One of the great things for models is they get to play “dress up”, when working in various shoots. As a photographer, I am always on the lookout for interesting clothing and accessories to shoot with. Take for example the middle photo of Sarah. I had been searching for early sixties style clothing to work with as I like the sophistication that Jacqueline Kennedy brought to that era with her clothing style. Hitting eBay, I slowly started gathering lots of clothing from that era and it is quite inexpensive. Everything in that photo maybe amounted to $30 and the great thing is I can resell it on eBay since it is vintage wear and still retains some value. It also allows me to create a photo that doesn’t look the same as every other photographer is shooting as far as styling.

As Sarah and I were shooting in downtown Seattle by Pioneer Square, Tina, the owner of Synapse 206 asked if we wanted to shoot with some of her great clothing and of course we agreed. Her store features one of a kind designs and it was great to experiment with the various styles, especially that blue dress in the first image. We basically had the run of the store and Tina was a great help in picking out styles for us to match with various accessories. Though I wasn’t too hot on the hat in the third image, I went with it.

Now it’s not every time you can luck out like we did and don’t go running down to Tina’s shop expecting to have the same opportunity. So, having said that, a Photographer needs to be prepared. You can’t just show up with a camera, a few reflectors and expect to have a good shoot. You need to do your homework, figuring out what and where you are going to work. You have to bring jewelry, scarves, hats, etc. to make a difference in a shoot. I go to Claire’s and check out their sales all the time. Bracelets and necklaces go for a dollar or two and if it breaks or you lose it, no big deal. But, it makes a huge difference. Check out my swimsuit shots and you’ll see most of my images are shot using jewelry. Also more importantly, you have to have a good makeup artist. It took me a while to figure this part out, but after doing a few shoots where I relied on the model to do her own makeup, well let’s just say it is better to hire a professional.With Sarah I used the talented Susanne Crawford, one of the best in the Seattle area.

One other thing to note, you have to pay attention to your backgrounds when shooting. If there are lots of distractions, then move your stops to f5.6 or lower to blur the backgrounds. You also have to compliment the clothing with contrasting or like locations. Take for example the first image of Sarah in the blue dress, the background is yellow, so it helps bring out the blues and creates a nice contrast.  The middle image has a brick background using earth tones to match the jacket and the final image has greens to match the hat and grays to compliment the jacket. I think backgrounds are probably the one detail that photographers seem to miss when shooting and is probably the second most important detail next to styling for me.

So the bottom line, use a great makeup artist, learn to style and add details, choose your backgrounds for the best impact.