How to Become a Fashion Photographer
If you have a creative eye for composing images, a love of fashion and have access to the best in camera equipment, there are plenty of entry level opportunities that will allow you to take the first step in becoming a professional fashion photographer.
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Things You'll Need
- Excellent photography skills
- Excellent composition skills
- High-end camera
- Computer
- Internet connection
- Photo editing software
- Printer
- Photo paper
- Portfolio
- Business cards
Instructions
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Start building a professional portfolio of your work by taking photographs that you feel best reflect your personal thematic style (edgy, vintage, classic). Recruit friends to be your models. Even if they're just wearing outfits from their own closets, the objective of the portfolio is to show off your creativity in posing them against different backgrounds, using lights and filters, experimenting with angles and incorporating props.
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Choose 15 to 20 of your best shots for presentation. These can be color or black and white and either reproduced as 8x10 glossy prints or 4x5 transparencies. Since they are likely to be handled a lot, you may want to put them in transparent sleeves.
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Assemble 6 to 10 copies of your portfolio material. The reason is that if you are asked to leave a portfolio behind with a prospective client who wants to hire you, you need to have enough extras on hand to keep in circulation.
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Build a professional website. In addition to the hard-copy portfolios you're making, it's important to have a website that prospective clients can access anytime. Display the fashion images that are in your portfolio as well as additional shots. Post information about your background along with the fees you charge for your photography services.
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Design business cards that will direct prospective clients to your website. If you use an on-line print shop company such as VistaPrint, consider having matching postcards made at the same time. Postcards are an economical marketing tool that can either be mailed out to prospective clients or left in the reception areas at fashion-related businesses.
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Schedule appointments to meet with the marketing directors of local fashion boutiques. Your chances of doing a photo shoot for them for their local advertising is much higher than if you try to start out by going to a major retail chain. Boutiques that offer something unique for their patrons will be interested in seeing your portfolio, especially if it offers a unique slant that will show well in newspaper ads, mailers to their customers, and catalogues.
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Establish friendships with account executives at local advertising agencies. The higher you go up the food chain in fashion merchandising, the more likely that high-end shops are using ad agencies to hire photographers, models, and develop their media campaigns for them.
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Submit samples of your work to the photo editors at fashion magazines. While assignments are hard to come by, a unique perspective that challenges traditional boundaries will get you noticed. Hence, the importance of defining what separates you from the competition (i.e., all of your images place the models in poses reminiscent of famous paintings or scenes from classic movies).
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Network with modeling agencies. Not only are the agencies looking to recruit new faces to the fold through glamorous advertising pitches but they are also going to have relationships with the fashion houses that hire models for print and runway work.
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Contact mail-order catalogues, direct them to your on-line portfolio, and query how you can become part of their photography pool.
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Contact fashion manufacturers. Likewise, pay attention to local newspaper stories about individuals in your community who are launching new businesses that relate to the fashion industry.
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Explore the possibility of opening your own studio or renting space at an existing studio or gallery.
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Join local photography groups for the purpose of networking, getting constructive feedback, and/or co-sharing advertising expenses. Continue to hone your craft by taking advanced classes and subscribing to fashion industry publications. The latter is essential because you need to know what the latest trends are in order to converse intelligently with photo editors and brainstorm unique slants to show off the clothes, shoes, or jewelry.
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Engage the services of a professional agent to help you get fashion photography assignments.
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Tips & Warnings
If your friends are shy about being your practice models for your portfolio, you can probably recruit actors by posting notices on theater department bulletin boards. Likewise, you can try making friends with the staff of local modeling agencies. Many of the students enrolled are trying just as hard to establish their own portfolios and may be amenable to helping you if you agree to provide them with copies of the shots you take.
Many fashion photographers use 1/2 inch or 1 inch 3-ring binders for their portfolios so that they can regularly update their material. Another possibility you may want to explore is to have your showcase images reproduced in a soft or hard bound book. Innovative companies such as My Publisher allow you to create professional looking photo books with captions and offer a discount for volume orders.
Utilize all the magic tricks inherent in photo software editing packages in order to make every shot the best it can be. With these nifty tools, you can manipulate the color, do custom cropping, flip images, and even put your models against an exotic foreign background without ever leaving the studio.
Be sure to get photo release forms for every model whose picture you take. The release form needs to specify exactly how the shots are going to be used. If you take pictures of anyone under the age of 18, the release form will need to be signed by a parent or guardian.
Never invite a model to your home. Meetings should always take place in a studio, in an office or on location. (In this day and age, it's as much for the models' protection and reputation as it is yours.)
