Fashion Photography Career
A Digital Photography Career

Want a fashion photography career? Only a few make it to the top end of this digital photography career, but if you are creative, persistent, have an excellent portfolio, and a passion for fashion you could be one of the ones at the top.

Exotic locations, beautiful models, and designer fashion is what most people think of when they think of fashion photography. While the ulimate goal for many may be for their pictures to appear in the pages of Vogue or Vanity Fair, there are other places that need fashion photographers. Advertising and catalogue photography are also considered part of the fashion industry. Getting experience at a local level can help prepare you for other jobs in the future.

Here are some things you need to consider if you want to work in fashion photography.

School

Attending a school with a quality fashion photography program willl put you on the path to your fashion photography career. The school should provide plenty of opportunities to work in a studio with a model. You should learn about studio lighting and set-ups. If the course just puts you in a classroom to listen to a professor with no practical experience that's no good.

You should get plenty of experience both technically, creatively, and practically in your fashion photography class.

Limiting your practice to what you do in class isn't good enough though. You need to take as many opportunities as possible to take pictures, especially of people. Always think about how to best highlight the clothing and the concepts behind the clothing in that picture. What is that outfit supposed to convey? How should the wearer feel? How can you convvey it to the viewer?

People in the fashion industry are always looking for unique talent. Someone who can put a different spin on an idea is sought after. If you have excellent technical skills and a unique creative vision, you'll be more sought after in the industry.

Portfolio

You'll need to have a portfolio to display your work. A good way to make an initial contact is with an online portfolio. This website must look professional and have all your best photographs displayed. There are plenty of ways to set this up. You can have a traditional website site or a Wordpress blog as an online portfolio. Here are some examples of Wordpress themes that can be used as photography portfolios. Here are some website templates that you can use too, but I'd recommend using a Wordpress blog because they're easy to use.

Even if you do have an online portfolio of some kind you'll need a portfolio book to present when you go to interviews. Photo editors still like to see some of your work in person even though they've already looked at it online. You should make sure that you put photographs in your portfolio that are most relavent for the job you're interviewing for.

Internship

Doing an internship with a fashion photographer is a great way to get some experience and make contacts in the industry. Try contacting the agents of photographers you like and see if they offer internships or just do a simple search for fashion photography internships online.

Research

When you're ready to try to get work with a fashion magazine, be sure to do your research before you query them. Find out what types of pictures they put in their publications. Make sure that your protfolio contains photographs that are appropriate for them. Find out the photo editor's name and something about that person.