Vintage clothing fashion photo shoot

I did a photo shoot for an online vintage clothing store called shopLIMBS. The requirements were for clean simple images that show the clothing for sale. Shots were to be a front, side and back view. Also closer shots to show specific detail. There were 30 items to photograph.

So I decided to go with a white background to give a brighter cleaner look. Lighting for the models was from a 60" reflective white umbrella to my right and a 60" shoot through umbrella to my left. One flash head on a boom high up lighting the upper part of the background. And two Canon 580EXs lighting the lower half and sides of the background. All radio triggered.

A couple of reflectors were used as gobos keeping the key and fill light from shining into the camera lens.

Shot from behind and above. I had the camera tethered to a computer to my left to allow the client to view the images as we shot the items.

It was a bit of a struggle at first (slight exaggeration) to get the client to consider shots with some poses other than the models just standing straight on to the camera with their arms hanging down. That's what I started with but then I had the models slowly add more interesting poses. Nothing too dramatic but more interesting than standing at attention.  It didn't take long to show that the images can be a bit more interesting without being inappropriate for the purpose. If you are going to have real models then use their tallents.

The shoot was specifically to show the clothing. While it would have been nice to have done more creative shots in the end it still was about showing the cloths the way they are.

A little spin to blow out this funky skirt.

And getting into the spirit of the clothing.

A few interesting hats were also included in the mix.

And a bit closer to show the fabric. All of the images can be clicked to bring up a higher resolution image than is displayed on thie page. 

The shot of these shorts show some of the variations we took for each item.

And a vintage Canadian hat to keep you fashionably warm during the long cold winter.

Baa baa black sheep. Black lamb wool hat.
I had to overexpose the image to show detail in the black hat. 

I liked this agressive pose but didn't spend any time working with it. One shot only and she switched and I didn't persue it. Maybe next time.

And I got real low for the next few items. If I had known about the shoes I would have brought some knee pads. ;)  Not only was I on my hands and knees I was also on my belly for some of the shots. But I've been exercising a lot and the belly isn't what it used to be so I was able to get quite low.

One of my favorite images from the shoot.

The slacks above cause a bit of a problem. They were quite satiny and due to the direction of the main light they didn't reflect much back to the camera. I put another flash and small umbrella on the ground in a position so the specular reflections off the lower part of the slacks would reflect some light back to the camera. If I had a soft box I would hane used that instead but I didn't bring one with. But it all turned out well anyway.

This was interesting, but short!

 And finally the four young women involved in the shoot. Emilie, Chelsea, Julie, and Amanda.