As a Portland Fashion Photographer, I work with a local designers at a lot of levels–some are established designers who know what they want, and others are just starting out. Your first professional photoshoot can feel overwhelming at first, but it doesn’t have to be! This is the first part of a series of blogs, designed to help you get all of your ducks in a row, so your fashion or product photoshoot goes smoothly.
STEP ONE: Inspiration!
Chances are, you’ll be happier with your photoshoot results when you know what you want going in, and the first piece of that is inspiration! The mood you create with your photos is what’s going to create that awesome-tacular first impression, so take some time to gather things that inspire your work.
Get back to your roots: what inspired your collection?
You don’t always have to go far to find inspiration–when you created your collection, you had a vision in your head. You might have torn pages from a recent issue of Vogue or Nylon, or even created an inspiration board, to keep you centered while you designed your garments or jewelry, or created your branding. Go back to that starting point, and see what’s there! Save those magazine pages and inspiration boards, and share them with your photographer. The images that inspired your collection or your branding can also guide your shoot.
Make a virtual inspiration board!
Photography inspiration is now as easy as a virtual pin: Pinterest is more than just Another Way To Waste Time on Social Media, it’s a great way to pull together images that speak to you. You can follow other users who have a similar style to yours, or just search by categories, and when you find something you like, Pin it. You can also pin things that you find on sites outside of Pinterest: just copy the link and Pinterest will help you find the image you want to remember.
You can create Secret Boards that only you can see, and even share boards with your styling team, so everyone is on the same page. Pinterest is quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to plan photoshoots with my clients–just beware of inevitable mouth-watering pictures of food you can’t have. 😉
Take your search for inspiration into the real world!
You never know when you’ll see something inspirational while you’re out and about, so why struggle to remember the details of it? Reach for your phone and take a snapshot of it! Get a picture of the amazing outfit you saw on the street, or the alleyway mural you stumbled upon, and save it for later, and share it with your styling team. Tell them about how it inspired you.
Or, even better, you can save photos, words, web sites, and random ideas all in one place. Evernote is an app that lets you save pictures, write yourself notes, save web links, etc., AND you can tag the things you save, and search them with keywords or dates. You know what’s better than being inspired? Being inspired AND organized.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Photoshoot Planner series: next, I’ll be talking about choosing your photoshoot team. I’ll even be including some fun planner worksheets for you to play with! Or, if you want some personalized guidance with planning your photoshoot session, book one of my Portland fashion photography sessions, and I’ll be there to support you from start to finish!
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