Surabaya Workshop: Simple Things to Captivating Fashion Photography

Photos by Widi Artono

There are many people doing fashion photography nowadays and a lot of great works created. To be creative and distinguished become our “survival kits” in this kind of photography business which is growing more and more competitive.

A Jakarta-based professional fashion photographer, Darius Manihuruk, described it in a workshop held at the Grand City, Surabaya, yesterday (11/20). Attended by more than 100 participants, the workshop was themed “How to be Creative Fashion Photographer.”

It was the last workshop in the string of Canon and Fotografer.net Workshop Series 2011. The previous workshops – each with different theme – were organized in Yogyakarta, Balikpapan, Denpasar, Jakarta, Manado, Semarang and Medan.

“Fashion photography is not the work of photographer alone, but it’s a team work since it always involves models and some people handling make-up, wardrobe, hair-do, properties and so on,” Darius said.

According to him, the main element in this photography genre is the model, and the model does not have to be beautiful but can pose beautifully. “We have to choose a model thought to be able to pose in line with the theme intended,” he said in the workshop which started in the morning.

Darius conveyed a quite detail explanation on all things related to such fashion photography as its function, history and some photographers having mostly influenced the development of fashion photography. “I also explained its market needs, what is meant by retail fashion photography and editorial one as well,” he said after the workshop.

“The most important thing is how to create something captivating from simple things, and the message is delivered. Sometimes we think something which is too complex that in the end, unfortunately, we don’t find interesting results,” he described. To make the participants easier to understand his explanation, Darius made some shots on a model in front of them.

The workshop was divided into two sessions; the class session in the morning and the shooting one in the afternoon. Since there are four female models, the participants were divided into four groups in the shooting session in which they applied what they had got in the class.

When the shooting ended, the attendees was back in the class and some consulted their shooting results with Darius. Quizes and doorprizes then closed the workshop.