In the Studio, Fashion Catalogues and Advertising.

If you really want to see the garments, if you want to save on time, location fees, and the worry about whether it’s going to rain or shine on the day… Shooting Fashion in the studio has tremendous advantages. I have been doing a bit of Look-Book and Catalogue in the studio for a few designers of late at my new home-base, ‘The Photo Studio’ in Glebe.


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On one recent shoot we did over 50 looks on the white background (thirty shown here) and then chose five of the outfits and shot ‘Studio as Location’ to create a series of complimentary images with a much edgier feel. Our model Alex who has appeared on Australia’s Next Top Model was a real pleasure to work with and remained inventive and seemed tireless over a full day of shooting.



Our over 30’s market Catalogue shoot provides a nice contrast of style for a fairly similar studio setup, though this time with softer lighting and a little more fill light. There was some lovely layering, frills and detail stitching on Thai Silks which were beautifully rendered by the studio lighting set-up.



The white background digital shots shown here on the Fashion Blog are essentially straight from the camera in old school film style. Typically the only post/retouching work required is automated curves and sharpening (digital always needs some level of sharpening) adjustment. This makes a fast turnaround on most jobs a fairly simple task.



Kent Johnson
March 2009
www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au/
http://www.thephotostudio.com.au/

February Fashion Look-Book Sale.

To celebrate my joining The Photo Studio in Glebe I am offering a February Fashion Look-Book Sale.

Thanks to all those who took advantage of the special offer.

The Photo Studio is centrally located in Glebe just behind the Broadway Shopping Centre. With full commercial photography production facilities the Photo Studio is the perfect location for your next fashion Look-Book.

Here's what you get.

*A half day Studio Shoot (4 hours) at The Photo Studio.
*A DVD of all shots in JPEG format at 1400 x 2100 pixels at 300ppi.
*Standard post processing of one selection from each look at 2800 x 4200 at300 ppi resolution JPEG suitable for your print look book (or your printers specs) and also resized to your web-site specifications (allow for 48 hours turnaround on delivery of your selected images).

If it’s your first look-book here is a little background on what you can expect the shoot to entail.

Look-Books are typically shot at a fast and furious pace. As a result, professional models are recommended, outfit changes depending on complexity of the garments allow for shots to be taken every 5 to 10 minuets or, 6 to 12 shots per hour. Professional Hair & Make-Up (H&MU) will require an hour of time and is highly recommended to reduce the need for retouching images in post production.

A four hour session (including time for H&MU) will return approximately 18 more complex looks or up to 36 simple looks with very fast changes; think swimwear or lingerie! To keep things running smoothly you will need to have your fashion range well organised with any shoes and accessories required, freshly steamed or pressed.

You can book your Fashion Look-Book Shoot directly through The Photo Studio Sydney on 02 9571 9955.

If you have any queries you can call the Studio on  02 9571 9955 or Kent directly on 0433 796 863.

This Look-Book offer is strictly for February only. Book early to avoid missing out on this great offer to have your fashion range photographed at a very competitive price.

 

Editorial Fashion, Fashion Advertising & Model Folios Too.

Well I may have already blogged some of the shots from various shoots over the last few months but the Web site itself was looking a little tired and in need of some new images. For the last four days I have been working on editing, re-processing, re-sizing, re-ordering and finally replacing quite a lot of pictures on the Fashion Pages of the web site.



Its always a daunting task but one that is very worthwhile. Both the Fashion Editorial and Fashion Advertising galleries on the website have never looked better and are showing my vision for fashion photography much more clearly.

There are a couple of projects that have been in the planing stages for quite a while that are about to 'come off' so now is a good time to check out the web site before some of the old favorites disappear back into the archive.



The Beauty Photography gallery has had a bit of a make over with some lovely new images that have not been on the site or the Blog before. I have also added some of the Notorious; yes these shots do seem to be gaining some notoriety... Frankie's Nightclub Campsie shots. For those of you who are not aware, there is no Frankie's! So please, stop emailing me for the address :~)) Its an Art Project, a kind of myspace thing, but there will be more about that later. Frankie's lovers might like to check out the Modelling Portfolios pages; just because you can.



So if you have only been following the blog, please click the links and take a tour of the site, there is much more wonderful photography to be seen. And of course; the whole point of the exercise is to entice you to commission me to shoot your Fashion for you. Great shots make for great web-sites, catalogues, look-books, promotions and lots of sales!

Please call or email for a quote.

Kent Johnson

Sydney Australia 0433 796 863, kent@artcommunication.com.au

Urban Edge Fashion Advertising with Billie.

The new Australian fashion footwear label Billie Shoes have launched their web site with an on-line catalogue including background information about the shoe designs and company. I did the product shots for 'Billie' some months ago and we shot the images for the web site and promotional material in late June.



The brief for the shoot was 'young and edgey fashion' with both Urban and Beach locations coupled with some white background studio shots to boot (no pun intended)! We had six models on the shoot, three male and three female and shot about 32 setups on the day including the studio fashion. Our stylist did a wonderful job putting together about 50 outfits for the shoot which included triple shots, doubles and singles. The large(ish) number of models allowed us to shoot some while others changed making a seemingly impossible amount of shots quite do-able.



The client and the team were all very organised and the shoot went very smoothly with our little convoy of cars moving quite seamlessly from location to location. Final post work on the images was done by 'Billies' graphic designer at Maxco imparting a slightly nostalgic feel to the pictures and web site. Great job guys!



The shots were all done full length as lifestyle images for the site, advertising and promotional material. Its quite a tricky proposition keeping the focus on the shoes in all full length images but I think we did rather well with the footwear presenting as a distinctive key element in all the shots. I have decide to post the published 'web' images in this blog but I will post some of the 'originals' at a later date. You can view a couple of the white background studio shots on the previous White BG Blog.



Thanks to everyone who worked on the shoot and the models who did such a great job of delivering the laid back urban fashion feeling 'Billie' was after. You can visit the Billie Shoes web site here, Billie Shoes.

Urban Edge Fashion & Atomic Milano

Four models, three tee-shirt designs and the urban landscape.

That was our Atomic Milano fashion shoot in a nutshell. The shots were made as atmospherics for an online catalogue to sell the exclusive Atomic Milano Tee-Shirts. The Atomic coffee machine is a 50’s design classic and in the days before café style espresso machines became so affordable they are now seemingly in every kitchen; the Atomic was the stove top coffee machine of choice.



An edgy urban setting was chosen that allowed for some nice variations without having to move around too much. The client required enough variety to allow for rotation of images on the web site over time to keep the site looking fresh while staying on-theme so the images will all blend well with each other. We started out with an outdoor studio approach laying down the new 3.2 x 12 meter vinyl white background on the roadway. Our new white ‘floor’ blended nicely with the low graffiti smattered concrete wall creating a neutral space for the models to work in and highlight the Atomic Milano Tee-Shirt.



It was decided that the casting for the models should reflect the world-wide universal appeal of the Atomics design & coffee too. If my enthusiastic directing was anything to go by, I may well have had one coffee too many that morning. But the mood was infectious and the models picked up on the Atomic Milano coffee high and delivered great energy for the shoot. The approach to the photography and fashion seems highly suitable for youth market and surf wear; don’t hesitate to call me with any inquires about shooting your fashion line.



Kent Johnson, Sydney 2008.
kent@artcommunication.com.au

White Background Studio Photography.

White Background studio photography has long been a staple of high fashion magazines like Vogue, Harpers and Elle for very good reasons. Virtually nothing can compare to the clarity of high quality White Background (WB) studio shots. This longstanding studio technique was made famous by fashion masters such as Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Bill King and David Bailey.



But what makes WB so popular and why has it stood the test of time so well? Whether it be Fashion Editorial, Advertising or Catalogue, WB presents a blank canvas for the photographer to show their pictorial skill and the fashion in a multitude of ways. A plain white studio is no place for a photographer to experience a creative block; rather it’s a bit like a creative Olympics, a level playing field where the photographer gets to show their stuff!



Of course WB is not just great for high fashion it’s also very useful for catalogue work too. With fashion retail moving to the internet, modelling the clothing against a neutral backdrop like a WB allows for easy integration into the web sites online sales pages and makes updating the site while maintaining site consistency a simple proposition.



For more ambitious shoots a large studio area is required so the photographer has adequate space to model the lighting as desired. However a lot can be achieved in more humble studio set-ups and in these situations a little Photoshop clean up can go a long way in acquiring the desired result.



As a freelance assistant in Sydney in the late 80s I had the privilege of working with quite a few young photographers who had trained with some of the Masters mentioned above. Shooting White Background on film without the benefit of retouching is a great skill and being able to see and experience first hand the varied approaches to this staple of studio photography was a great education.



I hope you enjoy some of the simple examples of my WB work on this page. Please feel free to contact me about any fashion projects you may have in mind.
 
Kent Johnson,
Sydney Australia 2008
kent@artcommunication.com.au
0433 796 863

Fashion Catalogue & Advertising.

With two catalogue shoots coming out this month I can safely show a few shots and ramble on a little bit about the shoots. The first catalogue was a winter knitwear range for both men and women. We shot over two days in the warmth of mid December and I think we successfully managed to achieve a nice sunny Australian autumnal feel. Well autumnal minus the falling leaves. This was not really a problem though as we were shooting a pine forest type location. Think Southern Highlands; but only 10 minutes from the Sydney CBD!



The art director and client were very happy with the results and decided to add additional pages to the catalogue including double page shots for both men and women and some scenic shots of the location I had made some time earlier. To add to the editorial feel of the shots we ran some of the shots as classic B&W. I must say that even after five years of shooting digital (where all shots are initially colour) I still find it a little odd that I always have colour and black and white in the camera at all times thanks to digital post production.





The second catalogue was swimwear so it was a bonus that it was still summer. This catalogue was running late and turnaround time on the shooting and post production was urgent. We selected a harbour beach location next to some beautiful harbour parkland. We were looking to create more of a lyrical fashion feel and not so beach oriented. The parkland with glimpses of blue water through the trees was perfect. The location, although typically Sydney has a slightly exotic feeling; I made a point of keeping identifying landmarks out of the shots, we could have been almost anywhere on the Australian coast.



Of course when your close to deadline and you need a lovely sunny day it will rain! And rain it did right up to the night before we shot. On the day of the shoot we had beautiful clear sky and the soft light that you only get when all the pollution has been washed from the air. A perfect day for a perfect shoot. As budget was tight the location shots were limited to a selection of swimsuits from the range, all the swimsuits were shot the following day in the studio against a white background 'look-book' style. These swimsuits also included children's and plus size swimmers.