, speedlights or powered constant lights in order to provide predictability and creative control for the photographer.

When choosing the location the Photographer will need to factor in the time needed in order to set-up the lighting to fit the creative vision of the art direction of the fashion photoshoot.

The Set

Fashion photoshoots sets can range from the highly sparse to the highly detailed.

If on location then the set may well be ‘ready-made’ or a studio location may only be using plain seamless paper. These sort of set-ups do not require much additional input.

However more editorial style photoshoots will often be seeking to create more of a fashion story so there will be a sense of environmental portraiture to the photography. Add to this mix that increasingly fashion photoshoots are also including video elements. These types of fashion photoshoot productions lend themselves to more complex setups, which may require additional props to be brought in and set-up.

On smaller fashion photoshoots it will often be the Photographer and their assistants setting up there with the guidance of the Art Director. On larger shoots then there may a specific individual or team doing this.

The Models

The Hair, Make-up (MUA) and Stylist team should be making sure the models are ready on time to be on set for the photoshoot.

It is very useful before hand to know how the Hair and MUA want the models to present themselves. Generally, models will be asked to have,

Clean Hair

Minimal or no make-up

If a photoshoot involves nudity, semi-nudity or bare shoulders, essentially any part of the body that is often covered by underwear then it is well worth asking the models to make sure that underwear is not so tight as to be leaving marks on the body, when removed. These marks can be time consuming and expensive in post-production to remove effectively. It is also useful for the Photographer and Stylist to liaise on the order of photographing the various styles as some shoot clothing may leave marks on skin that will be exposed by other outfits and this should be managed in the photoshoot schedule.

Most experienced models will know how to present themselves for Hair and MUA but making sure the information is available before the photoshoot will help decrease the chance of any problems or misunderstandings.

The Fashion Photoshoot

When a model or the models are ready for their shoot then it is time to go on set. How the fashion photoshoot production is conducted on set will depend a lot on the dynamic between the Photographer and the Art Director.

On smaller shoots the Photographer, may well be the Art Director, so it will solely be they who will drive the production at this point.

If a separate Art Director is on set and taking oversight then it is likely they will want to be viewing images as they are shot (assuming digital cameras are used) and giving feedback. If that is the case then the Photographer will need to shoot tethered.

Shooting tethered is to have a digital camera attached to a computer with software (usually Capture One or Adobe Lightroom) that allows the images to be seen on a larger screen immediately. This allows the Photographer and Art Director close up views of the images and to make directions about the photoshoot.

Fashion Photography is all about the image and creating an aspiration to the look. Attention to detail is very important. Post-production should be primarily about polishing the final images or preparing them for use in composites not correcting problems with make-up and wardrobe that occurred on set. So it is likely that throughout a shoot the Hair stylist, MUA and clothing Stylist will be need be on hand to make adjustments and freshen looks.

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Strikedown

Once the Fashion Photoshoot is over then it is time to take down the set and get the images ready for post production.

Location

Most rented locations, whether outdoor, indoor or studio will have Terms and Conditions about the state they are left in after being used. They may require damage deposits, which will be lost if the T&Cs are not met. Potentially not leaving the location in the right state could end up taking a hefty chunk out of already often tight budgets.

Whoever in the crew is taking on the Production Manager role, should be making sure that locations are left in an acceptable state.

The images

A lot is at stake on the images from a fashion photoshoot production.

Most shoots today happen using digital cameras. They have the advantage of allowing backups to be made relatively quickly and easily compared to film. Film, however, does remain the aesthetic choice of some Photographers and Art Directors.

Where Digital Cameras are being used then some will have dual memory card slots meaning that Photographers can save two copies of an image as they shoot. If a Photographer is shooting tethered then dual or even triple copies of images can be made as a shoot progresses.

However, multiple copies of images being made during a fashion photoshoot production can slow things down as things are written to hardware and add to the technical complexity and can increase distractions from creativity.

Where dual card slots on a camera are not available (and even if they are) then many Photographers will seek to make some form of back-up of the images before leaving a site after a photoshoot. Alternatively, they may ask assistants to create backups as memory cards fill up during an actual photoshoot.

They key message here is that if a back-up can be made then it should be at the earliest opportunity.

Should I back up to the Cloud?

One of the best ways of ensuring photography media security is to have backups in different physical locations. The Cloud makes that increasingly possible as an immediately available option today.

However, unless you have a really good Internet connection then uploading hundreds, if not thousands of RAW images from location, immediately after a photoshoot might not be the best way to preserve your sanity. The chances are it will be a very slow lengthy process.

If you are in a studio or location with great Internet and have the time, go for it.

Alternatively, stick to a local back-up until better a better connection is available.

One option is for a Photographer to shoot JPEG and RAW and back-up the JPEGs to the cloud. JPEGSs are far smaller files than RAWs and whilst not containing the information and editing options of RAW files do provide a ‘worse case’ option. However, I would consider this to be additional backup process to backing up RAW files on site as opposed to an alternative.

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Fashion Photoshoot Production Closing

For a fashion photoshoot to be successful then there needs to be a well understood and agreed Creative Brief. There also needs to be a strong supporting production plan. The production process described here will vary depending on the size of the particular photoshoot. The smaller the shoot then the less defined roles will be. Whatever the size making sure everyone knows where they should be and when is crucial to the success. A good production plan should never be obstructive and will allow the creativity of the fashion photoshoot to flow with beautiful images as the outcome.

The next part of this series will look at the post-processing of those images and final delivery to the client.

This brings us to the end of Part 2. If you have found it useful please do share http://ift.tt/2j65wj4. For notification when Part 2 is out please sign up to the Mail List, or follow me on Twitter or like my Facebook page. Part 3 will consider the post-production processes and the delivery of the final images.

Work with Me

Need a Fashion Photographer or Art Director with Production Management skills for your next project? Please get in-touch.

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rabbitstu · 8 years ago

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How to Produce a Beautiful Successful Fashion Photoshoot Part 1

Fashion photoshoot from pre-production to production & post-production. This post is for those planning or commissioning a fashion photoshoot part 1 of 3.

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Part 1 - Pre-production

The Client

Who is commissioning the photoshoot?

It is important to know who is paying for the fashion photoshoot. Many photoshoots might be employing a myriad of team members and everyone involved on a day-to-day basis might be a freelancer of some kind. Somewhere in the chain, though, will be the person responsible for paying for everything. That’s the Client.

What do they need?

Identify the Clients needs. You might be being brought on to the team for your particular creative vision but it is important that you understand what the Client actually needs from the end product of the photoshoot. Find out what the Client is trying to achieve in their business and how they want to do it. For example is the Client seeking to attract a new market segment and are they going to do this through a Social Media campaign. Perhaps they want to give existing customers exclusive sneak peeks at their new range through a secret online Lookbook. Where the photographs end up and their usage will make a big difference to the approach taken to the photoshoot itself.

The Idea

Broad Concept of the Fashion Photoshoot

Develop the creative vision to match the Client needs in a concept document. At this stage, it just needs to convey the idea you want to shoot. When I was working with London designer Jed Phoenix my concept centred on the idea of bringing her clothing into a Dark Faerie world. Each of the clothes in her range had a character associated with it. So I took those characters and transplanted them into a situation where the clothes could be shown off but that also allowed the development of a story. This was the broad concept I presented to Jed. It reflects my response to her brand and also my own motivations as a visual storyteller. With the photoshoot for Jed I was Lead Photographer as well as Creative Director, so I was heavily involved in producing the concept. If a shoot has a clear split in the creative team between Art / Creative Director and Photographer the Art Director may take the lead on the concept development but other team members will, generally, have involvement as well.

The Core Roles of Fashion Photoshoot

With a concept in place, it is time to move into some real planning and preparation! Fashion photoshoots vary tremendously in team size. From 2 or 3 people through to tens and possibly even hundreds depending on ambitions and of course budgets!

Irrespective of the actual size of the team, there will be certain roles that have to be fulfilled. Even if they aren’t directly named. On smaller photoshoots, it is almost certain that everyone will be doubling or tripling up on some of these roles.

Key Roles

The Client - The person who will be primarily using the photographs.

Creative / Art Director - The driving force keeping everyone focused on the vision.

Photographers – The person setting up the photographs and directing the physical photoshoot.

Production Manager - Deals with the practical’s, such as:

Where are we shooting?

The gear needed?

Who needs to be where and when?

What’s the budget?

Hair and Makeup Artists

Stylists

Modeling Agency contact

Models

Set Designer – Team member designing the set

Shooting Venue Manager

Retouching post-production editing

A photoshoot requires some roles to be active later than others. Models will generally go through a casting. This will either be through agencies for a large budget shoot or via independent websites like Purpleport for smaller photoshoots. With the Jed Phoenix of London fashion photoshoot a conscious decision was made, very early on, not to use the agency route for sourcing models. Instead, the focus was on finding people who actually really wear the clothing and had a close affiliation to the brand values. For this, photoshoot we ended up with an interesting mix of people;

Some professional models

Actors

Students

DJs

Designers

even a horror magician

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Communications for a Fashion Photoshoot

It is vital to find an agreed way of communicating with everyone. At the very least the Creative / Art Director, the Production Manager and the Photographer will want to be able to communicate with all the team members efficiently and quickly. Social Media plays an ever-increasing role in day-to-day communication. Whilst that can be fine for small shoots with 2 – 4 people and everyone is using the same platform the larger the shoot the more problematic it can be.

So on larger fashion photoshoots Email tends to be the best for all essential communication. Ironically, not the most fashionable way to communicate but pretty much everyone still has an email address. It also means that central email lists can be set up to keep communications efficient and tracked. There can also be problems with some forms of Social Media and commercial privacy and sensitivity.

It is also realistic to expect all team members to have an available Mobile Phone number. On the day of the photoshoot, you might be working in a remote area with no Wifi or limited Mobile Internet and a mobile phone should be able to get through to all but the most difficult of locations.

Sharing Documents

Those involved in the bulk of the planning and management of the photoshoot e.g Art Director, Photographer, Production Manager etc. may need to share and refer to planning documents. Depending on the complexity of the shoot then email might be sufficient. A small shoot may not have much documentation beyond the initial concept and a Moodboard (more on that later).

Larger shoots though will generate more documentation;

Contact lists

Briefs for team members

Schedules

Location details

Moodboards

These need to be held somewhere and shared with relevant team members. There are lots of systems, that are either free or very low cost for doing this. I’ve found Google Drive with its office features (Spreadsheet, Docs etc) especially useful for this. However, it does require adoption by the relevant team members. So if someone is not happy using it, it may cause more problems than it solves. There are other alternatives.

Dropbox

Facebook Groups. It can be fairly easy and quick to set up secret groups in Facebook but you need to check that the policies of Facebook don’t cause issues with the clients business objectives.

Evernote

Everyone needs to agree to use the chosen system.

Building the Idea for the Fashion Photoshoot

With acceptance, of the basic concept, the idea needs developing. Moodboards are one of the most common ways of doing this. A Moodboard for a fashion photoshoot is essentially a set of images that fit the theme of an idea.

The board might be about:

Colours

Styling

Posing

Photographic Styling

Make-up

Hair

[caption id="attachment_24611" align="alignright" width="300"] Example of Fashion Photoshoot Moodboard[/caption]

Or it might contain elements of all these and other things.

It will depend on the complexity of the shoot and how much depth you want to go into.

There are lots of ways of building and sharing Moodboards. Pinterest is one of the most common. It’s easy to search for a theme and pin relevant images to a board. The link to the board is available to share with others who can collaborate on it. Here is a link to an early Pinterest board I used for the Jed Phoenix fashion photoshoot to gather some ideas.

Alternatives to Pinterest

Evernote notebook

Powerpoint / Keynote slides

Photoshop templates

Canva boards

Also specialist tools

Go Moodboard

Niice

Remember though Moodboards are about inspiring rather than dictating what you should be aiming for. It is important to create a unique visual look to your own fashion photoshoot.

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Where to hold a Fashion Photoshoot?

Where you actually hold a fashion photoshoot depends on a lot of different factors. A lot will depend on the intended outcome, the budgets and timescales and even the weather patterns.

Studio or Location

Essentially there are two choices, Studio or Location.

Studio

If a photographer has their own studio then they will already have some lights and backdrops etc. to run a photoshoot. Or if they don't, most cities and larger towns will have studios with some kit for rental.

Photography Studios tend to provide a blank canvas and predictability. This can be particularly ideal for catalogue and ecommerce shoots. With appropriate set-dressing studios can also be made to look like a variety of places. However, the larger the set the more expensive it will be to dress it and sometimes a location lends its own ambiance to a fashion photoshoot.

Location

Outdoor location fashion photoshoots offer a lot of creative options but they are highly susceptible to the weather! They are also often considerable cheaper than indoor locations and in many cases free!

If you do shoot outside it is important to consider what you are shooting. Lingerie, nude and semi-nude shoots might not be acceptable in some public places or at the very least might draw an over interested crowd!

There are a huge variety of indoor locations, offering ready-made and often affordable sets for imaginative fashion photoshoots:

Abandoned buildings

Stately homes

Private apartments

Industrial sites

Junk shops

These places and others can offer a cornucopia of ready-made sets to fire the imagination of a fashion photoshoot. However, it is rare to get them for free (unless you are sneaking into an abandoned building, which carries its own risks) and costs, particularly in city areas, can be very high.

The other option is also to borrow a location. This is how I dealt with the fashion photoshoot for an Agnes B project. One of the team had access to a central London apartment with a rooftop garden. So we had a designer living room, bedroom and city rooftop to shoot from. All for free! So remember to ask around.

The Jed Phoenix fashion photoshoot however, was considerably larger and had a very tight schedule. 14 models on two different sets shot in 7 pairs over the course of one day. The concept also required a Gothic environment to add to the storytelling. For this, we used a specifically themed location based around alternative lifestyles called Murder Mile Studios in London. As well as offering ready-made sets it also had a large blank space ideal for an ecommerce catalogue shoot. Essentially having a specialist location meant I could design a photoshoot schedule which took the models from Hair, Makeup and styling through to the fashion photoshoot on set and then on to an ecommerce shoot. All in one location across the course of a day.

Location Scouting

In an ideal world we would be traveling around visiting and soaking up the atmospheres of potential locations. It would be fabulous. Visiting a location before booking is still the ideal. However, the Internet allows for plenty of preparatory research of almost any location.

Tools such as Google Earth allow location scouting from an armchair. Even indoor venues for rent will usually have a website with photos. Flickr and Instagram can also give a really good idea of what a place looks like, often from a variety of angles with the advantage that the images are not necessarily always created to promote somewhere.

A downside though is the more popular a place is with lots of User Generated photos the harder it will be to find the right time to shoot there or if it is private the cost will often be higher.

Location and Personnel Permissions

Generally, you will need various permissions to make the photoshoot work.

Models (or their agency) should sign releases agreeing to their likeness being used and in what context.

The Photographers and Client need to agree licenses on the images for their usage.

Locations may need particular legal permits for photoshoots at, as well as rental fees paid.

Lawyers may need to advise you on specifics. There are a lot of advice and agreement templates on the Internet. Use at your own risk.

The Photoshoot Plan

Even a very simple fashion photoshoot with a photographer and model doing their own hair and makeup needs some planning. At a minimum a date, time and location and how long you will be shooting for.

As the photoshoot grows then the complexity grows.

The Production Manager (or whoever has adopted that role) should liaise with the team to know how long Hair, Makeup and Styling will take.

They will also need to know when can they get into or arrive at a location to set-up and when they need to leave by.

If a Photoshoot is spread over several days, or even weeks then travel and hotel itineraries need to be kept and coordinated.

The Production Manager needs to know everyone’s schedule and keep everyone moving and deal with any issues that disrupt the plan.

Tools like Google Docs and Spreadsheets can help keep track of everything. Most document sharing systems have mobile versions and many allow you to store documents offline incase you have no Internet connection. However, it can be useful to also make print copies of certain key documents and to make sure that everyone has a copy of the photoshoot schedule as they arrive.

Closing

This brings us to the end of Part 1. If you have found it useful please do share http://ift.tt/2iVPMSA. For notification when Part 2 is out please sign up to the Mail List, or follow me on Twitter or like my Facebook page. Part 2 will be looking at the Production Process and considering how to make a fashion photoshoot happen ‘on the day’. Part 3 will consider the post-production processes and the delivery of the final images.

ail list, or follow me on Twitter or like my Facebook page. Part 2 will be looking at the Production Process and considering how to make a fashion photoshoot happen ‘on the day’. Part 3 will consider the post-production processes and the delivery of the final images.

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