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We are going to continue with product photography this coming Monday.  This time instead of eCommerce, we are going to concentrate our two sets on editorial type image of multiple accessories.  The examples below are from W magazine online.

A really quick of review of some of the we photographed in the demo last Monday.


We covered some difficult product to shoot, like chrome items, suede, and shiny accessories.  We also covered general standard shots of belts, rings, bags, and shoes.


What follows is some examples of items we shot.

Chrome bags need to filled in front of the camera to reflect white and show off the chrome.  We used a 'Doughnut' to reflect white instead of black on the chrome bag.

Suede bags need almost a full stop of light extra to show off the texture. Shooting eCommerce on white allows you to set the lighting in front for whatever the product needs without having to adjust the background each time.

Two typical views of shoes.  Three quarter front and three quarter back.

White objects on white background need special care on lighting ratios to make ure the background is white, but the object has some tone.  Negative fills can be used to subtract light and create dimension.

Tonight we will be shooting product and I wanted to give you a list of items you might want to procure when you start shooting more product and you cannot hire a product stylist.


Tonight, a stylist will be present on one of the sets and I will be on the other.

I wanted to show you how well the Look Book came out from last week. 


We will review in class some minor things to look out for with the look book.  I put together a quick mock up of what it could look like once it was laid out.

For comparison, here is a few look book photos from Resort 2011. 

We are going to change gears for the next two classes and then the last three classes will focus on banner shots (more editorial looking photography) and life style imagery.


This Monday will be the first day of product photography.  I will show you a basic setup for eCommerce photography.  You find it very similar to the lighting set up we put together for eCommerce looks.  We will have two sets so everyone can have some time to shoot.  Styling of the bags, shoes, and jewelry will be covered.


See you Monday evening.

I will have to send you all the rename workflow file, since I am unable to upload it to this site.  Here is video on it's use.

Here are some screen captures of eCommerce poses.  The pdf on the bottom can be downloaded so you can have large 

Last week I mentioned that there are 3-4 key positions besides the photographer that create any photo shoot.  They include the artdirector/client, the Hair and Makeup, and the Stylist.  A Producer is sometimes part of this mix for ecommerce.  

When we meet up Today we will have a stylist and Hair and Make up person.  On bigger jobs the Stylist will have an assistant and hair and make up would be executed by two different people.  Most hair and make up talent specialize in one or the other.  On small jobs one person will do both.


In general Art Director and Stylist work together to put the outfits together based on the theme of the season.  You as the photographer will work together with them to get the look they would like to highlight the clothes.  Poses and model attitude will alos be discussed.  The final ingredient is from the Hair and Makeup.  Direction will given either by you or the art director.

Stylist usually dresses and lets you know what outfit you shooting either as look or as sku number.  Your job is keep each look inside a separate folder labeled the same as the look.  You or the art director will call the shot to move to the next outfit.  Selects will be made by you and the art director or you and stylist.  Retouching comments could be made by you, the stylist or the art director.  Most likely you process out the job as large jgps with sRGB color profile.  Hand off of the images will arranged with the producer or the art director.

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Things to consider:

Is the hair up or down in the shots.  If the hair is up it's easier for model's look to stay intact while changing all day.  If it's down then the Hair person needs to be on set and checking it all times.

Model poses will be covered in the next post, but the attitude is an important branding feature. Is the model friendly, happy, sexy, shows movement in the clothes, etc.  This is important to decide before anything is shot.
On a side note, the higher the price point of the garments the model and her pose is more aloof with little expression, save apathy to the viewer.  


When shooting look out for clothes landing awkardly, creases, hems turned up, belts crooked, pleats that are not straight.  It's harder to retouch those items than others.  Fixing them on the front end will save time and money.

I wanted to write a quick review of last week and also give a preview of whats to come this Monday the 19th.

The basic set up we put together is building block of almost every ecommerce lighting setup.  It's simple, not fancy and is not impressive photographically.   But ecommerce is not about the photography.  It's about the clothes.  The lighting set up presented is meant to highlight the clothes. 

It's important for ecommerce that the subject is in focus from head to toe.  Shooting at f16-18 is ideal.  When we set up our lighting we had to increase the ISO to 400 to get f11 2/10 for the main. (The background was 1/2 stop over at f11 1/2).  The camera we used for the demo demonstrated noise at ISO 400.  This could be a concern for your client. The native ISO of your camera is most favorable. Usually that is ISO100.  I hope you recognize the process we went through to make those decisions.  When you set this up with your own lighting you will need to provide powerful enough lights to get f11-18 with minimal noise in the image.

At the end of the class a diagram was made of the set up to allow you to set it  quickly on Monday.  We will use the same setup, but now we  add the stylist, hair and makeup, plus file naming to our workflow.  As a class everyone will shoot at least one outfit and act the digital tech and the photographer.  Selects will be made and processed for our client (the class, the model, and the stylist).

The next post will focus on the workflow of a ecommerce shoot.

Hello, today is the first day of my new class on fashion photography at the Julia Dean Workshops.  I want to welcome all of you to my class and I'm looking forward to a great 8 weeks.


I wanted to give you a quick sketch of the lighting layout we will be using as template for the next 3 weeks.