2-Day Photoshoot of Products & Models (#07)

COMD 4900 Internship

When meeting with my advisor this week, she really liked the logos I had edited and changed the prior week. She liked them all and said that one would definitely be used. I am also realizing now from the weekly meeting that is always good to have research/notes to have when meeting and presenting. For the past 3 weeks, I have been giving and showing my research/notes to how I came up with each weekly work. This allows my advisor to gain a better understanding of my work and thought process. The first couple of weeks of the internship, I was just presenting work and was given feedback. But by showing my research/notes, it helps explain my work. It gives me and my advisor more dialogue, as well as makes it easier to come up with a solution.

This week, I had a 2-day photoshoot on the weekend. The photoshoot was for their upcoming collection. I took photos of all their products and models modeling them. This was a very new experience for me because I wasn’t used to doing 2 day shoots that’s were both all day long. Each day I took product shots first the first half, and then model shoots for the second half of the day.

It was a little challenging for me as well because taking the product shots became difficult. I had to take so many shots of the same product but I had to keep changing how the product was laying. This was because I was trying to find the perfect way for the clothing to lay. I knew the photos were going to be cropped into a box shape because that is how Instagram feeds shows photos. I spent a lot of time changing the layout but eventually would figure out the perfect layout for each product.

Another issue was trying to get the best lighting to show the true color of the products. The products had very distinct color washes and weren’t basic true colors like red, green, or blue. I had to get the details in the color of each product while trying to balance the lighting intensity. The lights themselves were not the problem, they were very good and showed natural daylight. The problem was when shooting the products, the shots came out making the products look too vibrant and not true to the actual color. But when looking at the products without the camera lens they looked perfect. Eventually, I realized the best and fastest way to fix that would be to fix the coloring in post-editing in photoshop. I had to be quick because we were running on a schedule, the models were going to show up at a certain time and I had to be finished with the product shots before then on both days.

https://www.squareshot.co/post/how-to-plan-a-photo-shoot-for-your-clothing-brand

Shooting the models was a lot less complicated than the product shots. My advisor told me how she wanted the model shoots to look and how she wanted the models to style the products. All I had to worry about was lighting and getting the true color of the products while still making the models look normal. This was not a challenge and went smoothly on both days.

Post experiencing a 2-day photoshoot, I now know how mentally prepared you have to be because it usually will never go perfectly and there will always be a problem or two you need to fix that you were not expecting. But that is part of the job (internship), you need to be a quick thinker and problem solver that will somehow always figure it out. That is a trait that will make you stand out from everybody else who doesn’t have that trait.

The 2 day photoshoot was definitely a little stressful but it was the first time I experienced it, and I didn’t have the right mindset when first starting. I thought it would be like a 1-day photoshoot and be more straightforward. But now that I’ve experienced a 2-day photoshoot, I know it’s more of an experience and project.

Author: Stelios Spinthourakis

city tech college student Communication design is my major