What is street-style fashion photography?
Ahh hello my friend it’s nice to see you again! Technically I can’t see you, but you get my point. I see you’ve returned for some more street photography content. I can satisfy that curiosity of yours, tell me what it is you’d like to learn today. Hmm? Oh, you want to create more fashion-based imagery with a flare of street photography? Ah, but you're not sure how to go about it, since street photography is similar to documentary photography and you don’t want to break those rules and end up blacklisted for life. Well, do not fret for I have got you covered! I can teach you what rules you can and can’t break. All in the name of creativity of course! No one is going to jail or perform life-ruining things.
1) What is the difference between documentary/ journalism and street-style fashion photography?
To give it to you straight it's as if editorial and street photography had a baby. It's the best of both worlds! For those of you who are unfamiliar with editorial photography. The genres focus on telling a story in a creative manner with any product/subject matter selected. In this case, we are focusing on fashion so we’ll be working with clothing to tell the story. Since we are portraying a story it does fall under the category of documentary. In this format, we have the creative freedom to either set up the look or find it naturally occurring in the city streets. No, we aren’t breaking the “don’t fake scenes in documentary/ street photography” we are accurately depicting the subject.
Side note- want to learn more about editorial photography? Check out my previous blog post :)
2. How to approach a street-style fashion shoot.
It’s like I said previously, we can either create it or find it organically in the city. I’ll go over both methods to promote brain growth.
Creating from scratch- editorial approach
You’ll have complete creative control
You’ll need to plan things out ahead of time
You need to source all of the materials and clothing
There are no limits other than your imagination
A planned shoot is reliable and guarantees you images for the day
Encountering it organically
Higher chance of capturing spontaneous and candid images
The look isn’t planned and you are at the mercy of the street photography gods- Which can be exciting! (Never guaranteed subject matter)
Meet interesting people with fun/cool styles. If you end up exchanging contact info, you could use them in future shoots.
Not much previous prep is needed other than planning which city/location and your walking route
Steps to execute a shoot
Choose a theme-
Create a mood board or sketch to illustrate the look and feel of the concept
Select a location for the shoot.
Hire talent and source materials for the shoot (clothing, lighting, model/HMA, etc)
Communicate with talent and those that you’ll be working with and update them accordingly
Day of the shoot- assemble everyone involved to execute the vision
Edit and deliver images to those that were involved- give proper credit when posting
Repeat
3)Conclusion
If you like fashion and street photography this is the genre for you! Depending on which approach you do will determine which cartography your imagery falls into more. Remember to follow the proper “rules” to ensure an accurate representation of ideas and people. Don’t let that last sentence scare you away if you have any questions. Review this blog x or shoot me a question on Instagram or email. As always I’d love to see your creation so tag me :)
