How to take beautiful fashion photos?

Many photographers like to take pictures outdoors because it doesn't require much investment, such as studio space and lighting equipment. Although it looks easy, there are several things you need to know in advance when shooting outdoors.

You can have beautiful models, expensive cameras and lenses, but you still can't achieve professional results. You don't need to worry, because the suggestions mentioned below will help you significantly improve the effect in the next outdoor fashion photo shoot.

1. Observe the shooting position in advance.

Before planning a photo shoot, the shooting location is one of the first things you should consider. Observe the position at least once before shooting, so as not to waste a day while shooting. If you follow this practice, you will certainly save a lot of time.

Step 2 choose the right time

After you decide where to shoot fashion photography, we need to make sure that you choose the right time to get the results you want. There is no fixed shooting time, which depends on the weather and how you use the surrounding light.

Try to avoid the time when the sun reaches its peak, because this will produce a hard shadow on the model surface. The safest time for outdoor shooting is a few hours after sunrise or before sunset. On cloudy days, the light will be softer and the contrast of the background will decrease (depending on the background), but it all depends on your choice. If you want to shoot with ambient light, cloudy days will suit you.

Step 3 choose the right background

It is important to spend some time thinking about the background of the photo. You can see a beautiful place and start taking pictures with your camera, without even imagining whether the background will create or destroy your photos.

You need to think, imagine, and then take pictures accordingly to make sure that the color of the background doesn't match the color of the clothes. The background color should not affect the model, which is the theme of your photo.

4. Try to combine the ambient light with the flash.

You can use the sun as the light source to illuminate the object, and then put a flash behind the model to produce the effect of glowing face and hair. Or it can be illuminated by sunlight, and the flash is the main light source, which can control the shadow on the face.

5. Create comfort for the model.

Expressions and body language models are key components of fashion photography. You need to make sure that your model feels comfortable when shooting outdoors, as well as other people who work with you in the scene. If you are shooting an unprofessional model or just starting your career, as a photographer, you should do everything possible to make him/her feel comfortable.

You can do this by constantly interacting with your model, praising him/her when he/she poses, and helping them become confident. You should tell your model whether his/her posture is correct, and you should guide and make full use of the shooting while being polite and friendly.

6. Set the best exposure of the camera.

Never take such photos, because the exposure is easy to adjust after processing. If you do this, you may lose some details in the photo, depending on the camera you use.

If you adjust the exposure of underexposed photos, please remember that noise may appear. Similarly, if you adjust the exposure of overexposed photos, you can't keep as many details in the exposure as correctly exposed photos.

In order to ensure the correct exposure of photos when shooting, you should check the histogram in the camera.

7. shoot in RAW format

Never be afraid to shoot in RAW format. Such a file will certainly take up a lot of memory, but it's worth it. RAW format can record more information than JPEG format, which is helpful for post-processing to modify the image.

Another advantage of the RAW format is that it contains the maximum dynamic range available to the camera and can be used to restore overexposed or underexposed images during processing, as described in the previous paragraph. You can also edit the same RAW file many times without losing any details. Although the quality of JPEG files will decrease every time you edit an image.

As a photographer, you need to plan and take photos in order to get the best effect for your model. Starting from choosing the right place at the right time of day, your task also includes planning things in advance to save time and energy. Try to leave your comfort zone by adding more light sources (such as flashlights or flashlights) to help you get more professional results.