Learning fashion photography is the first step towards becoming a professional photographer, and so, it is important to read about some fashion photography tips. Since there are certain rules attached to the field of photography, it is always beneficial to read them and learn about them.

Then, subsequently, one could break them, manipulate them and use them to one’s own advantage for clicking beautiful photographs. This article elaborates on such useful tips, encompassing the choice of clothes, kinds of fashion photography poses, the right kind of studio environment, lights, props and location. So, read on.

Different poses- fashion is all about alluring clothes and impressionable poses. One should read about various kinds of poses in various magazines. Attention needs to be paid to the look of confidence and authority that a model exudes through his/ her body language. The posture, style and body language of the model should speak everything. There are various different poses that a model can work with.

Cross-legged- A model stands cross-legged, with a slight lean on to some wall or anything. The hands are placed at the waist in a style that exudes attitude and style.

Hands on hip- In this pose, a model stands with his/ her hands on his hips, either inside the back pockets or outside. The photographer can shoot a model in this pose from either front or back.

Arms crossed over chest- This pose is usually used when communicating some strong message, or when showing a strong personality.

Hands behind back- It communicates a relaxed personality.

Walking- capturing motion is another part related to photography, which is used to denote the smooth progression or may be simply used as per the need or concept.

Running- Usually such kind of pose is used in sportswear and other closely related industry ads.

Maintain a check list- It is necessary for you to always pre-plan and decide what are all the things that are needed for the shoot. Based on this you need to prepare an exhaustive list of these items and shop/ rent them well in advance.

Clothes and accessories- The very purpose of fashion photography is to showcase the beauty of clothes and the accessories that go well with those clothes. This is possible only by composing good shots, coupled with the right choice of clothes according to the theme. You need to extract and use all the possible scenic and thematic elements to compose one, real impressive shot. If you are shooting for a clothing line, make sure that your model’s hair colour and make-up complements the colour and tone of his/her clothes. If you want to compose a seductive shot, make the model wear black, and if you want to derive subtle compositions, make your model wear subdued make-up and no shorts or sleeve-less.

Studio-shoot- It is preferred to shoot inside a studio as it gives the photographer more flexibility in lighting arrangements and in-room décolleté. He can easily shoot there, irrespective of day or night. One can, unlike while shooting outside, control the lights and shadows. Using light meters, one can determine how much exposure is needed for a suitably lighted frame. In, short it is all about working in a controlled environment versus an uncontrolled one, i.e., outdoors. But to hire a photo studio, it takes a lot of money. Many professional photographers, thus have a studio of their own. As for the others, it all depends upon their financial status or how much your office is ready to finance.

Low lighting and limited lighting equipment- If you are faced by a situation where there is very less light, insufficient for taking the shot, you can use a simple sheet of reflector and using it, you can make the light bounce off from some other surface to your subject. But while doing this, special care needs to be taken for ensuring that there are no unwanted shadows falling on the subject or anywhere else in the entire frame.

Enhance the frame with props- A photographer can find many a prop for adding an underlining power to his frame and add up to his subject’s overall presence. For doing this, a photographer has his creative power at his disposal which he could use to envision new and aesthetically correct kind of symbolism, personified by various different props. These props, moreover, add a theme to your compositions, thus leading to a thematical progression in a continuous series of compositions.

Location- irrespective of shooting indoor or outdoor, one thing that is very important and needs to be done prior to the shoot is- ‘recce’ or a survey of the place. A photographer and the team should zero in on the right studio or the right outdoor place and analyse it from all the objective points. All the required permissions are then taken and only then does the photo shoot commence. Points like, source and extent of natural lighting, possibility and extent of artificial lighting, how far is the place, and its viability from the finance perspective.

Try different angles- Fashion photography or any other kind of photography is all about being in the moment. Any moment you may stumble upon the best shot of your life, or let’s just say- your day. For this, a photographer needs to be on his toes and keep searching for and clicking new impressive angles, in search of that one perfect moment.

So, these are certain fashion photography tips that encompass all the different aspects of this field. Together with the aforementioned different kinds of fashion photography poses, this article will help you in understanding and planning the important related aspects in advance. For learning fashion photography more elaborately, you should right away pick up the camera and start experimenting.