Special Locations for Fashion Photography

Usually, model photography is done in studios with tons of artificial lighting and a more predictable environment. However, I am a more free bird and outdoors are my playground. Still, remember our wedding photos from the abandoned hotel? Locations like this are more like my studio and this time we found a shipwreck!

Lighting

In addition, I also don’t use artificial lights, strobes or flash. Honestly, at fashion photography it would be more than welcome, but hey… There is a difference between photographer and artist, I guess. I am more the second one, so lights here aren’t important.

Well, not really. Light is very important, especially in fashion photography. A model must be bright and dress should shine with all the details. My most common source of light is the sun of course and I am not gonna lie – it is the best and the worst at the same time. Sun can be harsh, too weak or simply in the wrong direction. When we were shooting this fashion sets it was definitely too harsh. I could only get sun inside this empty water tank around 3 O’clock and usually at this time sun is too strong if there are no clouds around.

As shown above, this time we experimented with this golden reflector. Experimental lighting, we could say. Well, it was a much better idea on the field, though. Back at home when I started editing photos and got a mix of blue, white, yellow and shines of desperation on her face, it was a totally different story. But hey, a few tweaks and the Instagram filter does a trick 😉

I Knew It – Photoshop!

Of course, how else do you think I can add Vivi’s missing tooth? Photoshop is my tool and when it comes to fashion photography it is super important to edit your photos. Or let me say with other words – when you are shooting your wife at 3 O’clock on 35C degrees, only god and editing software can help you. In short, I rather work three days on my computer, than have a Vivi on the dark side.

Girls can be on the dark side when you take photo wrong. Luckily at professional fashion photography, there is a model out of the process. Stylist, photographers, directors are safe, he he…

Photo Styles

Filters, presets, unicorn sparkles whatever you call it… Every photo has its own style and with editing, you achieve this. In fact, this style you can see in this gallery is far cry from my style. I more like settled colors, less contrast and without unicorn semen all over the image, but… When it comes to fashion photography this style is more suitable. However, an example is here.

Seriously, Lightroom Presets?

Some people are naive enough and buy lightroom presets out there from all sorts of insta(nt) bloggers and wizards. Don’t waste your money, for something you can make by yourself. Firstly, a photograph is your product, so finish your god damn product. Why the hell you wanna achieve the same look as it is on 70 percent Instagram accounts. And for a bonus, even the same locations and same compositions…

Secondly, those presets will just tweak a few parameters and your photo will still be away from good looking. Usually, you need to tweak much more. So, why not learn and do your style after all. Youtube is full of tutorials and hints on how to edit your photo. Ou, by the way, keep it up with us. I will publish my Lightroom preset soon. It will be only 50 USD. Hint: it will also change your chair to pink.

Can I do Fashion Photography?

Of course, if you have a camera or phone and a model. By the way, if you are not lucky like me and there is no Vivi who would stay with golden cellophane in the middle of a shipwreck – find another model. When Vivi is not in the mood I bribe our pooch, for example.

Just do some great shots and be a fashion photographer. Who knows, maybe it will become your passion and you will be next Richard Avedon (R.I.P.). Same as we, jooking around and doing shoots for my artism (unserious condition) and who knows, maybe one day I will be with big fancy strobe light doing professional fashion photography with German models.

What the Hell is This All About?

Why this fashion photography in the middle of nowhere? Actually, it is quite fun, but this last picture is a real reason. I just need new material for my art playing. See you next time in our fashion photography for dummies. Ouu, here is a link to a gallery of this catwalk photoshoot.

The post Fashion Photography – Shipwreck appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

Never turn a back to your joy.

Never mind, it will come back.

Water is calling her…

Everywhere she goes.

I am not kidding! Hoi An tailor clothes are perfect!

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OBeach dress 2019, my friends.

For You

Details are making perfection.

The post HOI AN FASHION SHOOTING VOL. 2 appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

Now, we are posting our first Hoi An dress shooting gallery. Keep in mind we are not models nor fashion photographers, but we had great fun that afternoon. So in the future, you can expect some more ‘fashion’ shots. If you like this Hoi An dress gallery, here is our second gallery from the same photoshoot. And don’t forget to visit the right tailor shop in Hoi An. Just be sure you chose the right one as we did.

Sometimes we just need to close our eyes and listen to what surrounding has to say.

Find your happiness!

How to please your wife? Buy her a nice tailor-made here in Hoi An, and don’t be a dick!

Why a photographer doesn’t like autoportraits? Let’s just say it is a curse!

A curse!!!

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That look!

Hoi An tailor dress and sand are just perfect combination.

If there only were some good shoe makers 🙂

Use some creativity when you are making fashion photography.

The post Hoi An Dress Shooting Vol. 1 appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

The Best Tailor in Hoi An

What is the best tailor shop in Hoi An? Usually, we avoid using “the best” because we think that it’s important to try every single one in town to claim that title. I have had some previous experience with tailor-made clothes and here in Hoi An, with two tailor shops. One was quite alright, but a little bit stressful, while the other was an extremely positive surprise.

Well, the internet has the answer to everything you need and there are tons of reviews and articles about tailor shops here in Hoi An. After all, if you are reading these, you already know that. As we found out, a lot of tailors only take your measurements and the clothing is actually made in a “central workshop”, which is not the perfect option if you ask me. If you ever had tailor-made clothes, you will know what I am talking about.

The first rule is: find a real tailor! This is the only way to guarantee that your clothes will be exactly what you want and that they will fit perfectly. Our next step before heading to this particular Hoi An tailor was to talk about it with our local friend, and he confirmed our finding. Research got us to Be Be Tailor, and locals have a good opinion about them. Hmmmm. That’s a good sign.

I truly believe we found one of the finest tailors in town. We got this feeling in the first minute that we walked into the massive shop. Extremely nice service, endless shelves of fabrics and most importantly, you can see how they make your clothing. As we found out later, there are some other properties which can confirm my thoughts, that this is in fact the best Hoi An tailor shop.

Getting Clothes Made in Hoi An

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? We came to Be Be’s without any idea of what we would like to get, we weren’t even sure if we were going to buy anything. Their huge store and professionalism quickly changed our minds. You wouldn’t believe how much fun it is to design your own clothes.

First, we were given an iPad and the simple task of choosing the model of dress we liked. For me, it was an easy task, but Vivi had more of a hesitation: should it be more formal, casual, long, short, what colors, etc., and when she finally found a dress, she wasn’t entirely sure, because there was another one she also liked. So, we solved that problem very easily: we’re getting two dresses.

Choosing the designs took only an hour, what I think is not much for a woman. If only it could always be like this, instead of spending hours walking through shopping malls, the world might be a nicer place – if you ask me. After choosing the design, we moved to the next step, which is choosing the textile: all the colors and fabrics, amazing patterns, in all possible variations.

I think that could easily be a task in which Vivi would be lost for days if the lady helping us out hadn’t been that skillful. She knew exactly what kind of material we needed for our clothes and what fabric would work for the dresses. I admire how she knew where they kept each fabric, since the selection is really huge. There is no way they would hire me there: “Just give me one hour, sir, I know we have grey cotton here somewhere…”.

Making a Dress is an Art in Itself

Design: check. Fabrics: check. Measurements took five minutes and a lady was already drawing our dress into her notebook, a process that is an art in itself. I needed to take photos, just to show you how amazing it is to see how the words of our descriptions were put into a drawing.

At noon, we were drinking our coffee in the nearby café and thinking about what had just happened. In two hours, we had chosen our clothing design, taken measurements, arranges all the details and made an appointment for our first fitting the very next day. Honestly, I was a little skeptical about how they would manage to keep the promise.

After all, Vivi’s dresses were complicated and I had ordered trousers and three different designs of shirts. Obviously, we were really astonished by the speed because we forgot our camera there. Yes, that happened! Luckily, everything was ok with the camera when we went back that afternoon and since we were in the shop, they invited us to see our clothes being made. They were sewing our design soon after we left the store, amazing. We didn’t watch the production for too long, but I got to take some interesting photos.

Amazing How Quick You Can Have a New Hoi An Tailor Dress

The next day went just as planned: we had our first fitting and the clothes were already beautiful. They marked the changes and secured the small corrections, treated us with a drink, and then we were off to go sightseeing. Later in the day, we returned for the last fitting and just like that, almost everything fitted well.

At that time, I decided to have tighter pants and Vivi changed something to her primary design. Seems like even that wasn’t a big deal for them. They said we could get our clothes on the same day as they originally planned, but our schedule made us push it back to another day. Amazing! Vivi’s dresses were astonishing and came out even better than we thought. My shirts were just like I want them and the pants even had one small detail I had asked for.

Everything was very quick and I believe this is important because 90% of tourists in Hoi An have limited time in the town. You really don’t want to spend holidays in the fitting room and keep returning to tailor shop for corrections. This is something that makes them the best Hoi An tailor: speed and flexibility. We were at Be Be’s four times altogether, but one of those was because of the forgotten camera. I can talk also about the quality, which obviously is very important for the final product.

The Quality of Hoi An Clothing

I am writing this article three months after our visit to Hoi An (ashamed of how slow we are with our writing) and this clothing is still like new. I have a feeling these will be my favorite shirts and I want them to last. For Vivi, I know these are her top dresses. She has some other really nice tailor-made dresses, but with these, I can see a sparkle in her eyes. Hence, talking about quality. You can follow us and count how many times these clothes will be in our photos. Remember, we are on the road for a long time and our wardrobe is small.

If you will ever be in Hoi An, it would be a sin not to get tailor-made clothes. From our experience, I warmly recommend Be Be Tailor. On my last trip here, I stopped in another tailor shop, which was a waste of time. Their small supply of fabrics and a lot of fixings they had to make on the final product, started my nerves. They changed one of my buttons, which was different than others, only one hour before my departure. “Hey bus driver, can you wait. My tailor is just fixing a button. Ou you are in Hue already. Ok, then…” This time, my experience was totally different.

 Here are our first and second dress ‘show off gallery’, where you can see for yourself how great is our new couture. If you need any fashion photographer let us know. Apparently, we can do it 🙂

The post Hoi An Tailor Experience appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.