Bridal Fashion Shoot

It’s been an exceptionally busy week this week so not sure what to talk about and which pictures to post. I’ve finished off two Storybook albums with the designs being approved by the couples just a few days ago and which will be ready for delivery at the weekend, finalised the photographs for my Real Life Wedding’s feature that will be in next months Best Scottish Weddings magazine, photographed a beautiful wedding on Saturday out at Dirleton and then did a fashion shoot on Sunday, the images of which I am busy editing right now. Well, not exactly right now as right now I’m writing this, but you know what I mean, lol!

Anyway as the last two blogs have been about weddings I think I’ll show you some images from the fashion shoot and save the wedding blogging for next week to coincide with the couple returning from their honeymoon. Now you may be thinking that Sunday is a strange day for a fashion shoot and of course it is! But I was fully booked throughout the week and with having the wedding for Saturday it was the only day I had available. The shoot was for a new make-up company and I was very honoured in that they insisted on wanting me to do the photography for them so everyone involved had to give up their Sunday to accommodate my busy schedule. No spare time for some of us Edinburgh wedding photographers!

I love doing fashion shoots! It’s great fun, exciting and often you get chance to explore and experiment with new creative idea’s and techniques. To stay with a wedding theme the shots I’m posting today are from the bridal session. The model is Jessica who was a delight to work with and I hope I get opportunity to work with her again in the future! With a fashion shoot the two main things I have to keep in mind is the purpose or objective we are trying to achieve and then the second thing is the actual usage of the images. For Sunday the purpose was to highlight the make-up itself and also the skill and expertise of the make-up artist’s work. The usage of the photographs would be for the make-up company in their portfolio, online web use and then advertising and promotion.

As this was for bridal make-up I decided for the majority of photographs to use a high key white background. This would give a nice clean backdrop suitable for wedding imagery. Everything I shot was done in colour, again keeping in mind the purpose of the shoot (although to add a little variety to my blog post I‘ve converted one of the images to black and white). The other advantage with doing this is it simplifies things for any graphic designer who may use the photographs in advert design where text will accompany the image. Everything is photographed at the highest quality and resolution (something that I also will do with every wedding, too) as you never know how large the photographs may be reproduced. I did a shoot for Debenhams once where the photographs went on to be used as big billboards in the shop windows reaching almost 10 feet high!

Although the majority of photography was against the high key backdrop I also wanted to get a few photographs simply utilising natural light. You can see these on the last two spreads where the background has changed colour. Although they are not quite as dramatically eye catching as a high key background the natural light really does emphasize and highlight the beautiful make-up and the skilled work of Hazel. Even with the different set up it is still important to leave breathing space around the images for promotional text or other graphics that may later be added to any advert or marketing materials. This is similar to when I’m doing a magazine shoot where it is very important to remember that for a front cover shot there must sufficient space and room for the mast head and then the cover lines, which often can be quite extensive. An example is the last image I’ve posted where I’ve done this on an advert for myself with a promotion I’m running this month. Maybe you’ll consider taking advantage of it if you are looking for a wedding photographer in Edinburgh or for any where in Scotland and the north of England.