Help!!

M

Mcd1977

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Edit My Images
Yes
I own a fashion boutique and we want to make our photos more professional. I feel the lighting in our pictures are very poor but when we hired professional lights they stripped the colour from the garments, cast shadows on the models face and on the white wall background which would have taken too long to photoshop out. We don't have a big budget for this but want to know a) if we should invest in a better camera with a better flash or get a new lighting kit - if so what kind?? Please look at our pics by following the link below and comment - all feedback is greatly appreciated!
http://www.glebe-fashion.com/dresses-c1
 
They could definitely be lit better.

What kit have you got at the moment.

welcome to TP :)
 
Hey there :wave:

Are you a keen photographer? If you are interested in developing then I am sure you will get some excellent advice here; but be prepared to give it a lot of time, money and effort. I would say you will be looking at learning a lot as well as investing a lot.

You could look to hire a photographer for the day to take all the shots required? There are some superb studio togs on here who will be more than capable of producing some stunning images of your clothes/models and save you time and money!
 
I'll start off by complimenting your fab dresses!:thumbs:

You'd probably be better off hiring a pro every now and then when you get a batch of new stock.

Why spend £500 on a camera and get average pics, when you could hire a 'tog with £10k of kit and get amazing pics for the price of a couple of dresses!

That's just my humble opinion, I don't know your buisiness! :D
 
Search out EdinburghGary here on the forum. He'll do a fine job for you.

With the images you have on the website you'll be lucky to seel anything imho.
 
smoothedit said:
You could look to hire a photographer for the day to take all the shots required? There are some superb studio togs on here who will be more than capable of producing some stunning images of your clothes/models and save you time and money!
Click to expand...
good point and well worth thing about.

If you really want to do the shots yourself, see if you can hire someone for a on site day workshop.
 
urbanx said:
Why spend £500 on a camera and get average pics, when you could hire a 'tog with £10k of kit and get amazing pics for the price of a couple of dresses!
Click to expand...
:eek: that's an expensive camera, it must take fantastic photos :lol:

So my 30D is not up to it then :(
 
2nd the idea about Edinburgh Gary..............

Honestly if you are looking at getting decent pics for the website, and don't want to pursue the cost of investing in studio kit then hiring someone to do it as a one off and then for an hour or two as new lines come in is a good way to go forwards..........

It may also be possible, to do a bit of bartering... i.e. photos in exchange for a ew dress for the other half or for the togger etc......... that way costs are kept down and everyone is happy...........

Just as an aside ------- it may be worth getting a friend etc to also model dresses, as using the same model throughout the website gets a bit repetitive....... Just my tuppence worth.........
 
We thought about hiring someone but thought it would be really expensive as we get new lines in EVERY week! I also contacted local unis to see if anyone wanted to do it to get some work experience as we sell our clothes worldwide, possibly pay them an hourly rate but no response. Before we used line shots of the clothes that the suppliers/ brands gave us but we want to create a uniformed look so decided using a model (also we found that the clothes pictured on an actual person sold 100 times more than a line shot). The work involved in taking all our clothes to a studio on a weekly/ twice weekly basis would be too much, we would prefer to do something within our shop so we don't have to move the items. Any further advice??
 
Yeah I am keen, I enjoy editing them with photoshop and then seeing them up on the website. Just annoyed that they look so dark . . . tried putting one of the chromakey screens behind the model too but it gives the clothes a green tinge :(
 
Cool; good to hear you have an active interest in photography too.

First place I would start is by looking at the Lencarta learning section to see exactly how much work is involved in getting the lighting spot on.

Then for some great training - get in touch with Garry Edwards about his training days and videos. I would start by attending a training day to get a feel for studio lighting, and then look at buying the lighting kit you need.
 
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Your OP suggests that you think you get great photographs just by buying good equipment. That's not true, any more than if you gave me some nice cloth and pair of scizzors I'd come up with a fantastic dress.

Seriously, if you want to make your garments look good, get a good photographer. Choose the right models between you, and come to some arrangement where he can set up around your place as and when.

That sounds pretty straightforward and normal to me, then you can both get on with doing what you do best.
 
Those photos are awful, it's sad to think that there are people out there who call themselves professionals and produce that level of quality.

Not that you should expect to get better if you succeeded in getting students from your local unis, as Richard says, there's a lot more to it than good equipment - even if they have it!

But I don't agree with everything that Richard says. Although it takes very heavy capital investment, training and years of experience to become an all round commercial photographer I've known a lot of amateur photographers who can very quickly learn to do just one thing well, and you only need to learn to do one thing.

That's the trainer in me talking. Wearing my commercial photographer hat then of course I think that you should hire someone like me to do it for you, high quality, dependable results with no hassle - but if you need to do a shoot every week then you'll be paying £1000 per week, which doesn't compare well to say £1000 for the lighting, a camera and some time.
 
By far the cheapest lighting solution is just using natural light. It's obviously harder to control (you'll have to make sure it's consistent throughout all the shots which limits when you can shoot being the main problem) but if you do have somewhere suitably flooded with sunlight it cuts down what you need to buy massively.

It's obviously just luck if that option is available.
 
RevOnline said:
By far the cheapest lighting solution is just using natural light. It's obviously harder to control (you'll have to make sure it's consistent throughout all the shots which limits when you can shoot being the main problem) but if you do have somewhere suitably flooded with sunlight it cuts down what you need to buy massively.

It's obviously just luck if that option is available.
Click to expand...

It may cut down the need to buy equipment, but it won't work - light needs to be controlled, to show the shape of the model, the cut of the clothes and the texture of the fabric.
 
thats what reflectors and scrims are for :cuckoo:

Garry Edwards said:
It may cut down the need to buy equipment, but it won't work - light needs to be controlled, to show the shape of the model, the cut of the clothes and the texture of the fabric.
Click to expand...
 
Garry Edwards said:
It may cut down the need to buy equipment, but it won't work - light needs to be controlled, to show the shape of the model, the cut of the clothes and the texture of the fabric.
Click to expand...

Obviously you still need to buy the same equipment beyond the lights. But the lights are the major cost, so if a consistent natural source is available it's sensible to make use of it.
 
POAH said:
thats what reflectors and scrims are for :cuckoo:
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That would work to a very limited extent on a bright sunny day - but can the OP rely on having a bright sunny day when new lines arrived, the model has been booked etc?
It would also need extra people to hold the reflectors and scrims, and even if it produced perfectly controlled light, which it wouldn't, it wouldn't make sense for the O.P. to avoid spending a relatively small amount of money on lighting kit in the hope that he could manage without it on sunny days.
 
Superb and balanced advice.

Please don't forget my commission Garry :naughty:
 
RevOnline said:
By far the cheapest lighting solution is just using natural light. It's obviously harder to control (you'll have to make sure it's consistent throughout all the shots which limits when you can shoot being the main problem) but if you do have somewhere suitably flooded with sunlight it cuts down what you need to buy massively.

It's obviously just luck if that option is available.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately being "flooded with sunlight" is likely to cause more problems than it cures - especially contrast - which would require fill in lighting - so back to lighting.

.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Those photos are awful, it's sad to think that there are people out there who call themselves professionals and produce that level of quality.

Not that you should expect to get better if you succeeded in getting students from your local unis, as Richard says, there's a lot more to it than good equipment - even if they have it!

But I don't agree with everything that Richard says. Although it takes very heavy capital investment, training and years of experience to become an all round commercial photographer I've known a lot of amateur photographers who can very quickly learn to do just one thing well, and you only need to learn to do one thing.

That's the trainer in me talking. Wearing my commercial photographer hat then of course I think that you should hire someone like me to do it for you, high quality, dependable results with no hassle - but if you need to do a shoot every week then you'll be paying £1000 per week, which doesn't compare well to say £1000 for the lighting, a camera and some time.
Click to expand...

if they want to pay me a £1000 a week i,ll move up to falkirk and do it for them :D
 
Thanks for your help and your advice. We borrowed some professional lights but they cast too many shadows on the garments and washed out the colour. My friend said that we were best to buy a good set of lights and don't use the flash on the camera whereas another person suggested to buy a good camera with a flash, flash gun. If we had to choose between either lights or better camera with flash what would you suggest? We have to try doing it ourselves first - if it takes off then we will hire someone but its not an option at the moment . . .
 
Mcd1977 said:
Thanks for your help and your advice. We borrowed some professional lights but they cast too many shadows on the garments and washed out the colour. My friend said that we were best to buy a good set of lights and don't use the flash on the camera whereas another person suggested to buy a good camera with a flash, flash gun. If we had to choose between either lights or better camera with flash what would you suggest? We have to try doing it ourselves first - if it takes off then we will hire someone but its not an option at the moment . . .
Click to expand...

'Professional lights' won't help unless you know how to use them, which you clearly don't.
Listening to people who think that a good camera with a flash is the answer won't help either.
What you need is an understanding of both light and how to use it. I have a series of both tutorials and videos, including one of each on still life photography - petty cash figures:)
If you prefer a more physics based approach, get a copy of Light: Science & Magic, 3rd edition.

If you don't learn well from books or videos go on a training course, but make sure that your teacher is a respected commercial photographer - it will be a waste of your time and money to try to learn product photography from a 'general' or wedding/portrait photographer, these people have their own skills but they aren't the right skills for teaching (or doing) this work.

As for kit, I'm involved with Lencarta lighting, there are several products in the Lencarta range that will be perfect for you, once you've learned the basics.
 
Edit: crossed post with Garry, while I was making the tea!

You are still under the illusion that it's about equipment. You need a good photographer first, someone like Our Gary maybe, and equipment second. Any decent photographer will have their own kit anyway.

Are you serious about making your clothes look good? You posted on here two weeks ago and don't appear to have got anywhere yet, or even taken any advice on board.
 
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