Visual Examples to Explain the Difference
So as you might suspect, I get a fair share of emails from my blog readers. I think one of the most frequently asked question is: what is the difference between editorial fashion and advertising/commercial fashion. Quite simply, as most of you know, editorial is what would be shown in a magazine. Advertising is selling a product or brand. Advertising tends to look cleaner, using simple lighting to really show off the clothing or make up. Editorial sells more of the mood and the situation the clothing would be worn in. There are less “rules” per se in editorial fashion photography because it’s a bit looser. “But what about advertising campaigns like Gucci or Prada?” one might ask. And, well, you are right! What about them?? The lighting is definitely not simple, nor the sets or the looks. They’re pretty “grand” ad campaigns. But look at J Crew. Simple lighting, clean backgrounds, and you really see the clothes. Gucci and Prada are labels known for their sexy, edgy and rather expensive clothing. J Crew sells to everyone. But Gucci sells to those who are privileged enough (or rich enough) to afford their clothes. So their campaigns depict that “other worldly” sensibility.
And does this apply to beauty campaigns. Yes, absolutely. MAC has a whole different branding tactic than say Maybelline or Noxema. Or Ponds. They both run ads and they’re both considered advertising beauty but the looks differ greatly. MAC shows red eye make up with a purple tinted lip liner and blue-red lipstick on a punk girl with an edgy light. Ponds? No way. Clean skin, pure light, fresh, young, vibrant. Those are words to describe their ads.
But see, here I am explaining the differences and even as I write this, I already know some of the questions that will come into my inbox. So what better way to describe something than to show you. Let me show you two examples from a beauty shoot I did recently. The first shot is obviously a clean and simple beauty shot. The model has very little make up on, she’s young and wide eyed, she has great skin, a dewy complexion, you look at this girl and you want that skin! There’s even a water pattern that we photoshopped in to drive home the idea of hydration.
When I was casting for this shoot, my natural inclination was to look for new faces. Why? Well, for the obvious reason being that new faces are young girls and young girls normally have pretty good skin. When I shoot beauty, the skin is so important. But this isn’t a hard and fast rule about new faces. I shot a girl the other day who was 19 and looked close to 30. The next day I shot a girl who is 27 and looks 19. It isn’t fair for me to say that all young girls have great skin, but the odds are there. At any rate, after searching and searching, Ford sent over polaroids of a girl named Amy and I booked her that instant. She arrived on set and announced this was her 3rd shoot, ever. In her whole life! She was brand new! She is 18 years old and has PERFECT SKIN. The kind of skin that’s appears translucent that it sort of glows! We set about to do the shoot we were hired for which was a clean beauty ad. I used an Elinchrome Octa 74-Inch to light the overall face, placed pretty much right in front of her and then I placed a Profoto beauty dish with a grid on a boom directly over her face. The beauty dish created the dynamic lighting that you all know I love to use but the Elinchrome filled in the shadows that weren’t needed on this shot. So, in other words, I sort of created the drama with my dish and softened the whole lighting with the Octa. Is this making sense?
Then, when I was finished shooting what needed to be shot, I mixed the whole thing up. She went back to hair and make up and out came the black eyeliner and the hair spray. We had a little time left to play, so we got creative. We put Amy in a simple black taffeta dress, wrapped her hair in saran wrap and darkened her make up…quite a bit! She didn’t look like the same girl who walked into the studio a few hours earlier! But here’s the catch: The only thing I did, on my end, to change the look and feel of the shoot and to obviously compliment the extreme make up and hair, was to change one light. I kept the Elinchrome octabox right where we had it before when we were shooting clean. What did I change, then? I took the beauty dish off the boom, and I had my assistant stand on an apple box and hold the boom to the far left of Amy, aiming it directly on her left side and I moved around to catch the light at the perfect angle. We didn’t change the power, we didn’t change the modifiers, we just moved one light.
And there you have two examples of clean advertising beauty and editorial beauty. Or….the second shot could be used for advertising beauty but not for Ponds anymore! More for Sebastian or Rimmel. Or even a perfume ad. But certainly not Biotherm, Clairol, etc.
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Michelle Moore
December 15, 2009Bravo
Excellent post, and gorgeous beauty images!!
ricky
December 15, 2009love this blog, thanks for the mental and visual orgasm, opened my eyes a bit more… thank you!
Maria~
December 15, 2009Very Informative as always…
Happy U are Happy : )
xox
Thank You Melissa~
Ryuuzaki + Julio
December 15, 2009Your blog is a Bible of Fashion photography! I take every word you write to the heart. Thank you so much Melissa for doing this for us.
Ryu
AntonioMarcus
December 15, 2009Thanks so much for this!
Carmen Chan
December 15, 2009Hey Melissa,
So glad to hear you found someone who is working out so well with you and David!
saw a couple new test on your site too, they look great!
admin
December 15, 2009Hey Carmen, You were also a great intern and a hard one to beat! Thanks for the well wishes. I heard you assisted a photographer on Saturday, I ran into Kelvin yesterday! You will do very well. I’m sure of it. xoxo
Greg
December 15, 2009just want to say how much i love coming to your blog Melisa. i’m so over Kelby/McNally/Grimes/… pushing their crap relentlessly…
you just give and give.
5 STARS!!!
Robert McCadden
December 15, 2009Excellent post; this is why I love the blog. None of that cookie cutter lighting BS you see all over the web. Creative lighting presented in a way that really gets those gears grinding. Very insightfull as always.
Robert
Phat Photographer
December 15, 2009The article is as clean and well executed as your photography. Thanks.
Josh Brown
December 15, 2009Great post Melissa! Really helpful in clarifying something that is rather ambiguous and ill-defined.
I think your right when you say “editorial sells more of the mood and the situation the clothing would be worn in”. I’ve always thought advertising is more focused on selling a particular product/line, where as editorial is more of a branding exercise, promoting values/ideals/lifestyles associated with that brand.
Kind of like the difference between clothes and fashion if that makes sense. If not, never mind
I think it’s something that’s always going to be a little blurry because in the end, they’re both about selling clothes.
Roger Mann
December 16, 2009Creativity, good sense, technical knowhow, market savvy; now where else are we going to get all that? When you’re working on a metaphorical desert island as I am this is gold dust. Personal reactions from ‘yeah I knew that’ through to ‘this I must try’ and everything in-between are a great help when the stress of a shoot starts to drain creative resources.
As for the client expectations, isn’t it good that they are all mostly different? This is what keeps us on our toes.
I’m glad you got the helper you needed and I’m pretty sure you won’t be having a white Christmas over there in paradise.
Mark Owen
December 16, 2009Very enlightening as always. Thank you so much for always being so genererous and sharing.
Skip Gue
December 16, 2009Thank you Mellisa
These terms in fashion and editorial do cross over
and become confusing at times!
Jim Greckell
December 17, 2009WONDERFUL ARTICLE! Thank you for explaining the differences between the two! I always find all of your articles so valuable and much more informative than most of the stuff that is out there!
Ashley Quentin
December 17, 2009Your new assistant looks like hes about to kick that bull horned demons ass !
Crytal
December 17, 2009Love your new beauty images! Thanks melissa
Bryan
December 18, 2009This is a great explanation on the differences between editorial and commercial work. Thank you for your insight!
Ryan C. VanWilliams
December 19, 2009Awesome read!
Ivan
December 20, 2009Very nice photos. Good post!
Dmitri Markine
December 21, 2009These are all great images! I agree with you thought, this is absolutely one of the excellent idea.
Elnora Augustan
December 21, 2009The truly amazing picks! As i always, i wonder how you do it always!
Sam Diener
December 22, 2009I really like the images. I have to be honest, I REALLY love the lighting and the shadows. I am an amateur photographer myself, and I aspire to reach this level!
Bill
December 22, 2009Great site, loads of good stuff
Keep it up
Morris
December 23, 2009I think editorial fashion is more fair. But it’s only my opinion. Nice photos
kemal
December 23, 2009nice photos! I like this blog
ImageDave
December 24, 2009Love the photos, and glad I found your blog. Thanks!
Alishba
December 24, 2009Such a nice post and very good blog i already visit many times before and every time i find some new and unique stuff on your site thanks for sharing.
rahul
December 24, 2009awesome.
Surya
December 24, 2009Very informative article, Thank you!
Bernard
December 24, 2009Amazing post!!! I grow and learn every time I read it!
Knjiga
December 25, 2009My young daughter want to be in fashion photography, when I see this post, my daughter need to be in fashion photography!
Edwin
December 25, 2009Wow, those are really nice pictures I must say!
Quang
December 25, 2009Great example as always.
Love your style Melissa
Happy Holidays!
Peter Duke
December 26, 2009Conde Nast Editorial Director Alexander Lieberman once told my friend, Wayne Maser, that “a great fashion photograph isn’t about hair or lighting or makeup or locations or models or clothes, it’s about creating a picture of a woman, that the woman LOOKING AT THE PICTURE, wants to be.” The woman that an advertiser caters too, is self-referential, she thinks of herself that way. The woman portrayed in editorial is aspirational, a wish, a dream, an image where disbelief is suspended…
Michael Clements
December 26, 2009Another great post Melissa. Keep up the great work. Always an inspiration!
Brian Frænde
December 28, 2009Hey Melissa.
Great article. Myself, i have allways thought of Editorial as where you can sort of play with a story and a theme – a lot like how you describe it, more like playing with feelings. And the advertising is about presenting the product (clothing and such).
Best wishes
Brian Frænde
Becky Colley
December 30, 2009Every post you write has the perfect mixture of explaining things in simple terms so that beginners like me understand, yet without ever being patronising – thank you so much for another informative post and for sharing your wisdom with us!
Jaymer Delapena
December 30, 2009Hey Melissa, haven’t heard from you in awhile. I was wrestling with this old adage of fashion vs editorial vs. glamour vs. lifestyle. This post definitely answered that question. Thanks for the post. Also checked out the new site, lovin it.
SilberStudios
January 7, 2010Great post! not only did you explain, but you also showed how to shoot each one respectively. Really great approach to a common question. keep up the good posts.
Filip Zamorsky
January 10, 2010Thank you, Melissa, for this post … great work! I am new here but I am sure I will be back often
Raydene Salinas
January 16, 2010This is an excellent post, very simple and to the point. I love the shots that you did of Amy and how you explained your lighting! This is one of my favorite blogs to follow
Ajani Truth
January 20, 2010Great article Sometimes even for me I have a hard time explaining the difference to others. I guess like you said there are no hard fast rules but you gave good guidelines and explained it well.
Thanks!!!
~~Ajani Truth
Lucy
January 21, 2010love the Prada one, the handbag looks very nice
jon stars
January 21, 2010i love lazer! tyler is the man!!!
daniel jenkins
January 23, 2010Great read. As lines get blurred from constantly learning and pushing the envelope, your article put things back into perspective for me. Keep up the great work!
Daniel
Shem Omana
January 28, 2010great post..i learned a lot.. thumbs up!!
Canvas Art
February 3, 2010Wow. These images are great. Melissa you are doing wonderful job.
David
February 5, 2010Good post. Your explanations are spot on.
photorelive
February 6, 2010i really love this blog , and the fashion galleries
Tony Armstrong
February 16, 2010Excellent, excellent, excellent post. The clearest description of the differences between Editorial Fashion and Advertising Fashion. Well done, indeed. Thank you for your effort in delineating the differences!!! Cheers!
Photographer
February 18, 2010Lot’s of rules on what is editorial and what is advertising. And they are often being broken. In the end, it’s how the art director and the photographer see it.
Bratby
February 19, 2010im in sponge mode, give me more….
Kirk Fuson
March 10, 2010This is brilliant! I think “photographer’s” comment is spot on. “In the end, it’s how the art director and the photographer see it”. This could easily turn into a coffee table book.
uRetouch
April 13, 2010Lovely way to explain anything is through sample images. Thanks for clearing that evergreen question – we in India always get confused over the difference between the two.
punita
May 14, 2010thank you so much for these blogs. i just have one question how do you make the skin glow like in the L’oreal ad?
Parfumweblog.nl
June 1, 2010Well yeah… It’s not very new to me that these brands always cheer their products up… But I must admit, I’m really jealous at the girls with these look… I keep on trying giving my own face that look too! haha! Nice Post
albu mihai
October 26, 2010Hi! Excelent post, this is tge first time i am visiting your blog looking for some “white skin fashion”, thank you for this post and also you do an excellent work as a pro photographer, greets,
Mihai
Chris
November 8, 2010Thanks, excellent examples!
Quick question, what’s the power ratio b/w the softbox and the BD. Is it 2:1?
Cheers.
Chris
Shaun Brann
November 12, 2010Great post mate.
professional photographer
November 12, 2011Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I in finding It truly helpful & it helped me out a lot. I’m hoping to provide something back and aid others like you aided me.
John
September 16, 2012Thanks you for the post… it is great to visualize the comparison.
tw24.pl
April 10, 2013Aw, this was a really nice post. Spending some time and actual effort to
produce a top notch article… but what can I say… I put things off a
lot and don’t seem to get nearly anything done.