Best Pre-Production Tips for Fashion Photoshoot

Let’s discuss some useful tips on how to produce a fashion photoshoot. Fashion photography isn’t easy, and professional photographers are under extreme pressure to produce results-proving photoshoots.

Only the results should matter, but as professionals say, sometimes your preparation and efforts towards such a shoot also help make the photo shoot successful.

In this helpful guide, we will provide the fashion photoshoot checklist and the facts that you should consider to perform at your best when you have the opportunity to do such a shoot.

fashion photography

1. Client meeting

Any shoot that is inception starts with meeting clients. A photographer gets a call from his or her PR agency from advertisement agencies or directly from clients, and they generally provide a brief idea of what they want to get shot.

They often share a presentation with pointers on what message they want to convey through the shoot, what kind of products they want to display, and what type of end-use they are looking at.

Depending on these basic instructions, the photographer must create a presentation to convince the client through a visual representation of the shooting style that suits the client’s requirements.

This meeting is extremely crucial and requires a lot of homework from the photographer. The photographer has to have a clear idea about the budget, the shooting time required, the models, and so on.

The photographer also needs to give ideas of locations (in case of outdoor shoots), Studios (in case of indoor shoots), and designers (be it food or fashion) that they can suggest.

2. Budgeting

It would be best if you considered budgeting for fashion photography. A client usually promoting a brand or a product almost always wants the best photographers for the best prices.

This is generally true for all clients since everyone has a fixed advertising budget every year with which they have to work. The photographer must keep the budgeting at a minimum without sacrificing creativity.

When budgeting, everything from the cost of make-up artists and stylists to logistics, lighting and studio, camera bags, equipment renting, costume renting, photo editing cost, and more needs to be taken into account.

If you are new to the game, make sure your costs for data storage as well since a regular shoot will run into a few terabytes of data at the least.

Also, add a miscellaneous cost in case something goes amiss during shoots. Props are another area where you may incur fees.

3. Deciding the team

Deciding the team is also a significant part of the shoot in terms of commercial or fashion photography. When selecting the team for a shot, look for hardworking, creative, and problem-solving people.

The team needs to vibe well, and thus, it is essential to select like-minded people. Sometimes, the shoots can run throughout the night, so make sure they are willing to put in extra hours to prepare the shoot and the shoot itself.

The models need to be comfortable around your team, so it is vital that they are well-dressed, well-behaved, and well-groomed.

You can check their previous work and call up other photographers they have worked for if you are looking for a long-standing partnership with them.

4. Bookings for the shoot and recce

Certain bookings are required for a fashion photoshoot. If you do not have a team, you must book one for the day.

Apart from that, props for the shoot, dresses that the models will wear, stylists, and equipment require booking, and planning is essential.

5. Briefing

The team has not attended the meeting with the client. So, it is thus imperative that you brief them about the fashion photoshoot. Each team member should know and execute their role in the set-up and during the shoot.

Assign them distinct work functions and ensure they understand what they must do. Coordination between the separate teams is essential.

Brief them about the end result you wish to achieve and ask for their input. You can always learn from people, even if they are junior technicians, makeup artists, or assistants who are less experienced than you.

If someone suggests an idea you like, credit them for it. This will help you in the long run as they will remember your good nature and help you make a name in the industry. Honesty always pays dividends.

The briefing session needs to cover everything from the light set-up, logistics, make-up, timing of each model’s make-up, scheduling of specific deadlines, and even refreshments that need to be arranged apart from obviously the shoot and concepts of the shoot.

6. Meeting the models

Models require adequate attention for and before a shoot. The models need to be briefed about the shoot as well. Their costumes need to be pre-decided and should fit them perfectly.

They need to be informed about the shoot, including whether any products are being shot with them, whether another model will be there, and so on. Ask them about their level of comfort and what they are comfortable with.

Never force something on them that they may not wish to do on the shoot. This will not only be considered harassment, but the photographs won’t look good if the models do not look comfortable.

Ask the models for shots from previous photos since you can get an idea of which angles they might look good in. Play loud music and ask the model to share a playlist of their choice with you so that the music can help them stay focused. Most fashion photography shoots these days play music for this sole reason.

7. Discussing post-production

Post-production is as essential to understand and discuss as any other shoot aspect. Discussing how to edit a photo is especially important when photographing for a conceptual shoot.

If you discuss your shoot with a retoucher in advance, he or she will give your ideas that you can execute during shoots to get a better result. It will also help the retoucher to provide you with the finished products in less time as he or she will have to work on the images less.

8. Dry-runs

When a theatre is practicing for a new show, it performs dry runs on stage to understand positioning, dialogue throw, lighting, etc. Similarly, a dry run is a must for these shoots!

Ask someone from the team to act as the model for the day and check each lighting set-up. Ensure your team knows their duties and see if everything works like a well-oiled machine. This will help you avoid any unforeseen errors on the day of the shoot.

Now that we have covered everything that you might want to look into till the day of the shoot, you can check out our article on what needs to be done during or after the shoot in another article in this issue.

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