If you start your own brand you’re bound to promote it sooner or later and one of the best ways to do that is through photos with easy-on-the-eyes models wearing your garments. Compared to a simple t-shirt on a hanger, a model provides a taste to your audience of how the product will look like on a real person.
I know you want to get to the camera, but in order to ensure the best results, it is important to sit down and plan out your strategy.
Think of your brand
What is your brand about? What is its mission, goals, values? And how would this translate to images? Having a clear concept in mind of what your brand is will help you make decisions like type of model and concept for the photo shoot.
What types of photos are you creating?
Are these photos for your catalogue or online store? Are they going to be featured on your homepage or a magazine? Knowing beforehand what the pictures will be used for will determine the types of shots you’ll take. For example, photos for a catalogue or an online store are mostly shot against a white or neutral background in order not to distract from the clothing.
What are the experts doing?
Look at the latest ad campaigns of famous fashion brands. What are they doing? What’s trending? Do you want to repeat them or go in a different direction? Research famous fashion photographers like Mario Testino and get acquainted with their work. The more research you do then the more resources you’ll have to produce your photo shoot.
Create a look-and-feel and/or mood board
Mood boards can be a very effective tool when it comes to visualising a project. They’re particularly helpful during the early stages when sometimes words are just not enough to flesh out what we have in our heads. Simply put, mood boards are a collection of images that represent a larger idea. The great thing about mood boards (aside from being useful) is that they’re easy to put together.
Use the best model
The model you’re going to choose is the person who will ultimately become the face of your brand (for a season, at least) so the task of choosing her or him should not be taken lightly. In a dream world, everyone would have enough budget to hire Cara Delevigne or Marlon Teixeira, but alas, most of the time this is not the case so we must do with the resources we have.
