Post Production For Fashion Photography

Post-processing of images, irrespective of genre has always had many different and conflicting ideas/approaches towards it.

Post-production at the end of the day is always a matter of choice for the photographer – whether to display it in black and white or colour, whether to make it look as close to reality or as close to losing it completely.

Fashion photography in particular, has a few important points to be kept in mind during the post-processing. Below are some pointers:

Backing up

There is a specific reason why this makes it to the top of the list. And no matter how many times you hear this from other people, it still remains an all-important, unforgettable step in photography.

You cannot leave anything to chance. Technology, even though has come such a long way, can betray you. We, even now, can’t expect an ideal world where everything is 100% reliable.

Always remember that this is the first step of the post-processing. Back up all your files into a folder. It also doesn’t do any harm to have multiple backups – one on hard drive, other on cloud, etc.

Black and white or colour

An important decision to make during post-processing is to choose between a black and white image and a colour image.

This is a decision that sometimes can be decided in the planning stage itself, before the shoot happens as per the client requirements. But, if it’s a choice left to the photographer, he/she has to make a decision on it.

When it comes to fashion photography, even though it is colour images mostly, black and white may also look extremely nice in some cases.

Black and white images appear to be more timeless than colour images and help emphasise the lines and emotions in an image.

But, if it’s about the colour of the clothing and accessories, it is certainly better to make a colour image, as this clearly draws attention to the thing that deserves the most attention – be it clothing or any other product that you are shooting for.

Retouching

Most of the photographs that we see today on the hoardings, or in web pages on the internet which emphasize fashion in some form, are retouched.

Retouching means making slight additions or alterations to the image. It covers a wide array of topics like saturation, colour-correction, whites, blacks, shadows, etc.

Retouching also means reducing the blemishes, or any other marks on the model’s face. It is done using tools like brushes and spot tool of the editing software.

But these days more and more images are kept real and none of the facial marks are reduced using the software, to showcase the true face and represent it as a normal state of being rather than a spots/acne free perfect human being.

Over or under-exposing

Over or under-exposing is used to refer to the exposure levels of a photograph, where the photographer decides to over expose or under expose an image. This can be done during the shoot or also during the post- production of the images.

It’s a conscious choice made by the photographer and there might be various reasons behind it.

Sometimes, an over-exposed photo makes everything around the subject bright and hence there are no details in other areas and therefore the only thing that remains is the subject.

Considering the clothing and accessories

This is one of the most important elements in fashion photography. When the whole purpose of an image is to promote a particular style of clothing, you have to make sure that the clothing remains the centre of attraction in the image.

Always pack your camera gadget in a strong rolling camera bags to keep them safe while traveling.

 The planning and the post-production both must be in line to enhance the fashion. In the post-production stage you must work on colour-correction as some cameras tend to exaggerate the colours of the clothing.

Make corrections in the post so as to represent the exact details of the clothing. Consider working on the saturation, vibrance and reducing specific colours of the image.

Exporting

The final step to the post-production stage is exporting the images. Remember to keep in mind the format of the image required by the client during exporting.

Give attention to the various aspects of an image during exporting like the quality, resolution, number of pixels on each side, etc. All of these must be in accordance with the client’s requirement.

At first, you can export the images to a cloud storage platform like google drive or dropbox and share a link with the client so that the client can select the final images that he needs in specific size/format.

You need a good internet connection to upload the backup to cloud storage services. You can get one by connecting to a wifi router.

Then, you can export them as required by the client and share the same using cloud storage.