Fashion is a vital indicator of what it is to be modern, and central to how we wish to be recognized as individuals. Find your style and wear it well. Working as a fashion photographer, my team and I spend most of our days dialing in the look and feel of how our client’s new collections will appear online. Prior to the shoot date, we always communicate with the client to determine the model, the set design, art direction, and lighting style, and then put it all together. This is what they call “making the magic happen” and it’s all part of executing a successful e-commerce fashion photography session.
Professional E commerce photography is a volatile business, and is always changing in terns of what the consumer is looking for and what the retailer is offering. It’s a balancing act that requires insight, industry knowledge, and sometimes just some good old fashioned good luck. That is what makes its so challenging and exciting. It’s not always a guess game, but sometimes you have to do some level of discovery to get all the levels of our game plan to align.
Unlike other forms of photography, e-commerce fashion is a style of photography whose main purpose is to present fashion apparel items on website product pages, that showcases the items for sale and influences customers reactions. For these images to be displayed properly there are many factors that come into play. For example, color accuracy, and clarity help the customer see the product in its best light, and allows them to view the item in multiple angles.
VSP Studios, located in Miami’s Buena Vista district, has recently moved into a new 3000 sq ft facility with studios built out to handle on model photography and ghost mannequin and product photography. Fashion brands from all over the world send us packages containing their new collections and we help them get all their images that they need to build out their websites and marketing material.
VSP being a prominent name in the professional e-commerce photography business, works with various top name brands in the fashion industry. Heiress Beverly Hills, a boutique women’s fashion brand, contacted VSP to shoot their e-commerce fashion photography, as well as their garment, product photography services, known as invisible ghost mannequin photography. Hailey Weiner, the owner of Heiress, started her fashion brand back in the summer of 2020, and found great success from the very first day she launched the web site. Offering her signature fit and fashion contemporary styles, her popularity grew quickly with women looking for something uniquely “trendsetting” with high quality fabrics. Her brand continues to grow and expand with more head turning styles. When I spoke to Hailey, I could hear the excitement in her voice, as she told me about the new collections she has coming over for photography. Designed to capture the essence of sensuality, inspired above all to empower women, her styles are ethically made and manufactured. Check out the new collection items and amazing styles on her website here - https://heiressbeverlyhills.com
When shooting e-commerce in the studio, the most common background used is a clean white background or “255 White” due to how it helps the items stand out when being viewed on product page listings. Although some collection styles look best on this bright white background, some look better on softer tones. For example, organic fabrics such as cotton, silk or wool, tend to look better on grey or neutral “off white” tones. For the Heiress photoshoot, we decided to go in a new direction. Our thoughts were “new collection…new set direction” and this is where we collaborated to created the v-shaped corner set. This allowed us to stay with the white tone background, but offered a more textured, shadowed type of presentation. After our first test shot, we all looked the images and knew we had found the right formula to present the new collection items.
The next step was to cast the model. Im always in touch with agents who represent the best of the best, and I wanted to get someone new for this shoot. I spoke to my top contact at Elite Models Miami - Paolo Buonfante, and he showed me a new model coming in from overseas. I knew she was the one the second I saw her. I realized I saw her walking the runway at Miami Swim Week, and was very impressed. When I heard she was heading back to Miami and available, I quickly suggested to Hailey that I had found he ideal model to use for this shoot.
Shout out to Parabolixlight.com for supplying the amazing Omni LED that we used to achieve the lighting style for our set.
Israel born, Naomi Koch, rose to stardom as a result of viral videos and photographs circulating on social media, but it was the allure of her hourglass figure, beautiful appearance, and talent in front of the camera that helped to get her top booking status with Elite. Coming all the way from Israel to the US, we were very fortunate to be the first studio to book her when she arrived in Miami. When Naomi is not working as a model, she works as a pilates and Barre instructor and is studying to be a naturopathic student. Beauty and brains makes for a great combination. Be sure to follow Naomi on her Instagram.
Having models who are experienced is of great importance when selling apparel online. Being just a pretty face won’t help you get the best results. When you have models who have already developed the proper skill set, it turns into an investment in the long run. When you bring the right face for your brand, and mix that with the right styling, you get the best results. It truly takes a team to put things together and we are super excited to have worked with Heiress Beverly Hills and with one of Elite Models top talents Naomi Koch. I cant wait for the new Heiress collection to come out, so we can dial in a new shoot again.
Thank you Naomi and Hailey from all of us at VSPstudios.net.