Everybody knows that the challenge of a fashion shoot is taking a beautiful photo of model(s) and clothing. What not everyone realizes is that on a catalog or editorial project photographers are often required to deliver a number of consistently high-quality photos within a concept or a location, not just a single stunning photo. In addition to maintaining the quality, a photographer has to pace out the use of a set or location so that each shot doesn't look like a repeat of the earlier shots. Pacing is a important aspect of an editorial layout or a catalog presentation to keep the audience turning the pages.
One of the best ways to do this is by selecting a location that provides many angles, props and backgrounds that allows the pace to straddle between a consistent look and freshness to each image. In general it is a little trickier with studio sets. This can be achieved with moving set components and the use of props. This can also be enhanced by angle and lens selection. Assuming that your client is not compelling you to maintain a strict consistency (like and e-commerce catalog project), basic in-camera composition techniques will also help you pace the layout.
For location shoots, I look for a building or environment that has more than one angle and surface to shoot against. This allows you to pick the most compelling background to make cover try's against and then shift to other surfaces or angles to provide the layout fresh images but with a cohesive feeling. One of my favorite locations is a former floral nursery that over time added decorative walls to their lush foliage with antique doors and furniture to become a sought-after wedding location and colorful location for fashion photos.
For studio sets, it is often a useful practice to have sets with either three dimensions by adding a wall/corner element or having a floating wall that can be repositioned for variety. Adding props that a model can sit/lean on also lends to the depth effect and allows you to pace different shots giving new life to the same set. Another approach is to set differing angles and cropping for each outfit in story. Composing shots with open or negative space on side of the model will allow page designers additional flexibility in the layout process. You can make a better impression on them by pacing the balance of negative space on some shots with extra space on right and other shots on left. High and low angle can also help with variety. When possible also look at shooting across or at a diagonal to a wall surface in addition to shooting straight into it.
A trick I use to keep track of the pacing for layouts is to use my small Epson Picturemate printer to create 'polaroids' from each set up to see how we use the space. I have the small printer which was originally developed for home snap-shot printing connected to my capture station. I can use Capture One to send images directly to printer from my raw files using the native print function. The 4x6" prints are strictly for creating a storyboard that we use to remember how we are using a location or props as we pace our layout.
For the attached photos I was fortunate to have my client rent a location that was set up for both photo-shoots and events like weddings in an old factory building in New York City. Each floor of the building has been decorated with a different them and stocked with numerous pieces of antique furniture making it one of the most photographed fashion locations in New York City. My additional challenge on this day was mostly grey/stormy conditions which limited the amount of natural light. I was forced to switch from my usual 100 iso to 400 iso and higher to capture enough detail and depth my client required. I used a large softbox and large reflector panels to control shadows and maintain a consistent feel in changing lighting conditions.
This location provided rich textures and a variety of angles that allowed me to take several satisfying photos from the single location. My goal was to treat each outfit as though it was the most important photo of the day which resulted in many photos for my client to select from. In this case the foreground of one photo is actually the background of another photo. The Epson allowed us to keep a running idea of how many looks we had in the each angle we selected to work with. The shoot was well-received by my client and I was able to pull several shots for my portfolio and promotion.
Nice article and great images!