The second night of Alberta Fashion Week came and went. Lots of great people and lots of great designs, including the oddly beautiful designs by Nicole Rita Tomney, who gave the crowd a unique view of her line featuring models wearing fencing masks. If you missed my post about opening night, see it here.
As for my photos so far, well, they’re getting a lot of attention, which is fantastic. People love them. As a photographer, it is always a challenge to photograph an event such as this (well, any event for that matter). Varied lighting, moving subjects, and numerous other elements can all play a part in creating photographs that work and photographs that don’t. I’ve had some practice and even though its easy to make a mistake (like accidentally leaving your exposure compensation stopped down 1.5 levels) I am always impressed with my own results. It’s what makes me enjoy doing it.
For those interested, I’m shooting this event with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 at 1000-1600 ISO in Aperture Priority mode with AI Servo on. Those may be my camera settings, but when it comes to fashion and runway shows, consistency, focus, and composition are extremely important in your photographs. When I’m going through and rating my photos from each night, I’m taking a lot of characteristics into account when selecting which photo will make it into my “public” selections (the photos that get presented to the world). If you’d like to know some things I look for, here are a select few.
When a model is walking the runway, I always try to capture them in an elegant and aesthetic pose. This can be tricky since the model is moving, but with practice, you learn where the sweet spots are in a person’s form. Capturing the model in good form in turns shows off the clothing/design. When the model has one foot forward on the catwalk, touching the ground (or close to it), you generally get a nice clean view of the footwear as well as a nice long leg visual on the model. This helps emphasize the fact that they are walking. If you get both legs side-by-side, they look like they’re just standing there. When choosing my final images, I try not to select an image where the model’s legs are side-by-side or one where they are slouched. They just look awkward.
You also want to make sure any accessories like bags, scarves, bracelets or other jewelry are visible. Remember that there is more to the design than just the featured clothing. People want to see everything. Finally, I always only select images with the model looking up (if possible). A model looking at the floor looks bored, tired, and creates an uninteresting photo. If I can get the model to look directly at me, event better, as a photograph with the model looking at the viewer makes the image much more engaging. By taking all of this into account (plus a lot more), I get a nice clean and consistent set of catwalk images throughout the event. As for my post-processing, well, maybe I’ll share that in a future post.
For more information about Alberta Fashion Week, visit them online at www.albertafashionweek.ca, or follow @abfashionweek on Twitter. Remember, if you can’t make it out, there is even a live UStream feed where you can watch all of the action live online. Watch it here.
Designers for the second night:
Ivy Rose Custom Design
– www.ivyrosecustom.com
– Ivy Rose Custom Design on CalgaryFashion.ca
Pout Clothing
– www.poutclothing.ca
– Pout Clothing on CalgaryFashion.ca
NRT Fashions
– www.facebook.com/pages/NRT-Fashions/76291391010
– NRT Fashions on CalgaryFashion.ca
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Nice shots Ian. I liked your info on how you shot these, and what you look out for while you’re shooting. I’ve worked at various magazines doing either production or design, and I’ve had to work with some surprisingly bad runway shots. Even images supplied by the designers or their PR reps need help! These would be easy to SILO also. I recently shot some portraits where the person wasn’t moving, and I neglected to notice all the wrinkles in his shirt! Too many to Photoshop-out. You’re right–so many things to take into consideration.
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[…] final night of Alberta Fashion Week was easily the best (compared to the opening night, second night, and third night). The house was packed and the designs were fabulous. There was even a little […]
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Thank you very much. No I did not use a tripod. I’ve tried using a tripod for runways before and I found it far too constricting in terms of movement, especially since models tend to more around a bit. Without a tripod, I’m free to capture the action, wherever it happens to be.
