Fashion photography captures clothing and accessories for magazines, advertisements, and other commercial purposes. There are two main types of magazine photography - editorial and advertorial. Editorial photos are commissioned by the magazine to showcase styles and express their vision, giving photographers creative freedom. Advertorials promote specific brands and products, so advertisers sometimes limit photographer's creativity. Successful fashion photographers infuse commercial work with personal artistic styles to avoid mediocrity. A variety of advertising applications employ fashion photography, including clothing, cosmetics, and high-end brands known for prestige productions compensating photographers admirably.

1. Fashion Photography
Intro- Fashion Photography is now one of the most creative and inspired of all the commercial
photography genres. If you need inspiration grab the top fashion magazines. They hold the
key to the coolest fashion trends, and are the springboard for the newest, hottest, most
inspiring fashion photographers.
Slide 2- Definition: the art or practice of taking photographs of models wearing clothes or
clothing accessories, especially for fashion magazines.
Slide 3- Successful fashion photographers have realized their grand positions in the fashion
community because they have infused the commercial aspects of fashion with a new, often
profound, personal artistic style that separates them from the hordes of photographers
who haven’t yet grasped the concept that fashion without art equals mediocrity.
Looking back at the icons and trendsetters of fashion, these “commercial artists” were very
aware that in order to carry on at that level they must continue to dazzle the editors and
art directors with consistently creative new work and ideas.
Slide 4- Magazine Photography- There are two types of magazine photography to work toward
are editorial and advertorial. An editorial shoot is on behalf of the magazine, whereas an
advertorial is paid for by a single advertiser.
Slide 6- FREE REIN
An editorial is a photographic story about clothing or beauty that is styled and shot in a
way that expresses the opinion and attitudes of the fashion and beauty editor of the
magazine. The fashion editor can spend days putting together a varied collection of top
designers’ clothing, along with accessories, shoes, and other goodies that will provide
interest and keep the thread and continuity of the story. The editorial will revolve around
the type of garment the editor wants to illustrate, for example, evening wear, daywear,
casual wear, etc. Because the designers and clothing manufactures used for these editorials
don’t pay toward the costs of production, the magazine has free rein over how the story is
told. Editorial fashion photographers have the most creative freedom of all photographers.
Slide 7- SPECIFIC PROMOTION
Advertorial photography is the magazine promotion of a specific fashion product paid for
by the advertiser, perhaps a fashion designer, perfume manufacturer, or beauty treatment,
and made to look like an editorial through the combined creativity of the magazine and
photographer.
To the eye, an advertorial appears to be an editorial, but as the product is really an
advertisement for only one company, the magazine is compelled to print the term
“advertorial” somewhere on the spread, so that the reader isn’t given the impression that
the story represents the opinions and attitudes of the magazine.
While still considered very creative work for a photographer, the advertiser sometimes
puts limits on how far the photographer can take his/her creativity, because the advertiser
is paying for the privilege.
Slide 8- Advertising Photography
Fashion advertising is the financial backbone of the fashion industry, covering many
diverse applications and keeping top fashion photographers forever in their Gucci slippers
and Cartier watches.
Name some categories that would use fashion photographers to advertise their diverse

2. products…meaning what items do you normally see advertised?
• Clothing
• Shoes
• Accessories for men and women, children
• Jewelry, perfumes, skin, healthcare treatments
• Hair care products, spas, resorts, travel.
Slide 9- THE BIG BOOKS
Catalog Photography cuts an enormous slice of the advertising market and is the “bread
and butter” of a typical fashion photographer. Sometimes referred to as the big books”,
catalogs can have anywhere from 100 to 1,000 pages, and because they sell seasonal items
they are produced two or more times every year. Catalogs pay well, and one assignment
can take between one to four weeks, paid by the day.
Slide 10 – BESPOKE SHOWCASES
Brochures differ from catalogs in two ways: they are more specific with regard to product
ranges, and they are more concise, typically from four to forty pages. Photographers used
for fashion brochure work often have a more editorial look and feel to their work than
catalog photographers, and are compensated more for it. Fashion brochures are more
stylized than catalogs and more money is spent on each production to bolster the looks
presented.
Slide 11- POINT OF SALE: AT THE STORE
Many clothing and department stores have photographs of their lines hanging in their
windows and displayed inside the store, known as point of sale. The bigger and more
prestigious the shop, the more it spends on the photographic production of this type of
advertising. Point of sale is important to the image of the store and promotion of its
products, so a highly day rate is usually generated for the photographer.
Slide 12- IMAGE BOOSTING
Public relations, or PR, is the practice of establishing, maintaining, or improving a favorable
relationship between an institution, or person, and the public. To a fashion photographer,
PR firms can be a steady source of income. There are hundreds of fashion PR agencies
worldwide that specialize in promoting their designer clientele and who need
photographers to cover things as varied as fashion shows and brochures, newspaper
articles, and celebrities wearing certain garments or diamond necklaces to openings.
Slide 13- INTERNATIONAL PRINT
There are always fashion products to sell, so you will find fashion advertising in virtually
every publication you purchase. Fashion advertising is one of the highest paid of all
available to photographers. Promoting high-flyer designer labels such as Calvin Klein,
Versace, or Armani is considered prestige production, and the photographs will appear
internationally. The big labels require the finest and most creative of photographers to
push the fantasy buttons of the public and the compensation is admirable.
Slide 14- ON THE STREET
Very often the fashion and beauty images used for publications are also used for giant
billboards, and shine from backlit bus shelters around the world. They cover the sides and
back of buses and cabs. Sometimes images are produced solely for gargantuan displays like
those in Time Square in New York or Piccadilly Circus in London. Needless to say, the
payout to the photographer is colossal as well, and exposure of that magnitude can only
help seal the future and success of any image-maker.

3. Slide 15- Assignment
Today you will play the role of the editor and create a Free Rein editorial piece. Make a
collage featuring your favorite clothes and accessories. It can be high fashion, evening
wear, prom, casual wear, etc.