Top five tips to get started as a fashion and beauty photographer

#1 You need to get excellent photographs and build a portfolio

To get represented by an agency it is essential to have a unique portfolio. Build your portfolio by carrying out fashion shoots on your family, friends or colleagues. Practice getting stand-out creative shots which you can showcase in your collection. Ask yourself the following questions: Do your images tell a story? Do they share the same creative concept?

As a fashion photographer, it is essential to show that you are capable of handling and working well under pressure, while at the same time delivering great images which were part of the brief and vision that the client had in mind. It’s also worth remembering that every magazine has a unique style and caters for a particular demographic — I therefore recommend doing some research and creating a portfolio that matches the kinds of magazines you’d like to shoot for in the future.

#2 Understand Fashion, read magazines and learn who’s who

As with most professions, it always helps to understand your subject better. Having worked as a fashion photographer, I highly recommend doing some research on the following topics:

• The history of fashion
• Fashion terminologies
• Current fashion trends and news
• Trendy hairstyles and make-up looks
• Fashion films and documentaries
• Iconic designers and photographers

Browsing through magazines is another great way to get inspired and keep up to date with the latest trends. Take time to curate the styles and images that you see yourself best responding too. Identify the traits you like and explore those on your shoots.

#3 Assist as much as you can

This is another excellent preparation tip which I highly recommend. The more experience you gain from working with top fashion photographers in the industry, the more confident you’ll become. Look for the best fashion photographers in your region that you can drive inspiration from, and drop them an email requesting to work as their assistant for a few shoots. If you choose to do this full-time for the first few months or years, that in itself could be a route for breaking into the fashion photography industry, especially in major cities where you get to experience high-end productions. Make friends and improve your connections with fellow assistants from the creative crew, as you will in the future have a higher chance of collaborating with them.

#4 Learn Fashion Lighting

Having the right lighting is necessary to get the shots you want, below I’ve listed some of the most common lighting modifiers that are used in the fashion and beauty industry:

Beauty dishes:

A beauty dish sculpts and emphasises someones facial features while making their skin glow beautifully. It sits right in between the hard and soft lighting modifiers and adds drama when used with accessories like a grid. It is commonly used in portrait and fashion work to generate a concentrated pool of light and help produce the characteristic round catch light in the eyes of the subject.

Giant umbrellas:

The giant umbrella is a very popular modifier for fashion and beauty photography, especially in commercial work. While the beauty dish is limited by its spread and need for complimentary fills, giant reflectors on the other hand can be used standalone, and due to their large size also create beautiful even lighting over an extensive area. However, giant umbrellas may not always be the best solution for shooting outdoors, especially when it’s windy!

Scrims:

Scrims are used for diffusing harsh light outdoors, but are also fantastic for creating vibrant studio shots. I highly suggest renting them out and experimenting with different shoot styles. A scrim is more specific than any other lighting modifier listed here, but is well worth the investment.

Octabanks:

This tops my list as the handiest modifier to invest in, they are highly versatile and add beautiful, even texture to light and shadows. The shape of the octabank also creates a more rounded, natural-looking catchlight in your subject’s eyes, unlike most of the other more angular modifiers.

Take the time to experiment with all these different modifiers to see which one works best for you.

#5 Learn Fashion Re-touching

It’s very important for a fashion photographer to retouch and edits their images to make them stand out and be more individualistic. Go for classes or use YouTube; there is an abundance of free videos that will help you practice and improve your retouching and editing skills. Don’t be afraid to look into new techniques and practice as much as you can. I personally like using Adobe PhotoShop and Lightroom for all my editing needs.

Thanks so much for reading this, I hope I was able to help you with the tips we mentioned above. Do let us know what you thought? Did it help you? Have you got some better ideas which we may have missed out? I’d love to hear back from you!