Being a hobbyis
t photographer with ardent fashion following doesn’t make one a fashion photographer. Photography is a way of looking at things. To call it merely an art is an understatement. An image has just few fractions of second to capture a person’s attention. It is towards those fractions and for that attention that a photographer needs to work while behind the camera.
What is fashion photography?
Fashion photography is a stepped up version of portrait photography. Portrait photography is taking photos of people. Taking the moods and emotions of people would majorly define portrait genre of photo taking. Fashion photography also includes photographing items related to fashion such as jewellery or apparels or hand models (models who lend and pose only their hands in photos).
What is involved in fashion photography and who can become a fashion photogrpaher?
When it comes to fashion photography, people believe that taking photos of models dressed in skimpy dresses or in the nude is pretty much it. But, that is not true. Usually fashion models are real beauties and they can easily steal the show and divert the person’s attention from the real object of the photo, which might be the dress he/she is wearing or the earring on her ears. A fashion photographer should be able to make the viewer see only the dress or the earring, making the model disappear into the background. The photographer should make only the object of importance ‘pop’ making everything else oblivious to the viewer. This can be a tough job.
Plus, the photographer needs to know all the aspects of photography techniques such as importance of lighting, depth of field, effects of shadows, photo editing, etc. Just as fashion is ever changing, the photographer too needs to re-invent himself/herself to the changing industrial needs. He/she has to constantly come up with new and innovative ideas to keep the interest going.
Hence, if you have the drive to try new techniques and have a very creative bent of mind with understanding of light, fashion and human emotions, you are cut out perfectly to be a fashion photographer.
Institutes offering fashion photography
There are diploma courses, certificate courses and even intensive long-term courses for fashion photography. Here is a list of institutes offering fashion photography courses:
Light and Life Academy, Lovedale, Ooty
- PG Diploma in Professional Photography with fashion photography as an option for specialization among 4 other choices.
- Course duration: 1 Year
- Fees: Rs. 4 lakh 45 thousand
National Institute of Photography, Mumbai
- Diploma in Fashion Photography
- Course Duration: 6 months
- Fees: Rs. 50 thousand
National Academy of Photography, Kolkata
- An intensive Course on Professional Fashion Photography
- Course Duration: 3 months
- Fees: Details upon contact
RK Films and Media Academy, New Delhi
- Short term training in still photography
- Course Duration: 2 months
- Fees: Details upon contact
National Institute of Fashion Technology (Nift), Mumbai
- 6 months certificate course in Fashion Photography
- Fees: Rs. 50 thousand
Other than these, there are institutes that offer 3 year bachelors degree on applied arts or fine arts (BFA) that includes photography as specialization. Upon completion of this course, institutes like JNTU, Hyderabad, offer a 2-year PG course as MFA with photography as major subject.
As a general rule of thumb, before you go into specializing, it is advisable that you take up a foundation course on general photography techniques. Once the basics are strong, it is easy to build up further knowledge on it.
Further reading:
A nice blog of recent trends of fashion photography: http://www.fashionphotographyblog.com
How to become a fashion photographer: http://www.fashion.net/howto/fashionphotographer
6 Responses to Learning Fashion Photography – Lot More than Fashion and Photography Put Together