A Guide to Photographing Fashion Week Shows

Upon entering my first London Fashion Week show in September I felt completely thrown in at the deep end! The experience was certainly a learning curve and so I thought I would share what I learnt about taking photographs there. I arrived weighed down by cameras: my dad's faithful DSLR which unfortunately likes to misbehave every two photos, a college DSLR (a Canon EOS 1000D), an external flash and a compact digital camera.  

The Holly Fulton show

I was so excited to be invited to Holly Fulton as my first show, even with a standing only ticket. The thing about standing only tickets is that you often have a bit of freedom to position yourself as best you can. A gap on the floor can actually be better for photographs than a second row seat with a head blocking the view. However, for Holly Fulton in the Somerset House BFC/Courtyard Show Space I didn't get the best view. What would have made it better would have been if my camera lense had the ability to zoom in further, but to make up for this I had to severely crop my photos later. After much experimentation I found that the most effective method was to use the Canon EOS 1000D with its own internal flash. My photos much improved over the course of that one show, but I found myself disappointed overall.
I do personally have a thing against flash however and try to use it minimally in all my work both at college and for this blog. After the first day I continued with the Canon DSLR and had my compact camera as a spare. A DSLR (Digital Single Lense Reflex) is desirable but even smart phones can have amazing cameras these days. I was at a ball really struggling with light and distance once when someone on the next table was getting perfect images with their iPhone! Just work with the best equipment you've got. In the future I personally will be thinking about investing in a set of lenses as right now I only have the basic one which came with the Canon EOS 550D I was lucky enough to get just before Christmas.

At the Stency Kidega show a low F Stop means the detail of the garment is in focus but the background is soft

A low F Stop and a quick shutter speed make a happy picture.
I generally shoot on the manual mode where I concern myself with aperture and shutter speed. The F Stop is basically the measure of aperture. If the number is low it actually means the aperture is wide, letting lots of light into the camera, it also means that a smaller area is in focus. When you apply this to street style it means a light image with the background soft and the subject sharp, and this applies to your own outfit photos too! In contrast a high F Stop number means a small aperture only letting a little light in but with more of the image sharply in focus. This could be useful when photographing highly detailed embellishment close up. To play around with aperture alone you can go to the aperture priority setting (AV on the dial) and let the camera choose a shutter speed for you. 

Shoe street style where the focus gets softer in the distance

Shutter speed is the measure of how long light is let into the camera for. A quick shutter speed freezes movement, like the sport mode if you want it automatically, whilst a long one allows time for a blur of movement which can look great to create atmosphere or capture the movement of fabric. It's hard to hold a camera perfectly still but a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second helps combat any camera shake which may occur. Whatever camera you have, unless you're going for a special artistic effect hold it as steady as you can. Like with aperture you can head to the shutter speed priority mode (TV) and play whilst letting the camera pick an aperture for you.
If possible from your position try to take a photograph as the model strikes a pose!

A model strikes a pose at the Elisa Palomino show

ISO. I am also going to mention ISO here, though it's not something I personally mess around with too often. The ISO relates to how sensitve a film or digital sensor is to light. If the light is bright you may as well use a low ISO such as 100 to create a high quality image, but increasing the number and therefore sensitivity is another way to capture a brighter image if it's dark. However, turning the ISO number up also decreases quality, possibly to a point which can be problematic, especially when you reach a number such as 1600 or even 6400! Most of the time I shoot on the auto setting with regards to ISO, but it's something I'll consider getting to grips with more in the future. 

Bright contrasting light at Obscure Couture

When it comes to fashion shows which I am going to review the main point of taking the photographs is to capture the clothes as best I can. I apply a low F stop with a wide aperture. This allows lots of light to come in even though I will also be using a short shutter speed to freeze the walk of the catwalk model. At Michael van der Ham I'd been so used to dark spaces and struggling to let enough light in I actually didn't use as short a shutter speed as I could have, and some shots weren't as sharp as I'd have liked.

The bright light of the Michael van der Ham show

Meanwhile if you're photographing outside or are invited backstage it's a better opportunity to be imaginative and have fun with your photos! Then it's more about atmosphere and activity than pressure to capture the clothes perfectly.
Editing your photos.
Sometimes despite my best efforts the photos will come out a little dark. At times I have prioritised capturing the clothes over light and then I really need to edit carefully. I personally edit on the free tool of Picnik, though with its closure approaching on 19th April I do need to find an alternative. However, these general principles apply to other editing softwear.

Exposure. When the photo is dark due to a short shutter speed and exposure, and therefore needs lightening I find that increasing the exposure during editing can actually bring out a lot of 'noise' within the picture. This is the digital equivalent of a grainy film photo but tends not to look quite so snazzy but brings out odd red and green specks. Instead I often find it is better to increase the highlights, more than once if necessary. Shadows are useful to give an image more of a sense of depth and I usually add them a little to make the image pop. The audience and background equipment will already not be the main focus where I have used a low aperture, but increasing the shadows can also make them more subtle by enveloping them in darkness so that they detract less from the main subject. 

The scene is enveloped in shadow at the Inbar Spector show

Colour. Sometimes because of the lighting the pictures can turn out a little warmer than I want too, turning a crisp white into a cream. If this happens I head to the colours menu to make the temperature cooler and possibly to desaturate the colour a little.

Photographing the exhibitions. Here I still tend to use a low F Stop aperture for a soft scene in the background, but the whole issue of shutter speed is less troublesome as there is no movement involved. Play around with it though as the lighting will be variable. You can also spend longer taking photos of the same thing until you're happy which is very lovely.

J Smith Esquire millinery in the Somerset House exhibition

Be sure to pack your charger in your bag! On the end of first day I was actually photographing the Vauxhall Fashion Scout exhibition when my camera battery died. Luckily I could come back another day, but it would have been stressful if this had happened in a show! Press and blogging areas are handy with sockets and I was lucky to have a good hotel location, which I will happily be using again this time, allowing me to go back for an hour in the afternoon and recharge both my batteries and my camera's.
Don't panic! This is one I should tell myself more often. If your pictures don't work out it's not the end of the world. I was quite worried after Holly Fulton, but I got better as I went along. Some PRs actually send out images after the show or you can write to them and ask. You may even have a fellow blogger friend who can help you out if you ask and credit them. Just take the best images you can and create an awesome review in your own style, and you can't do any better than that.

Light and airy street style outside Somerset House

Enjoy yourself! Any lover of fashion will also love the thrill of a live show. It takes a lot of blogging dedication to get to Fashion Week but as you've earned it you can jolly well have an amazing time! Of course I can transfer these principals and skills I learnt by the cobbles of Somerset House to New York, Milan, Paris or any other fashion events I attend and hopefully I will continue to improve. I'm not a photography expert but I like to think I'm coming along nicely and I hope this blog post will help anyone similarly thrown in at the deep end this coming season. New York Fashion Week has already arrived and I'm so excited to be heading back to London next week!