Fashion Photography

Let's face it, as much as we want to believe great photographs are created "in camera", every single image you see published has been manipulated in Photoshop in some way. When it comes to producing attention grabbing photos, having a strong grasp on post production goes a long way.

Right now the hottest spot on the globe for photography is in New York City at Photo Plus. Our good friends at creativeLIVE have set up an unbelievable opportunity for photographers to learn from eight of the industry's leading photographers all for FREE. Catch creativeLIVE's free event Photographers Ignite live right now.

If you have any interest in fashion photography then you won't want to miss this free 3-day workshop hosted by creativeLIVE. Now, starting today October 22 through Oct 24, fashion photographer Lara Jade will be teaching Fashion Photography 101.

London photog, Dave Kai-Piper, is one of my favorite people in the fashion photography industry. He is talented, driven, kind and a blast to work with. I got to meet Dave and his close friend/assistant/videographer, Paul McKelvie in England last year while shooting video for a web series and the 3 of us have been good friends since.

A few months back Victoria's Secret accidentally released a dozen unretouched photos from a shoot with supermodel Doutzen Kroes. We shared those images in a post on Fstoppers and it caught the attention of many of you. The retouched versions of those same photos are now out. Let's compare the results!  

A lot of times on FStoppers we see shoots that are very gear focused, after all that's what we're here for isn't it?

In a world filled with portable speedlights and 3200 watt power packs, photographers might overlook another critical feature of their studio lights: flash duration. Basically flash duration is the time your strobe light contributes to the exposure of your photograph (flash actually can act as "constant light").

We've seen behind the scenes videos of how projection mapping can be used artistically and commercially. Tobias Bjorkgren takes on a slightly different angle and applies the concept to his latest fashion shoot. The use of projection allows him to stand his models in front of varying scenes without having to leave the studio. To see the final images, check out his blog.

This recent cover of Vogue Hommes International, featuring none other than Stephanie Seymour, is under fire. Women's Right Advocacy groups and critics have accused Vogue of glorifying and portraying 'domestic violence' on the cover.  

Four organizations (Families, Safe Horizon, Equality Now, and the New York chapter of NOW) have wrote in stating:

We've heard unfortunate news that photographer, Peter Alexander, has died this past weekend during a Fashion Week party. It happened on Friday, September 14th, when Peter and his unnamed friend fell out of a 3rd story window. This incident occurred in Shoreditch, an area of Eastern London. Unfortunately, Peter did not make it.

Giuliano Bekor is an amazing commercial and advertising photographer based out of Los Angeles. Recently he traveled down to Australia to produce a short editorial film for the clothing company Merchant 1948. The concept involves a set of short films based around the idea of models finding a ton of cash and avoiding the police by flying away in vintage airplanes.

The future looks healthy within the modeling and fashion industry. More and more people want less retouching in general, people want to see change on the covers and on runways. We're seeing more being done to make health a priority in the modeling world. Recently, Israel took a step in banning underweight models. The definition of 'underweight' is having a BMI of under 18.5.

Each week creativeLIVE has unbelievable live content that you can stream for free. Starting today through Sept 15th, creativeLIVE will host one of Fstoppers' most featured photographers Matthew Jordan Smith. Matthew is an acclaimed fashion photographer, and he has brought along America's Next Top Model winner Yoanna House to talk about everything that goes on in the fashion industry.

We all know that fashion and glamour photography can be controversial at times. First with Kate Upton's horribly retouched cover of Sports Illustrated, then with the leak of Victoria's Secret's untouched photos and their debatable over-retouch of Lais Ribeiro earlier this month. Well, now it seems to be Vogue magazine that's the culprit, and their celebrity of choice...

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and I am new here to Fstoppers. I really got into photography by documenting hardcore shows (as in hardcore punk rock). I first encountered Manny Mares on a message board for this genre of music. During this summer I have watched Manny continuously post images from a series he has been working on called "Summer in America."  

Last year we posted a behind the scenes video of the 2011 Barbie fashion shoot and it was a massive hit. This year Mattel has once again teamed up with designer Robert Best and photographer/videographer Paul Jordan to create another amazing collection. The attention to detail in the clothing, set design, and lighting is staggering. Check out the full post for the images.  

There always comes a time while you're surfing the web looking for inspiration that you stumble upon something so striking that it just blows you away. You sit back and wonder...

Adorama TV has been mixing up their youtube channel lately, and this week features the TTL acrobatics of Joe McNally. Joe walks you through a typical street portrait as he accentuates the natural ambient light with a single speedlight gelled red. The more useful tip Joe gives is how to control the spill of your large softlight with an "egg crate" or softbox grid.

Who knew that street fashion photography was so trendy? Like many others, I really enjoy the work of The Sartorialist and have followed his blog for years now. But I never considered that his popularity would lead to this - streets filled with photographers trying to emulate his style. Of course, this video does take place in the midst of New York fashion week.

Anyone who works commercially knows how important it is to adapt the product you deliver to your clients needs; this is especially true when dealing cross culturally. Voodoo Partners in Germany does an excellent job of this as they take us behind the scenes in one of their recent Jewelry commercials to be aired in Qatar.

Check out this amazing photoshoot by Dina Goldstein she titled "In The Dollhouse." Dina spared no expense as her team built set after set to complete this real-life Barbie and Ken series. Just like the last Barbie series we posted, this one is also a little twisted. Apparently you can't go wrong with Barbie series because these images have already gone viral around the web.

A modern take on the little black dress, Emily Steel has found a way to make film a fashion statement. This dressed is adorned with film and backed with LED lights that give the effect. The idea was to create a wearable dress that fuses the idea of technology and art. The end result is intriguing to say the least. Check out the images and more details in the expanded post.  

If you work out of a studio, you know how annoying paper seamless backdrops can be...they always wrinkle and warp. We recently changed over to the Savage Vinyl backdrops and they seem to last a lot longer. The guys over at OKstrobist have an even cheaper alternative for those looking for a DIY approach and it's pretty clever.

Anyone who has picked up a magazine with photographic content is well aware of the amount of retouching and massaging that goes into many of the photos displayed in advertisements or in editorial features. But at what point does the 'retouching' go too far? 

Fashion photographer Melissa Rodwell has become a good friend of ours over the years. The New York based photographer lives and breathes fashion photography, and as you can see with her images it really shows. The self proclaimed "photographer who does not own a digital camera" teamed up with Kurv magazine to produce some very exotic fashion images.

The majority of photographers I know have a love/hate relationship with post production and retouching. In fact, for most of them, it's more of the latter. As a fashion photographer/retoucher myself I find I'm often in the minority as I personally enjoy both. Quite often I enjoy retouching more than shooting even. There are of course people out there who solely retouch and don't shoot at all.

Photographer Steven Baillie is well known for his work with GQ and Playboy. Another interesting part about Steven is his ability and willingness to travel all around the world just to find new faces. Here's a behind the scenes look at some of his amazing adventures along with some of the new faces he finds and how he finds them.  

Here's a behind the scenes video featuring editorial and advertising photographer Stefan Ruiz. He traveled to Monterrey, Mexico to document the "Cholombiano" youth street culture. Skip to about the ten minute mark to see the set up and capture. He shoots exclusively on 4x5 film, and is highly influenced by renaissance paintings. 

Via: Feature Shoot

__

It's easy to think that models are perfect in every way because when we see images of them they have had hours of hair and makeup, they are lit by some of the most talented photographers on the planet, and then they are retouched by the most meticulous Photoshop artists around.

Photographer, Michael J Moore was granted access to a creepy and abandoned state mental hospital for this fashion shoot. He used a combination of lighting setups but mainly, the Phase One 645DF camera with a Profoto 8A 2400W and various Profoto strobes. With all three different lighting set ups, Michael did a great job at capturing that Vanity Fair-esque look that we all know so well.

As photographers, we are always in search of that new unique lighting modifier to add to our bag of tricks. I recently saw this video on Strobist where Amber Gray claims her Broncolor Para FB could actually reduce the amount of post production on her models.

The Canon 5D MkIII and the Nikon D800 are two of the hottest cameras on the market right now. In this video commercial photographer Nathan Elson joins up with The Camera Store's Chris Niccolls to see how these two cameras stack up in the image quality department. Enjoy!

If you enjoy looking at fashion images, then the photography duo Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello should be on your radar. They are ranked as among the top fashion photographers on Model.com and it's easy to see how their work stands out within one of the most saturated fields of photography.

Rick Genest (aka Zombie Boy) is nothing if not intense.

Hasselblad Master, Joao Carlos, was featured on the Profoto Blog last week for his free falling studio images. That's right, studio images. Not underwater images. I met Joao in NYC last fall at PDN PhotoPlus and fell in love with his portfolio right away. He always lights his subjects with a minimalist approach and his workflow is powerful and consistent.  

This is a series of videos that make up a fascinating 90-minute documentary about the great Richard Avedon. It's called "Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light," and first aired back in 1995 as part of the American Masters Series. If you're like me, you could spend hours watching things like this.  He discusses his work, his influences, his process.