Clothing Photography: Step-by-Step Guide to Stunning Clothing

Capturing stunning clothing photos is a significant step toward showcasing apparel in the best light. Great clothing photography not only highlights the product’s design, texture, and fit but also creates a lasting impression on potential customers. 

Therefore, how to take photos of clothes for sale online that are new, unique, and have their own "quality" is an issue that businesses need to pay attention to. Please refer to the step-by-step guide for taking impressive photos of clothing from Mosyne in the article below!

Step 1: Prepare tools

Before taking photos, you need to fully prepare tools such as cameras, tripods, lighting equipment. Fully preparing these devices will produce beautiful photos that do not require much editing in post-production.

Camera

For clothes, you should choose a digital camera instead of a film camera because digital cameras produce sharper photos. However, if your clothing concept has an artistic feel, you can use a film camera to create a more “cool” lookbook shoot.

Tripod

A tripod helps to stabilize the camera, avoiding the situation of shaking the image when holding it by hand. You should prepare a tripod that can be adjusted to many levels. 

Lighting equipment

You should choose lighting equipment that is a set of three lights to set up three light points. These are the fill light, the main light, and the backlight. In addition, you also need to add a product light to take pictures of clothing in case you take photos in dark areas.

Photography Background

Among the types of backgrounds, a white background helps to highlight the beauty of the product and does not cause image interference. The background should be about 2.7m x 2.8m in size, enough to take photos of many types of clothes.

In addition to the white background, you can choose a color background and decor suitable for each type of clothing.

Step 2: Take photos

The most important step in clothing photography can be considered taking photos. Depending on each specific case, you can choose different ways to take photos, specifically as follows.

In case you have no experience

You should take photos of clothes flat or folded and then place them on a flat surface, then take photos from top to bottom. Note: You should use a thin blanket, a piece of cloth, or a brick with a suitable color to help highlight the clothes that need to be photographed as a background.

If you do not have experience, you should take photos of the clothes separately to be able to focus better.

If you have experience

You can take photos of the product on a mannequin or on a real person (friend, customer, model, etc.). This way of taking photos will help customers feel the product clearly and imagine how it will look when they wear it.

When taking photos like this, you need to have a tripod or place the camera on a table so that the photo does not shake. You should choose a professional model to speed up the photo-taking process.

Step 3: Edit photos

After taking photos, to make the photo more sparkling and attractive, you need to edit the photo. The image editing operations that need to be applied are:

1. Brightness balance.
2. Color correction.
3. Background adjustment and cropping.
4. Add logo if necessary.

In addition, you can also insert information about the model, such as height, weight, 3-round measurements, etc. on the photo. It helps customers easily visualize, compare with themselves, and choose the right clothing size.

To edit photos, you can use photo editing tools such as Mosyne, Photoshop Lightroom, Fiverr, Camera+, Bizweb experts, Portrait Professionals, Tucia, Remove the Background, PicMonkey, Photo Editor by Aviary, Pixlr, etc. In addition, there are many beautiful clothing color photography apps that you can download to save time editing photos.

Note: Photos displayed on computers and cameras may be different. Therefore, you should not delete photos before copying them to your computer.

What are the most popular approaches to clothing photography?

The way of taking photos affects the display of the product and the attractiveness of the photo to customers. In general, there are many concepts for taking photos of clothes, specifically, you can take photos of clothes in the following 3 ways:

Clothing photography on models

Clothing photography on models means you hire models or ask friends to wear clothes to take pictures. Hiring models to take pictures will help create the most vivid and beautiful product pictures in a perfect setting. However, you will have to pay an extra fee and have to choose the right time.

The model will decide all the steps of the photo shoot, so you need to pay special attention to this part:

1. Choosing models: You need to set criteria for body shape, pose at different angles, and the ability to create a unique personality for the clothing model, etc. to choose models.
2. Tips for eye-catching model photos: Let the model wear clothes combined with accessories to create highlights. At the same time, you should decide on a model that has similarities with the target customer. When applying makeup, you need to choose the appropriate makeup style based on the outfit.

Clothing photography on a mannequin

You just need to find a mannequin and change clothes to take photos. This method helps customers see and visualize how they are wearing it without having to hire a model. However, taking photos with a mannequin has the disadvantage of not being flexible in terms of posing.

Currently, minimalist mannequins without legs are widely used because of their convenience and ease of changing clothes.

When taking photos with a mannequin, you need to note the following to get a beautiful photo:

1. The available clothes do not fit the mannequin's form: Use clothespins to clip the wide parts at the back.
2. Mannequins with small breasts: Use a padded shirt inside to dress the mannequin.
3. Create a drape for the skirt: Dress the mannequin in a dress inside before wearing the main dress. This way, the skirt will have a soft drape and not be stiff.

Clothing photography through flat products

Flat product photos are often used to post on e-commerce sites. The photographer should choose a unique clothing photography background that highlights the product. The method of taking pictures of flat products is often suitable for men's clothing, especially shirts and trousers.

To have a beautiful picture when taking pictures of flat products, you need to:

1. Iron the clothes before taking pictures: You can use a regular iron or speed up the speed with a steam iron.
2. Arrange accompanying accessories: Accessories can be shoes, handbags, glasses, pens, notebooks, etc. to complement and decorate the product. The arrangement needs to be reasonable, making the product more beautiful and attractive.
3. Take a photo from above with a panoramic angle: This method captures the entire product. At the same time, if you want to choose a photo, cropping the frame will also become easier.
4. Choose a background to highlight the product the most: You should choose a neutral or contrasting background color to highlight the product.

Some locations to take flat photos:

1. Place the outfit on a flat cloth or large piece of paper.
2. Place it on the floor.
3. Choose an area where the clothes can be hung most clearly.

Some things you should know when clothing photography

A beautiful photo of clothing combines many factors. Here are some tips on how to take "cool" - unique - strange photos of clothes:

1. Diversify shooting angles: Taking photos of products from as many angles as possible will help customers visualize the product more clearly, they can feel the details and highlights. In particular, you should find new shooting angles and viewpoints to make the product stand out more when photographed.
2. Use natural light: Taking photos with natural light will make the product appear realistic, without losing its true color. You should take photos during the day, around 8-10 am or 1-5 pm when the light is not too harsh or too dark.
3. Take full photos of the clothes: It will help customers visualize the product in the most detailed way. For products that have a special feature, you need to take close-up photos to create eye-catching photos and show the unique beauty of the product.
4. Apply the Flatlay fashion photography method: You need to arrange the clothes and accessories on a flat background. Then take a photo from top to bottom, perpendicular to that flat surface. This shooting method will bring a sense of closeness and an intuitive look to the photo.

Conclusion

Taking photos of clothes will distinguish clothing shops from each other. Therefore, in addition to investing in product quality, you also need to do a good job of taking photos of clothing models at the shop. Please refer to the above-suggested clothing photography tips from Mosyne and apply them flexibly to the products you are selling!

Hoàng Duyên