Digital Fashion Photography [Paperback]

Chris Tarantino (Author), Kenneth Tan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 159200525X | ISBN-13: 978-1592005253 | Publication Date: July 8, 2005 | Edition: 1

Geared towards both professionals and people working to become professionals, this book offers essential instruction on digital fashion photography. With digital photography taking the industry by storm, this is an opportune time to learn the ins and outs of shooting models in the studio and on location by using digital equipment. This book includes how-tos for those interested or already involved in fashion photography-how to set up fashion specific shots whether in-studio or on-location, how to use digital equipment to get the shot you want, etc. With its huge audience, high paychecks and glamorous international lifestyle, fashion photography may seem like one of the world's most sought-after professions. For every fashion photographer who makes it through the door of a top magazine, a thousand others find their niche in fashion advertising, art photography, celebrity portraiture or even paparazzi work to make a living. This book combines educational digital photography information that is related to digital photography in general as well as the areas and issues indigenous to the professional fashion photography world. Its visual nature carries the same appeal as fashion magazines worldwide-people love to look at images of beautiful people. With informative content and breathtaking images, from simple to futuristic, this is undeniably an engaging book, perfect for this audience.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Tarantino is an expert at color management and retouching. His retouching work has graced many fashion and beauty magazines worldwide, including Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s Bazaar. He works with many leading photographers to help them achieve their vision in the new digital world, including Steve Meisel, Mario Testino, Melvin Sokolsky, and Enrique Badulescu. Chris is the author of Digital Photo Processing, and a contributor to leading photography and creative magazines. Currently a consultant for color management and digital workflow, as well as a high-end beauty and fashion retoucher working in New York City.

Ken Tan has been a professional photographer for over 10 years, focusing on fashion, beauty, and glamour photography. He grew up and is based in Melbourne, Australia, but lived and worked in New York for three of those years, with working visits to Brazil, Canada, and the UK. His introduction to fashion was somewhat serendipitous, having been introduced to some New York models in the mid-1990s, who offered to test with him. This led to introductions to agents, stylists, and designers, and has allowed Ken to continue to hone his craft and individual photographic style in a strongly collaborative environment. Ken continues to draw inspiration from past masters while chasing that next elusive photograph to define his work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (July 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159200525X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592005253
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Photography!, August 30, 2005

By 

Joseph Farace (Brighton, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Fashion Photography (Paperback)

From the publishers of "When Pancakes Go Bad" (What sounds like a B-grade Horror movie, is a really cool Photoshop book) comes this lushly produced book on fashion phototherapy that's more coffee table book that how-to guide and that's a good thing. Oh sure, it's full of step-by-step tips on creating fashion photographs including planning, lighting, and postproduction, but it's the images themselves that will inspire you to use these techniques to create your own fashion photographs. While the illustrations may all be from the fashion genre there's no cookie cuter approach. All of the images from have their own unique style, which also makes the book a valuable resource. A unbeatable combination of minimalist text with BIG spectacular fashion imagery make "Digital Fashion Photography" a must have book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Pictures, Great Ideas, September 13, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Fashion Photography (Paperback)

This book starts off with a chapter called 'From Film to Digital.' It used to be that we all used view cameras. Then we put in Polariod film and shot until we got what we thought we wanted. Except that Polariod just didn't have the contrast, the lustre that real film had. Then we would switch to real film. And because we could never be sure we would shoot at the exposure we thought was right then under expose a couple, then over expose a couple in hopes of getting it right. (Anybody want to buy a view camera?)

With digital, the LCD readout on the back or through the viewfinder is as perfect as it's going to get. You shoot a lot of pictures, but you vary the placement, the lights, you move things a bit. You can look for yourself or show your client the picture on a display immediately. You can save a few hundred shots on a CD-ROM and keep them forever. And the new DVD's are even better.

Of course there's a chapter on selecting a camera. This book concentrates on the professional grade cameras, not the consumer point and shoot models. These SLR camers have more pixels, more features, etc. Next year the current models will all be obsolete, the features of the SLR will be down in the point and shoot and the SLR's will have even more.

After these fundamental chapters, the next several chapters of the book are on shooting pictures of girls. How to select the model, how to position her, lighting, what props to use, a complete lesson on shooting for fashion.

>Then it's to digital retouching to get the most out of an image. And finally some tips from a pro on how to make money in this business.

Fashion photography is a nice little niche of the photographic market. There are people even in small cities making a living taking fashion pictures for advertising. Why. Look at the ads in the paper, in catalogs, on billboards.

Somebody had to take those pictures.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great step by step guide and fashion photography, November 27, 2005

By 

Lochlan Pembroke (New York NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digital Fashion Photography (Paperback)

[...]

On a positive note, this book is full of useful tips that many photographers rarely want or think to share, from how to really replicate natural light in the studio to what goes through their minds when they make selections between images after shooting. I own dozens of photographic books that claim to show you how to set up shots but generally fail to deliver anything except "lighting diagrams" with no mention of what settings on the flashes and on the camera are needed to actually create the image - Digital Fashion Photography does all this and more. There are images from Vogue and cute vignettes of celebrities like Matt LeBlanc from the hit TV series Friends.

For those looking for a photoshop tome, this is not the book for you. There are over half a dozen books focused on post-production, such as the hit masking book from Kartin Eismann. Digital Fashion Photography is about shooting the images, getting clients and working with models, all in a fashion context.

And by the way, cold calling does work. I have been a professional fashion photographer for over a decade now and cold calling is how I started out - how else would you get to know designers and clients if they don't even know you exist and you are too green for the photo agents to pick you up.

Overall a great read backed with great photography.