Editorial fashion photography

I've never done any sort of fashion photography before because I guess it's never really been of interest to me which is surprising because my favourite type of photography include people! I guess it's more the documentary side of things that I enjoy to do. I researched into how editorial fashion photography is commissioned and completed. I came across an interesting article by Darren Rowse, on how editorial photography is made.

-The idea or theme for the commissioned editorial fashion photography is normally given by the editor of the magazine for a particular issue.

-The photographer discusses the brief with the art director or editor about how the theme should be interpreted. The photographer gets most of the control from here, he/she inputs their own ideas and discusses what the theme means to them.

-A stylist is usually needed to find the latest fashion trends and provide the clothes to suit the brief. The stylist contributes greatly to the development of the photographers idea.

-The magazine would usually want the stylist to get clothes attached to famous brands as this would normally increase the interest on the viewers behalf.

-The choosing on the model is an important contribution to the whole process. The model needs to fit the look that the photographer is trying to achieve, for example, if the theme was 'Summer Fruits', a model who may be on the heavy side in terms of weight wouldn't make much sense to the viewer.

-The photographer needs to brief the hair and make-up stylists on what he/she should do to the model, but some input from them wouldn't be a bad thing, after all it's their job!

-A mutually agreed date would have to be set in order to get everyone in the same place at the same time and a lot of notice must be given as well as a lot of time before the deadline as things do sometimes get in the way and force people to have to re-arrange.

-The photography should use the make-up artist and hair stylist throughout the shoot, they should be asked to focus on their particular contribution and to speak up and fix anything that may have come out of place because the photographer would find it difficult to focus on all of the aspects of the shoot at once. I personally would be focusing on mainly the posture and expression of the model and would probably not even notice if, for example, a button fell off the models shirt, I would ensure it's up to the stylist to point this out to me.

-The photographer has to talk to the model, he/she has to tell the model what they want her/him to do, what expressions to do, what posture to have and so on. The photographer needs to be clear in directing the model in what to do and has to be confident and ready to give instructions.

-The photographer must be the leader, it is his/her shoot. Informing the crew every now and again on the time would ensure each specific job that makes up the whole shoot, meets it's deadline.

-Once the photos have been taken the photographer would need to process the images into the correct format and might need to manipulate some factors such as lighting, contrast, exposure and colour.

-The page layout for the images is decided by the page designer but the photographer will work along side and ensure that layout gets his/her view across.

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-do-an-editorial-fashion-photography-spread