Inside and Out

Shooting sets in the studio was great fun. My working life is currently based around shooting luxury property in “real-estate” stylee, with speed and cost being the main issues for all my clients. This type of shooting is a different matter – I would pick up any gear from the client, take it back to the studio, and follow a rough brief to produce rich imagery for websites/brochures etc. The following frames were shot on one particular day for those purposes. First things first – the styling. I could have done this myself, but in the hands of a skilled clothes and VM stylist, things just get better and easier. If you’ve tried to get a shirt inside a jumper and fold it without making it look like a dogs dinner, then you’ll know what I mean. Use a pro. The Wellington shot was done by turning a tabletop on it’s side, getting out into the autumn and collecting leaves, arranging them accordingly (not as easy as it sounds actually), and placing the boots in position. Lighting was

Although my days of shooting thousands of items of clothes are in the past, I still recall the panic of getting 20 boxes of wrapped, unpressed garments of all shapes and sizes at 2pm on a friday afternoon, with a request that they be returned to the source the following morning. That meant destroying somebody’s weekend plans by ringing them with a request to get in to work as quickly as possible, preparing the studio for the coming onslaught, creating three workspaces with lights, camera equipment, scrims, diffusers, overhead soft boxes, & giant parabolic reflectors. The scoop would need quickly painted, greyboards positioned, and adequate styling space made available. Twenty mannequins were spruced up and repaired, coffee bought, pizza place put on standby, Macs rebooted, batteries charged, and wife & children advised of my absence for the next couple of days. This was the reality of fashion photography at the sharp end. Here are some of the essential tools: A cheap brush