Photography is essential in the world of fashion. A fashion photographer must know the styles, concepts and trends, knowing how to capture the essence of a show, the style of the model or the strategy of a brand. Fashion photography is much more than a model posing with garments from the latest collection of a specific brand or showing the most groundbreaking trend of the moment. Fashion photography has many forms or formats and one of them is editorial fashion photography. Editorial fashion photography is part of fashion photography except that in editorial fashion photography you don’t sell a product.
What is Editorial Fashion Photography?
In the editorial, it’s the story about the theme that is being sold. Indeed in an editorial, you have to succeed in conveying an idea, a message, a feeling to those who are looking. And this is where the art appears.
Images for editorials are usually sided by side with writing, depicting an idea of the content. Usually loaded for media such as magazines or blogs that contain a ‘story’. In the editorial fashion, there is more room for photographers, makeup artists, art directors, and so on to be freer to express themselves.
Musts in editorial fashion photography
The attributes of each image should be carefully considered to find the perfect photo to print or use online. However, before looking at the photo with the best lighting or the most attractive model, there is a fundamental question to answer. Determining whether the content is editorial or advertising is probably the most important criteria when classifying content. Even if the categories seem clear, it is not necessarily easy to determine which one you correspond to, and therefore to measure the impact on the use of your image. Mistakes in establishing licenses have led people, having accidentally discovered their faces in an advertisement for a company or for a cause to which they do not subscribe, to bring numerous legal actions.
One of the most important things when making a good fashion editorial photography is to be aware of the latest trends in fashion within the business since an outdated editorial will be of no use. . Over the years, photography has evolved and therefore fashion photography as well. Fashion editorial photography has developed it is own aesthetic, where garments, accessories and others are not the only protagonists. The stories, the places and the environment must be well chosen to do a good job of the whole. As you might know, it is vital to take care of the styling and the setting, also adding a line of text to each photograph that helps to follow the thread and that leaves a record of what clothes were used for each moment and each photograph.
- Conveying ideas
Conveying ideas, become the main thing in editorial fashion photography. Editorial Fashion Photography allows the display of colors, locations, themes, atmosphere and, the look of the model itself can be freely explored. Usually, there is editorial planning whose topic can come from the media editorial team itself or precisely initiate by the experts in it.
In fashion photography, brands want to convey a lifestyle through their clothes and image. In editorial fashion photography, many tools are needed, because the objective is a striking photo. That is why you have seen that many fashion magazines tend to play with glamor and drama in their images. Most of the models are made up of thick eyeliner and pretty dramatic shadows. On the other hand, you will also see in this type of photo that different ranges of lights and lighting accessories are used.
- Create a mood-board
In editorial fashion photography, a Mood board can be a collection of samples or examples of the final result to be achieved. Photos, writing, and other materials that support the team to realize the desired editorial fashion photography. Seek inspiration as much as possible from various media.
- Casting model
According to the theme and idea of editorial fashion photography, you want to create, finding a model is a challenging job. It is not enough to just look at the model portfolio and meet directly, sometimes photographers need to do a shooting test directly and the results can be discussed with the team!
- Locations that support mood
The location also strongly supports the success of a fashion editorial to support the story or theme you want to show. The indoor or outdoor location will affect the light used and the mood as to what you want to achieve.
- A group of experts
Many experts are involved in creating editorial fashion photography. Photographers, makeup artists, fashion stylists, copywriters, graphic designers, etc. play an important role in the creation of fashion editorials. But for the photo itself, you need at least a makeup artist, hairstylist, and clothing stylist, in addition to photographers and models.
Usage of editorial fashion photography
- If you read an article in a newspaper or magazine, it usually contains not only the text but also the photos to support the content of the article. Well, the type of photographs made to support the editorial needs of a media is commonly known as editorial fashion photography.
- In practice, photographs for editorial needs are very diverse. Take the example of print media, such as magazines or newspapers. They load photos from various categories according to need, can be in the category of portraits, spot news, features, sports, and more. To support the article and the need for cover, the media uses many types of portraits that elevate a person’s figure, both celebrities and ordinary people – we call it Editorial Portraits.
- Despite being in the same genre, there is certainly a significant difference between Editorial Portraits and Portrait photo types beyond editorial needs. In this case, Deny argues that the difference lies only in its function or use, therefore anyone can use the same portrait for an editorial, for hanging on a wall, in a collection of family albums, or for a photo profile on social media.
Editorial portraits
Editorial portraits are required to be able to convey the editorial or media message in question without having to leave the importance of presenting the characters from the figure/profile being photographed. Therefore, facial expressions are very dominant to express the character, personality and even feelings of the figure/profile. This is where a photographer’s ability is tested to play ideas and concepts in the work of Editorial Portraits.
