Planning your Lookbook Photoshoot: Useful tips

January 13, 2023
6:00 pm
Industry Insights
Catalog Photography, Fashion Photography

It takes more than just designing clothes, picking fabrics, and making patterns to create a collection. If you want to successfully market your brand, a collection also has steps after the samples are made, such as advertising, runway shows, and photo sessions. The major instrument for selling your collection to buyers, editors, and the press is the photo session, commonly referred to as a campaign or Lookbook Photoshoot in the Fashion Photography.

The best time to shoot your campaign is before your runway show, giving your photographer enough time to edit and polish the proofs so you may reveal the collection to the public the day following your show on your website and social media.

Planning your Lookbook Photoshoot — Source image: Keilegn June

Why Shoot a Lookbook?

Depending on who you ask, a Lookbook might signify different things. It can be easily compared to “catalog photography“, but with a more casual and natural setting.

Therefore, the models will be displayed in natural settings as opposed to posing in front of a white wall in a studio.

What, therefore, distinguishes an editorial from a Lookbook Photoshoot? The most obvious distinction is that Lookbooks don’t include the visual narratives seen in fashion magazines.

Shooting an editorial is more difficult than shooting a Lookbook. Simply explained, there is no need for challenging poses. True, the majority of Lookbook Photographs just call for the models to stand straight.

The fashion sector commonly uses Lookbooks to advertise its items online. Because of their eye-catching colors and distinctive patterns, they are more successful at drawing customers than catalogs.

This Lookbook aims to showcase a wide range of potential outfit combinations. In contrast to a highly stylized editorial, a Lookbook portrays wearers in circumstances that are more authentic. Because of this, many people can relate to them.

Reasons To Create A Lookbook

A “Lookbook” can be used to describe a variety of things. Making “looks” for customers is a terrific method to persuade people to consider what they want to buy and how they might combine various items. If a customer enjoys how you style an item or how you dress, they are more likely to purchase it themselves or to purchase something else they may not have previously thought to purchase.

Additionally, offering worthwhile content gives you a chance to humanize your business in the eyes of the customer and increase their perception of its value. Through social media shares, pins, re-grams, and other free promotional methods, inspiring content can gain exposure.

Let’s go over how to create a Lookbook that will result in lots of purchases, pins, and social media shares. Even while the task at hand can seem enormous, it can be divided into smaller, more doable tasks.

Planning Before Filming

Budget

It’s a good idea to start by analyzing your financial status. Spending time preparing, imagining, and hoping for a wonderful idea only to discover that you lack the means to make it a reality is not something you want to do.

Inspirational Leadership

Your creative thinking will be more influenced if you are aware of your financial limitations. Making a tissue paper “mood board” to represent the desired emotion is one useful trick.

Building a Pinterest board or taking screenshots of webpages are examples of “pulling tears,” as is tearing pages out of publications and catalogs.

Put your work in a digital format so that other team members can access it conveniently.

Review and keep in mind the product you are filming while sobbing to make sure there isn’t a misalignment between your vision and the situation you have to cope with.

For instance, it may be difficult to execute your vision for a photo in a sleek contemporary home if your company has a more bohemian aesthetic.

After putting together your mood board, choose whether you want to realize your vision in a studio or on location.

Booking

I think that having a great product is secondary to employing the right people and that having a great location is even more important when it comes to running a successful business. Talent counts when it comes to taking images. Talented people have the ability to transform even the most unattractive environment into something wonderful.

Not that location is unimportant; in fact, when combined with expert subjects and an intriguing backdrop, it may have a tremendous impact on a photographer’s work. For a Lookbook Photoshoot, all of the following must be booked in advance:

Photographer: Great art can only be created by great artists.
Model: Pick a person who best represents the brand’s ideals and to who the target market can readily relate to. A trained model knows the ideal directions, facial expressions, poses, and naturalness to use. It can take several hundred photos before you discover one you like if you don’t employ a professional model. A time-saving model will be useful (which is the same thing as money).
Depending on your unique situation and budget, a stylist may be a crucial member of your team. They are able to put together the looks, find the ideal accessories, make the item fit properly on stage, and even provide some creative direction that is in keeping with fashion.
What looks well on camera may not always look good to the untrained eye when it comes to hair and makeup. It’s a smart idea to hire a specialist with experience in hair and makeup for photography. For instance, the flash will create shadows that will intensify the illusion of your model having a smoky eye. To get the intended effect in a movie, a makeup artist must be able to adjust to various lighting situations.
In most businesses, you, the brand representative, take on the position of an art director or creative director. In an emergency, this person might be in charge of planning everything from the lunch to the shot list, location, transportation, and more.
Hire a producer or personal assistant if you can. Your staff may concentrate on what they do best by hiring a producer or PA. They will deal with anything that comes up, including meals, transportation, licenses, call sheets, steaming, and permissions.
If the photographer does not have a private shooting space, studio time must be reserved. Obtaining permission to film in public areas, renting a home, or using a hotel or other commercial property may be necessary, depending on where you intend to shoot.
You could wish to hire a set designer and a prop stylist if you’re filming at a studio and want to create a specific atmosphere. Being photogenic is different from simply having beautiful looks.

Schedule Of Events

Going into a photo shoot without first making a shot list is strongly advised. Your highly qualified team of professionals won’t be able to tell what’s going on if it’s all in your head. Your highly qualified team of specialists won’t understand what’s going on if it’s just in your head.

Even if you can’t forecast the specifics, you should strive to plan out each conceivable outfit in as much detail as you can in advance. Tears should be shed if you are able to.

The more you can plan ahead, the more you can film, and the more prepared you’ll be to deal with any problems that may come up before or during production.

Your shot list should at the very least contain some fundamental creative direction as well as a list of looks (and items, if appropriate).

Using your stylist in this way is highly advised because they will be able to help you build the looks and offer insight on styling and accessories, making your work easier and your partnership more effective.

Don’t think you can shoot better than you can. I’ve observed that you may photograph between 10 and 30 looks for a Lookbook in a single day.

If you need to travel to several locations in one day or if you want to take your time refining each shot, keep in mind that the total will be on the low side. Prioritizing your shot list is crucial if time is of the essence.

Helpful Hints For Arranging A Photoshoot

Find A Trustworthy Photographer

Photographers frequently have a major impact on how well final photographs turn out. The outcome will depend on each person’s unique photographic abilities as well as their sense of style and capacity for productive teamwork.

Finding a photographer who is reputable and willing to sign a contract is essential to avoid problems with copyright, unethical behavior, unprofessionalism and miscommunicated prices.

Have A Model Search

When looking for an acceptable model, you can have an abundance of options or a lack of them, depending on where your firm is located.

You can immediately reduce the number of candidates in your city by only inviting models who are committed to attending the fitting.

A model whose work ethic or personality conflicts with yours or the members of your team shouldn’t be hired.

Think It Through, Try It Out, See If It Works

Although it may seem obvious to prepare the hair and makeup, as a designer who has shot countless collection ads, I can promise you that the model will not appear as you anticipated unless you test the full look on the identical model with the same hair and makeup artist.

Still, Time Constraints Force You To Accept It

Because hiring a photographer, a hair and makeup artist, and a stylist for a photo shoot comes at a significant cost, it is essential to manage time and expectations prior to the session by organizing, testing, and fitting all of the components.

Get Some Extra Hands

According to certain fashion houses, a decent photoshoot only requires a photographer, a model, and a clothes rack. We know better than some fashion designers, who could think that all you need is a hip photographer, makeup artist, and model.

Your team will get overburdened by all the clothing, props, angles, fittings, and looks if you don’t hire extra personnel to steam garments, organize looks, and keep things operating.

Even for those on a low budget, reaching out to nearby institutions in search of volunteers eager to pitch in for the purpose of experience is a wise approach.

Simplify

If you intend to shoot in an editorial environment with five models, distracting lighting, and props, the node won’t only take away from the outfit. The audience will be drawn to the poses and attire of the one model in a basic background with a refined style.

Consider Some Model Lookbook Samples

The greatest way to learn how to photograph a fashion Lookbook is to study such examples. Almost all big apparel brands today have a web-based storefront. Instagram is a terrific tool for quickly browsing image examples from a company. Make notes as you see each label achieve a range of looks.

Take note of the intriguing ways that they blend clothing to produce distinctive styles. Finding the companies that are a good fit for your photos will thus be less difficult for you.

You should also observe the models’ postures. All but one of them are elementary in nature and don’t require any special expertise to use. Knowing the best positions for your Lookbook will save you a lot of time when directing people.

And finally, when browsing a Lookbook, take note of the atmosphere. In the fashion sector, brand identities are crucial. They range from those who favor an unconventional appearance to others who favor a rustic appearance. To gain a feel of how each label expresses its sense of fashion, look at the models’ postures, the environments, and the actual clothing.

How often do the models seem to be grinning in the pictures? How detailed and intricate are the images, or are they simpler? What feelings do they make you feel?

The atmosphere of the Lookbook will be enhanced by understanding how these aspects affect your mood.

You Can Use Your Friends As Models

The fact that a big crew is not necessary while filming a Lookbook is one of its appeals. It’s always useful to have a model, a stylist, and a makeup artist on hand. A stylist and model, or even just a model, is generally enough, though.

If you’re short on cash for a Lookbook, you may always ask your friends for help. They can be interested in fashion or just what models wear.

Everyone is familiar with at least one or two persons who like to be the center of attention. If you don’t have the money to pay anyone, you can swap your photographs with newbies in return for their services. TFP is an abbreviation for “Time For Print.”

Snapping Photos For A Lookbook

You spent a lot of time getting ready for this day, and now it has come! If you hired the right people, everyone would have what they need to complete their tasks properly. Here are a few things to bear in mind.

To Arrive First Is A Great Accomplishment

Take your time, please. You and the photographer should be able to exchange ideas and resolve any issues during setup.

Be prepared since the unexpected could happen. Deliver the subject of the filming (unless you choose to hand that off to the producer beforehand).

To use as a reference as you work, have a physical copy of your creative brief, mood board, and shot list nearby (or save them as editable digital documents on a mobile device).

You can check the clip to make sure what you had in mind was captured by doing so. It’s important to annotate papers because you’ll frequently need to make last-minute changes, add remarks, or rearrange them.

It’s Important To Remember The Snacks

At all times today, maintain your focus and be aware of how many shots you have fired.

Once you’ve moved past the first few glances, you’ll want to maintain that momentum as long as you can. Snacks on hand are beneficial. Did I forget to mention snacks?

Bring a musical instrument, please. When no one speaks during a shot, it is just slightly more uncomfortable.

Image Utilization

At all times today, maintain your focus and be aware of how many shots you have fired.

Once you’ve moved past the first few glances, you’ll want to maintain that momentum as long as you can. Snacks on hand are beneficial. Did I forget to mention snacks?

Bring a musical instrument, please. When no one speaks during a shot, it is just slightly more uncomfortable.

The images should be “shoppable.” Make it simple for your customers to find the products fast so they can convert and make a purchase, no matter what platform you are utilizing.
To present a consistent brand image to your customer, time your use of various channels and mediums to display the photographs.
Be very clear about your permissions to use the photos (from the photographer and the models), and don’t violate them. The majority of periods are for advertising, web, print, or social media for 6–12 months.

Is there a reason my Product Line should have a printed Lookbook?

Some designers employ digital Lookbooks, which are portions of a website that feature a variety of outfits and collections.

There is no justification for not having a Lookbook in hard copy and online (in fact, it is recommended).

Your business can gain from using a high-quality printed Lookbook as part of your marketing plan by

Successfully getting others to notice you. A printed brochure demonstrates your commitment to your work and the expertise with which you have promoted your goods.
Inflated perception of your brand’s size. Consider yourself a small or starting company. This may give the impression to prospective customers that you manage a more substantial company with a larger budget, have had some level of success, and are trustworthy.
Long enough to eventually be read by someone. If an email or link is sent to a buyer or consumer in the fashion sector at the incorrect time, they might never see it again. On the other hand, a printed fashion brochure can wait on a desk till the reader has some free time to read it. Although a buyer is much less likely to wade through emails to find your proposal, at least it will be physically stacked with the other proposals.
Being ready and having a short response time. In the event that you run into a possible customer or buyer, a printed Lookbook can double as a business card. It will whet their appetite until you ask them to see your collection in person.

FAQs about LookBook Photoshoot

What Is Lookbook Photoshoot?

A Lookbook Photoshoot consists of a selection of images put together to showcase a clothing brand, a fashion aesthetic, or a stylist. Throughout the year, bloggers and vloggers will frequently “model” current trends. Many fashion designers now use Lookbooks, which are professional portfolios, to show off their goods.

What Is Included In A Lookbook?

A Lookbook is a gallery of images assembled to highlight a particular model, photographer, look, stylist, or brand of apparel. Bloggers and vloggers frequently “model” the latest trends for the month or season. This provides visitors with outfit styling inspiration or demonstrates the newest trends.

How Do I Create A Personal Lookbook?

Make a page for the introduction that is appealing.
Make Easy Navigation.
Make your product descriptions appealing.
Add ‘Buy’ buttons.
Provide contact information.
Invest in Top-Notch Visuals.
Share a Story.
Consider Your Brand’s Personality.

How Long Should A Lookbook Be?

The length of your Lookbook is entirely up to you. Depending on the job, mine often run 25 to 30 pages. It might go longer if it’s a TV show and I have to cover a lot of characters or some ongoing concepts. I try to keep each of them to a few hundred words or less.

Why Is Lookbook Important?

A Lookbook’s Objective is to present a brand or designer’s most recent collection in a favorable, commercial light. The Lookbook would be given to buyers of important fashion retailers by conventional fashion brands in an effort to (hopefully) persuade them to carry the new line.

That’s Lookbook Photoshoot! Use your photos, create a brand identity, engage your customer, and see what a difference quality photography can make.

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