Professional Fashion Photography at Nikonian Academy

It was another fun-filled weekend for me because I was at the Professional Fashion Photography class at Nikonian Academy. In the class taught by Andrew Boey, there were nine of us: eight guys and one girl (me!). Our models were Jojo and Angie. We learned the following:

1. Conceptualizing a fashion shoot
2. Knowing the current trend of international fashion brands
   
3. Choosing and posing our models
4. Understanding the very basic of styling and making-up a model for a fashion shoot
   
5. Learning haute couture fashion shoot concepts
6. Learning pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) fashion shoot concepts
7. Indoor and outdoor fashion photography
8. Setting up multi-lighting, both for indoor and outdoor

NOTE: I was in the class last week where Stefanie modeled in the red dress above. Read more.

We're paired with our partners and broken into two groups. We're supposed to discuss and come up with the concept. To help us, Andrew gave us some magazines such as W, Harper's Bazaar, Nuyou, Female, etc. to review.

Here are two of the many INDOOR shots took today. The model in the first photo is Angie and in the second one is Jojo.

A shot taken using a purple gel stuck on a flash unit placed behind Angie

The shots you saw above took a bit of planning and effort, and the photos below give you a glimpse of what to expect. It's interesting to see the guys handling the dresses and making their selection.

Communicating to the model on what to do

That's me mucking around the accessories section

Now, let's get down to business. Andrew demonstrating how to pose the model.

And then one of the participants telling Jojo what he wants

What you saw above was done indoor. Now, let's go OUTDOOR! The gloomy sky didn't deter us. In the first camp, Jojo climbed up one of the guys' (my partner's) pickup truck for this shoot. It's quite a feat for her to climb onto the vehicle in her flowing gown and high heels, so Yours Truly with Michelle (the lady in blue baby tee and also Andrew's better half) helped her.
This is the shot I got
In the second camp, Angie gets ready with her pose

Who says being a model is easy?... While Andrew hit the ground shooting Angie, I shot blind by placing my camera on the ground.

This is the end result. Photo by Andrew using my camera.

I enjoyed today's class because I've always been curious about what happens before and during a fashion shoot. Andrew did a good job explaining all the fashion jargon. The technical bits of the shoot i.e. lighting is still a bit mind boggling to me but seeing how it's done gives me a brief idea for further exploration.