Do you run an online clothing store? Do you want to grow your sales significantly and improve your profits? To do so, you need to learn the secrets of good clothing photography. The right images play a pivotal role in the success of any player in the fashion industry. The right images enable designers, brands, retailers, and other players are into the clothing business to showcase their products. You need to do so in a compelling and visually appealing way.
A key thing to understand is that clothing photography is much more than pointing a camera at your merchandise and clicking the shutter button. It involves meticulous planning, and crafting a great shooting style. It means understanding different techniques to get the best shots and the best images of your clothing stock. Also, it ensures images impact the target audience.
In this blog post, we look into some top tips and hacks for stunning clothing photography to help you understand how to get top-notch shots, to achieve success with your online clothing store.
Understand the vision of the brand
Before you start on your clothing photography journey, it’s vital to understand how your brand is positioned, and its vision and identity. You need to know the brand’s target audience, its unique aesthetic, and what you intend to convey or showcase through the shots.
If you want to ensure success in your clothing photography, you should work closely with the brand’s creative team to understand their style, whether it’s luxury, high-end, minimalist, or anything else. When you have a good grasp of the personality of the brand, it can help you to pick suitable locations, lighting, props, models, and the entire mood for the shoot.
Prepare for the clothing photography
One of the secrets to achieving resounding success in clothing photography is thorough preparation. Here are some aspects to focus on during the preparation stage:
- Location scouting – Your choice of location can affect the emotions the images evoke. Whether the location is a natural landscape, urban setting, or a studio backdrop – it should be in line with the brand’s vision, and the style that the clothing promotes. As you choose locations for your shots, consider such things as lighting conditions, availability of changing preparation rooms, and access permits, if needed.
- Model and props selection – good clothing photography needs the right models and props to help potential customers get a better idea about the fit of the clothes. When choosing models, go for those that match the brand’s image and target audience.
- Equipment selection and setup – it’s crucial to pick the right lenses, lighting equipment, and lenses. Depending on the style of your clothing photography, you might need to have different setups, for example, studio lighting if you will have a controlled indoor environment, and natural light if you choose to have an outdoor shoot.
- Clothes styling and preparation – you should consider working closely with a stylist to ensure the clothes are displayed in their best light. Some crucial details to look out for include loose threads, wrinkles, and proper fit. You may also consider using accessories to help to add to the depth of images, improving the overall look.
Choose the right lighting techniques
With clothing photography, lighting is crucial. It defines the quality and overall feel of the image. Different lighting setups can help to put more emphasis on different aspects of the clothing and create various moods to persuade the viewers to take action. Some of the popular lighting techniques are:
- Natural lighting – helps to produce softer and more flattering images. You can consider making the most of golden hour, the period before sunset and shortly after sunrise, to give your clothing shots a warm and gentle glow. This works perfectly well for outdoor clothing shoots.
- Studio lighting – this works best if you want to shape and direct the light as precisely as possible. It is excellent for bringing out intricate details and textures in your clothing objects.
- Diffused lighting- soft boxes, diffusers, and umbrellas can help to soften harsh shadows, and make light more even on the object.
Check composition and poses
For your clothing photography to stand out, ensure you create compelling compositions and have the models pose correctly. The following considerations can help you:
- Use dynamic poses – experiment with various poses to inject energy and add movements to your shots. You can experiment with gestures, different angles, and expressions to bring out different emotions and get the audience’s attention.
- Employ the rule of thirds – this entails placing key elements such as the clothing’s focal point or the model’s face along the imaginary gridlines. This creates a balanced and visually pleasing photo.
- Utilize negative space – Using negative space can help to draw attention to the object. With a minimalist background, it can help the apparel shine and reduce distractions.
Post-processing and editing
The final step of clothing photography helps to ensure the shots are perfect and of the best quality possible. This allows them to gain the attention of viewers and gives you a better chance of getting the sales you want. You can use photo editing software to fine-tune aspects such as colors, sharpness, and contrast. However, you must be careful not to over-edit because you don’t want to alter the true appearance of the object, but to enhance it.
Conclusion
If you have been looking to achieve the best clothing photography, you need to have a blend of technical skills, creativity, and an understanding of the brand’s identity. You need to choose your location carefully, have proper preparation, consider the lighting techniques, mind the composition and poses, and execute post-processing and editing.