Lights, Camera, Action!
Lighting affects every aspect of photography. A great shot can be
utterly ruined with the wrong kind of lighting and the exact opposite is
true as well; lighting can change a mediocre photograph into an
incredibly artistic and appealing photograph. When dealing with fashion
photography, there is no other technical aspect as important as
lighting, it is the very basis of successful fashion photography. The
difficulty of lighting in fashion photography is the fact that there is
no one right way to do things and it is going to be up to the
photographer themselves to find what or does not work for them.
Being a successful fashion photographer requires a lot of hard work and
tons of practice but here are a few points of advice that should help
anyone progress in their talent for fashion photography.
Who are You Taking Advice From?
Everyone has an opinion, but how valuable is it? It is up to the
budding photographer to question where his information is coming from
and how accurate it is. There are much better ways to learn about
lighting than taking advice from those who have never experienced any
true commercial success.
There are some excellent photography forums and websites online. Find
them and start participating. You will find people are eager to share
their knowledge and experience and you can decide what quality advice to
follow. You will be able to see their work as well which helps even more
in deciding whether or not their information is valuable to you.
Find Great Mentors.
I am not talking about going out and trying to develop personal
relationships with any successful fashion photographer out there. There
are other ways to develop mentors in your life. Start looking for those
fashion photos that really inspire you and do some research into who did
the shot and the technical aspects of how it was done. You will
eventually find a few photographers out there that truly inspire you and
their work will provide a great basis of study. By learning about their
works, you will discover the technicalities of how their photography
works, including lighting which is what you are really after here.
Experiment
Play around with the lights. Backlighting and side lighting will
introduce you different moods and silhouetting your model or subject
will be powerful on film. There are innumerable ways to use lighting,
even in portrait photography, but you are only going to learn by
experimenting and practicing.
In addition to the angles of the lighting, start playing around with the
results of natural lighting versus artificial lighting. Begin working
with strobes and flashes. Again, just play with them and learn the
results. Commit them to memory and you will see yourself improving on
your own individual style.
When it really comes down to lighting, you are in total control and the
choice is yours. Just make a choice and keep clicking. If you persevere,
your hard work will show and you will be unlimited with what you can do.
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