Branding photographer for fashion brands
Branding photographer
Photographers are also content creators. The term, together with UGC creator, is usually reserved for models and influencers on social media. As a branding photographer together with my friend Eva and other models, I offer brands a huge advantage here: we shoot products such as clothing and jewellery with the concentrated power of professional models and high-quality equipment for exceptional content. Of course, we are in a different price bracket to normal UGC creators, but still significantly cheaper than a whole film set for a day's shooting. The last shoot of this kind was a very special task: content production for the spring collection in the depths of winter in Frankfurt.
“A reel is quickly made and a photo is quickly taken.” This is the general assumption of those who don't produce content themselves. What people quickly forget is that we also have to deal with trying on and ironing clothes in advance. The actual shoot also often takes days of preparation. For this shoot with Brax in particular, that was my biggest challenge as a branding photographer: choosing the locations in such a way that we could realise the required spring vibe. After all, we were shooting a spring collection here, and it doesn't look good in front of bare trees and grey January skies in Frankfurt.
Preparation of the brand shoot
The process of a shoot for a fashion brand with me as branding photographer sounds simple at first, but it's not. In the first step, we, or rather Model Eva SchugThe clothes are sent to the customer in two different sizes. After trying them on, we use the customer's details and the colour palette of the outfits to find locations that emphasise the requested vibe. If the clothes don't fit, we naturally have to send them back.
Along with the outfits comes the briefing, which differs considerably from customer to customer. For the pictures, it was particularly important to Brax that the outfits were always photographed as a full-body shot including shoes. In addition, the clothes not only have to fit perfectly, but also be ironed. It gets tricky when the garments have to remain wrinkle-free throughout the day of the shoot.
All pieces were to be presented exactly as intended in the cut. Brax also gave us a motto for each of the 5 requested videos. “Klicheé Adé: Linen is boring” and “Klicheé Adé: Power women don't wear flower power” were two of the mottos for our content that we were able to use as a guide.
Procedure of the shoot as a branding photographer
The morning of the shooting day is grey. 3 degrees, cloudy, showers on and off. The perfect day to shoot a spring collection #ironyoff. Hats off to Eva - she endured the whole day in summer clothes in low temperatures without complaining once. Besides Eva and me, we also had a lovely assistant with us on this shoot who helped us with the clothes. She also provided the popular behind-the-scenes content that you can see on my Instagram account. It may not sound like much, but 7 outfits is a lot to manage.
The first non-winter location was at Frankfurt's West Harbour, which scored points with its year-round planted buildings and bright backgrounds. The reflective walls saved us again and again throughout the shoot. They always made the overall impression look spring-like. At the next two locations in the West Harbour and at the old opera house, our focus was also on keeping the backgrounds bright and friendly. Another criterion: nothing should be so conspicuous that it could distract from the outfits. On this day, we shot a total of 6 hours of content with 7 outfits for 5 videos and took numerous pictures.
After the shoot
When the content is finally in the can after a long day of shooting, it's time for editing. The colours of the images need to be adjusted, in this case we worked a lot with warm colours afterwards to transform the German winter grey into spring light. The procurement of Gema-free music is another point that is often forgotten in content production. In the commercial marketing sector, Instagram audio cannot simply be used as it is. Unlike influencers, who have several correction loops where the customer can make suggestions for improvement, we only have one shooting day. So we film as much content as possible on that day in order to have a large selection.
What's particularly great is that the next shoot with me as branding photographer for the Brax summer collection will take place in Mallorca in spring. Then Eva won't have to freeze, I'll be on my favourite island and the client will also benefit from the almost perfect lighting conditions. A win-win situation for everyone, right? Branding photography is much easier on Mallorca, even in winter, thanks to the year-round mild climatic conditions. We will definitely keep this in mind for the shoot of the next spring collection. We've also shot on Mallorca for other companies, such as Lascana - Eva will be writing a report on this soon.
Examples of reels produced
More from us
You can find more business images and advertising shots in our detailed Portfolio.