For fashion shootings special scenes are created, either in the studio or outdoors. Clients need images for their magazines, advertisings or product catalogs. Time is alway short and the set must be coordinated well. In case of outdoor shootings, perfect lighting conditions are sometimes only available for a few moments.
Fashion Shooting for Istituto Marangoni
I started working with Istituto Marangoni in Shanghai. Istituto Marangoni is operation in major fashion locations world wide and they are rated amongst the 10 best fashion schools in the world. This is very challenging but at the same time also very rewarding.
One of the first projects, I did with them, was a model shooting for PINKO. I was asked to provide the studio equipment and set up the lighting according to the different looks. Furthermore I was acting as the second photographer. It was a great experience for me to share all my experience for this project, especially as there wer some demanding requirements. For the white background I used a 80cm beauty dish as a main light and a 180cm parabolic reflector as a fill light. Two additional flashes with small reflectors and gels were used to add yellow and blue color to the front and back.
Some of the scenes were done on location at the school and also outside.
Due to unfavorable natural light, I also used a ring flash. Although this is a very old style equipment, I am always pleased to see the results. If the flash is used carefully, it produces nice shadows and somehow provide a kind of fancy look.
Fashion Shooting for Celf identity
Celf identity is a young Shanghai brand, managed by the two designers Cherish Bai and Allen Liu. Cherrish studied at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and already worked for Phillip Lim and Ellie Tahari. Allen studied at the Billy Blue College of Design in Sidney and has working expereience with Gucci and Burberry.
We did a shooting with some of their latest designs and made a short video of the session.
Celf identity’s brand image (text by Celf identity):
Celf Identity, a women’s wear brand, was founded in 2018 by two post-90s overseas returnees. Celf comes from Self. The reason of the C is because of the two founders both have the letter in their names. Secondly, we want to make real “Created in China”, not just “Made in China”. The name Celf Identity is also a summary of our brand style: independent, unique and narcissistic. At the same time, we also hope that more and more women can ignore other people’s opinions, pay more attention to their real habbits and needs, live their own real life.
Using a wind machine always add a nice dynamic to the image. It helps to add volume to the hair and let the garment fly
More from Celf identity:
Celf Identity is a long-planned escape from the stereotypical concrete jungle and criticism from the others, is a journey to find the true self. We advocate sexless-sexy, which is an independent and self-confident sexuality， beauty lies in the inner, Instead of the surface. Celf Identity Girls is a group of women who don’t care what others say, they love themselves from the bottom of their hearts and accept all of them. They are independent and confident, they live the way they love to.
Fashion: Caroline Charles Vintage Hat
I recently went to London, the city which still let’s you feel the the style of the Sixties and Seventies at every corner. There are quarters like Shoreditch, where vintage clothes shops line up, more than in every other city, that I know. So, what is more tempting than just browsing the shops to find anything suitable for one of the next fashion photo shootings.
Actually, I found this hat from Caroline Charles, who is a famous British designer, at one of the stalls of an underground vintage mall. She started her label in 1963, when she was 21 years old. Among her customers were Mick Jagger, Ringo Star, Marianne Faithful, Lady Diana and now also me!
Getting home with my prey, I looked for a suitable model and found MJ from Korea. Supporting the nice texture of the hat, I decided to do most of the images in black and white.
Alternative Fashion – Rice Paper Top
I am always excited about shooting fashion. And doing a fashion shoot is even more fun, if there is a special garment and a professional model like Kim. For this shooting we had a top made from rice paper.
This was solely made for the shooting as naturally the material is not strong enough to be seriously worn outside a studio environment. Although the rice paper was reinforced with some adhesive film, it still would not survive.
Kim is the perfect model for this garment. Her elegant look and round hair style matches very well with the rice paper dress. For the light setting we selected some harder shadows to better show the natural wrinkles of the paper.
For a more futuristic look we used an optical reflector with a mask and a yellow filter. With that we could project focussed yellow dots of different sizes onto the garment.
Alternative Fashion – Bubble Foil Garment
If a garment is just made for a photo shooting, one can use very uncommon materials. For this shooting Star is wearing a bubble foil jacket over her t-shit. The wide collar is stabilized with wire and could easily be adjusted to the desired shape.
Bubble foil reflects the flash lights nicely but to make it even more interesting, for this shooting blue filters were used. The back ground lighting was done with two strip lights with grids for the sides to add a little structure and a main flash with a blue filter.
Star’s blond colored hair style blends nicely into the picture, reflecting the blue flash light.
Towards the end of the shooting the models switched and also Kim was doing some shoots with the bubble foil dress on.
