How to get the photos that you want
As creatives, we almost always have a vision before shooting, a certain look we want to achieve. Sometimes it can be hard to get that certain look, if you’re just shooting as you go. So today we’re going to talk about planning, creating a moddboard, and chosing the right team to work with. To explain how I go about this we’re going to use a Skincare shoot in the studio as an example.
Before the shoot, before anything happens at all you need to create a moodboard. For my example shoot I want the look of the photos to be very clean and minimalistic. Some of the products are colorful some are seethrough serums, I want my backdrop to be white for the colorful products so the product-colors pop more, and I want the backdrop for the serums to be colorful to have a colorful look overall for the final images.
After I have finished the moodboard I start looking for a model. In this case I want the model to have clear skin and a friendly face. She shouldn’t look too young, but still have youthful skin to make the products look good. I either reach out to a Modeling Agency or search for somebody on Instagram.
Once I have found the model it’s time to schedule and plan the shoot. For each product I’m planning in about 10-20 minutes of shooting time, so I have enough time to experiement with different angles, poses and so on. I also make sure to show the model some reference photos/my moodboard, so they know what poses and facial expressions I am looking for. While shooting it’s also important to keep in mind the crops and angles you want in your final photos. You can of course crop any image in post processing, but if you have to option to simply take the photo a little closer the final photo will have much better quality.
And that’s basically everything that goes into planning a skincare shoot! If it were a classic Beauty Shoot with a Make-up Artist on set, I would plan in about 2 hours for makeup and enough time to fit in a second look, around 30 minutes for makeup and 20 mintues for each look to photograph. The second look usually is just a small change to the first look – change up the lip color or make the eye makeup more intense for example.
After the shoot is finished it’s time for editing and retouching. Take a look at your moodboard again and make sure the photos you select match with your original vision. When editing, try to stick to colors and light that also goes along with your moodboard. Keeping all of this in mind when finishing up the images will get you the exact photos you want – guaranteed!
If you want to learn more about editing and retouching check out my Masterclasses here!
