Karina Dobra and Robert Tate at FD Studios answer most common questions about fashion photography, found online!
Without knowing what the next question might be, it was hilarious to watch the reaction of our beloved photographers, surprised by what people can possibly ask on the web about their profession!
The full interview is available of YOUTUBE. For your convenience, here is the transcript of it as well.
Robert Tate: How are you guys doing? My name is Robert Tate. I’m a fashion photographer based in LA.
Karina: My name is Karina, I’m a fashion and editorial photographer based in Los Angeles.
Robert Tate: Today we’re gonna answer some of the most googled questions about fashion photography.
Karina: Me? You? I’m confused.
Robert Tate: I have absolutely no idea.
Karina: I’m like going in a different direction.
Robert Tate: Why be a fashion photographer? Don’t. All right, here we go. Let’s get started. How does fashion photographers make money? That’s a tough one. The most common way is being hired by a brand. You have look books, you have just kind of general marketing content. There’s always the e-commerce photos that you have to shoot as well, which is essentially just the photos that kinda go up on their website and things like that, that they use to sell their clothing.
Karina: What is high fashion photography? To me high fashion photography is something very edgy, unique. It’s not about classy looking people, it’s something, someone who’s edgy. But again, it’s all very subjective because everybody has their own taste and interest. For me this will be a high fashion photography, for someone else it won’t be.
Robert Tate: How to do fashion photography at home. I mean, I think the good thing about fashion photography is that it is about the fashion. It really doesn’t matter where the setting is ’cause the focus of it is really the fashion. You have a fashion concept and you can kind of make the style of shooting fit to where you are.
Karina: How much do fashion photographers charge? Well, it all depends. If you’re shooting for a private client, for a company, for a brand, who is … you’re shooting for. Yeah, it can start from a few hundred to thousands of hundreds of dollars. I need to think about it.
Robert Tate: I’ll take it. You want me to take it first?
Karina: No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, I’m gonna do that one . Okay.
Robert Tate: You’re getting the whole history .
Do fashion photographers sleep with models? Wow, that’s awkward. If they want to. I don’t know. I mean, I think when it comes to photography, it’s just like any other industry. If you have a connection with somebody, you have a connection with somebody. If you don’t, you don’t. I mean, that’s … You could honestly ask that question about any industry, so yeah, I guess my answer is if they want to. Oh, man, it was just getting good, man.
Karina: What camera do fashion photographers use? Oh, there’s a huge number of cameras. There are like Nikon, Canon, Sony, Phase One, which is a very expensive camera, I’ve shot with it a few times. It’s good for the billboards. Yeah, I mean, but it costs like $50,000 just for the body, and plus lenses, it’s gonna cost you a fortune. But those cameras are used mostly for billboards and for production. But personally I prefer Nikon, that’s what I shoot with.
Robert Tate: What lens do fashion photographers use? The second most common question. Again, I would answer that with, it depends on the project. I personally like … I do kinda like a classic run and gun look, so when I’m outdoors I really prefer a 35 millimeter just because I kinda like the organic on the run, you know, to me it gives you the perfect amount of background and subject. Indoors, I would probably, 99% of the time I’d go with the 24 to 70. And if you’re doing portraits, I mean, the go to portrait lens for most of the photographers that I know are 50 millimeter or 85 millimeter.
If you guys have any more questions about fashion photography, feel free to send them, and we’ll do our best to give you guys an answer.
Check out our WORKSHOPS in Los Angeles that teach you hands-on how to make great photos!
One of our closest workshops – “Studio Lighting 102 : Portrait Photography Lighting” Workshop!
will take place on April 10th, 7-9pm, in one of our Los Angeles studios !!!