How to Style Still Life/Beauty Products and Off Figure Clothing for Photoshoots?

[gius]

in the pictures though there are no hangers

 

[BetteT]

Yeah ... that's what I'm talking about ... how they make it look like it's on a hangar or on a person/mannequin but you cannot see any of the apparatus. It's either photoshop ... or some other trick of the off model styling trade.

 

[delerith]

Today we need to shoot men's wear... I know that a dress can look good flat but is this possible for a classic men jacket? I think we will better shoot it both ways and see what will be better

 

[gius]

would love to see shots you've taken, delerith

here found @ marni.com
you can see something under the shoulders & tops of the sleeves

 

[delerith]

would love to see shots you've taken, delerith

here found @ marni.com

Oh! Those shots with menswear were terrible ... I mean we shot it OK but designer made the page bad We tried to lay it flat but it looked I don't know why, so we chose on-mannequin as better ones Today I saw GQ and there were several pages showing menswear, it was shot right on mannequin and you could see it, they haven't cut it. It looked pretty good... Hope next time out clients let us do it this way if only they are not completely disappointed by this shot.

 

[delerith]

I'm again is search of info for clothes styling etc and typing this in google came back to this thread! After let me count...3 years I was always trying to learn how to shoot clothes and style itt off model - can not say this about the photographers I'm working with though. They are always complaning that "this is not righth", "I can not do it in this conditions" etc.. But when you are asking them "OK, how this is need to be done, what light, equipment, etc" - they have nothing to reply! Because they don't actually know, don't want to learn at all... And I'm all alone in my quest for a perfect product shot again.

 

[kimberwyn]

I'm glad this thread exists! Although I wish we had more talk about other types of stylists here on tFS (prop stylists and set decorators) and even how you build a career in those fields. I've been dabbling in it alongside my wardrobe styling and I like it a lot. However, I hate shooting flats ...I thought it would be easy and it was biggest pain the butt lol.

 

[softgrey]

i love flats---
but they ARE a total pain to style...

still life requires LOTS of patience...
and most people who do stills really specialize in that...
it's a whole different skill set...

 

[Andrea.RL]

I was wondering if anyone had any tips or precisions considering editorial still life.
(Right now I'm mainly wondering if it mean it's exclusively shot with no models at all or can there be a model but they would basically be the accessory to the photo (like you could have just a hand wearing all kinds of things in a certain disposition/setting)? )

 

[BetteT]

There are no rules, Andrea. You can do it anyway you want to ... you are the stylist.

I don't really have tips ... my experience is somewhat limited in this sort of shoot. Only did it a few times. But when I did, it was just trial and error. Luckily, nowadays we have digital images, so you can see how it's going to look, right away and make adjustments. In fact, you can try out your ideas and shoot your own pics, before hand ... so you know what you want to try.

 

[Andrea.RL]

I think my more rational/logical part of my brain tries too hard to put together guidelines which doesn't really for such a creative outlet.
So in normal editorial pictures you have models, the focus is the fashion/clothes. Is still life basically just "zooming in" on the details and pieces?
(Thank you Bette.T )