When the Handbag is the Star!

I received a call about a job from Jennifer Disotell from Public Persona, a high-end advertising, PR and marketing agency which exclusively handles only fashion design clients. Jennifer and I go back a few years;  we’ve worked together on everything from designing her website to working together on look books and line sheets. I like Jennifer’s integrity and honesty. She shoots straight from the hip! She runs her agency with two other women, her sister Nicole Disotell and their creative director, Melissa Castro. Together they are like the Charlie’s Angels of fashion advertising and promotion. Seriously, these girls are hot, talented, intelligent and on top of their game! Okay, so the assignment was to update the MeChar Handbags website and take photographs for ads to be placed in Elle Accessories and WWD. If you don’t know what WWD is by now, stop reading this post, click on that link and go educate thyself. It is the absolute authority of ALL things fashion industry! As well as web presence and editorial advertising, some of the shots were also going to be made into posters for trade shows and showrooms. The first step after her initial phone call was to set up a 3 way call with the client, Charmaine Ho, owner and designer of MeChar. We needed to all get on the same page as far as what Charmaine wanted to see in the final images. Charmaine had a great idea: a story about a girl getting made up and dressed to go out and meet a hot chick and bring her back to her hotel for some fun! Yeah! Pretty far out idea and I was all over it like an old suit! Right up my alley, as they say! When we got off the conference call, I got to work and put together a “mood board”. It’s like a story board. It’s a series of images that depict the kind of look and feel I think the shoot should have. From styling to lighting to location to type of model, it’s the theme and the look that I think the client would like to see. It’s like a visual articulation of what we talked about. Does that make sense?

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(4.93 stars, 15 ratings)

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So here it is…what you’ve all been waiting for; no hoax, no blurring, no quick, easy, fast, one-action techniques from your friends at ThePhotoshopGuru .com. Just you sitting in your chair, or on your couch, or in your bed, (the way I like to do it) with your eyes. Let me introduce myself… My name is David Skyler, and if you haven’t heard by now I’m the full time in-house retouch artist/graphic designer/all around tech-geek for Melissa Rodwell and of course her loving husband and business partner. Here are some retouching tips that might lead you in the right direction and help you make your fashion photographs much stronger.

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(4.78 stars, 27 ratings)

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Helpful Steps to Capture that Great Fashion Moment!

Today I want to talk about some tips that will help you give your photos that WOW factor!

The point in any image making process is to engage your viewer. Keeping these 10 Steps in mind when you’re on your next fashion photo shoot will help you do just that: Engage Your Viewer! In the comment section below, why don’t you add a tip for the other readers! And I would like to know too, what tip do you have under your sleeve to make more powerful fashion photographs?

1. Engage the model: Use eye contact. Eye contact directly into the camera is powerfully engaging. It strongly connects the model with the viewer of the image.

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(4.69 stars, 16 ratings)

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Suburban Occult, Elinchrom, and Steven Meisel

David and I recently celebrated the 1 year anniversary of The Fashion Photography Blog! We both want to extend a very warm thank you to all of our readers and subscribers!! I think we’re both a little more than suprised that the blog has done as well as it has in such a short time and continues to grow and gain popularity. But it’s you, the reader, that has made this possible and we’re very grateful to all of you who have been so loyal and enthusiastic towards this blog. We have more things planned for the blog in the coming year including a store where I’ll list books and DVD’s that I recommend and tutorials we offer, plus the seminars that we’re planning on doing every other month in 2010! We’re looking forward to an exciting year ahead of us, so stay tuned!

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(4.9 stars, 21 ratings)

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Moulin Rouge!

I’ve been wanting to post about this shoot since January and I’m just now able to, finally! I did this shoot for a magazine back in January and I believe the magazine has since closed it’s doors. Hey, it happens sometimes. The economy is rough right now, and magazines are taking a huge hit! So no worries, I thought, at least I will have a beautiful shoot for my book and I’ll keep submitting it to other magazines! That’s when Brandon Oelling stepped in and my shoot landed 3 covers for the Chicago based The Printedblog Magazine! Brandon Oelling owns and operates the kick ass company X-equals. X=’s full service digital studio and consultancy continues to set the mark for innovative photography, post-production, and technical services for the fashion, music, and lifestyle brands industries. I blogged about them when they ran an interview with me a few months ago. You can check out that interview again here! I strongly urge my readers to check out X=’s site and blog. They offer up to date digital solutions to photographers’ working in all mediums and industries. Whether you’re needing help with your digital workflow or backing up your database, they offer immediate solutions without killing your bank account. And in today’s iffy economy, that’s a huge plus. Brandon’s blog, http://x-equals.com/blog/ is also great! He breaks down lightroom so easily, giving us no-nonsense help on understanding it. I know I’ve learned a lot of great tips from just reading his blog. PLUS, his blog is chock full of interesting interviews! We are big fans of Brandon Oelling over here and his X= is SO important to photographers in this digital age! I’ve admitted before that post-production is something I’ve never really embraced as far as learning every single thing I have needed to know to keep my workflow running smoothly. People like Brandon are the perfect solution to photographers like myself who would rather  go to a professional for their digital workflow and processing. Hey, I used to go to the lab! Now I just go to a virtual lab!

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(4.55 stars, 11 ratings)

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