Cox - Starting your career as a photo stylist: a comprehensive guide to photo shoots, marketing, business, fashion, wardrobe, off-figure, product, prop, room sets, and food styling

Allworth Press

New York, New York

2012 by Susan Linnet Cox

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Cover design by Mary Belibasakis

Cover photograph by Siobhan Ridgway

ISBN: 978-1-58115-910-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cox, Susan Linnet.

Starting your career as a photo stylist a comprehensive guide to photo shoots, marketing, business, fashion, wardrobe, off-figure, product, prop, room sets, and food styling / Susan Linnet Cox.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-58115-910-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. PhotographyVocational guidance. 2. Image consultantsVocational guidance. 3. Marketing. I. Title.

TR154.C694 2012

770.23dc23

2011048726

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

For Gary, Elizabeth, Adrian, and Levi, my growing family, and Ann, my dearest friend. I also dedicate this book to my students, to the stylists who have shared their stories, and to all those who have encouraged me to share the fascinating career of photo styling.

Contents

Introduction

Photo styling is an invisible career.

The goal of the stylist is to create the illusion of naturalness in a photograph. We make a stack of sweaters look as if they were casually placed. We make a dining room look like the residents just walked out of the scene. We make a model look like she is confidently walking down the street in an attractive outfit. In reality, all these scenarios take a great deal of preparation, planning, adjustments, and precision. That is the job of the photo stylist.

Secondly, the career is invisible because not much is known about it outside of the photo industry. Little has been written about the career. Most of us come upon the field accidentally through graphic design, as I did, or as my fortunate interns have done, through college fashion programs. However, no formal education is required.

This career manual explores the numerous directions photo styling can take. The book provides new and working stylists with information on all these specialties. The stylist can take on various roles; production, casting, and location scouting are a few. In this book, the photo crew, etiquette, creating a portfolio, and marketing are explored in depth. The aspiring stylist must learn how to develop and maintain a freelance career. Business forms such as proposals, invoices, and vouchers will give stylists a head start on building their own freelance businesses.

Dirty little secrets of the trade are revealed. Challenging and hidden aspects of styling, such as merchandise returns and re-tagging garments, are discussed. Interviews with professionals introduce stylists to real career stories.

Photo styling touches nearly every image we see, except for the raw portrayals of journalism. From the self-conscious primping for snapshots to the most exacting attention to details in commercial photography, styling makes a visible difference in the world around us. Though some might say Its not rocket science, the skills of a photo stylist have an effect on all the images around us.

Styling is a tremendous opportunity for creative and organized individuals to express themselves. What adds to the excitement is that one can continuously draw on life experiences and accumulated practical skills to energize this intriguing career.

Since this book was originally published in 2006 as Photo Styling: How to Build Your Career and Succeed , the photography industry has changed. Digital technology has evolved even further, adding the role of digital technician to the crew. We are all more connected than ever, with social media enhancing our personal communication and marketing techniques. And we are facing even more challenges as an industry as the global marketplace changes.

Despite the accessibility of images (cell phones, small digital cameras, YouTube), there is still a place and a need for the quality images created by an experienced photographer/stylist team.

I am happy to bring you this new edition, complete with more first-hand stylists stories, styling tips, and portfolio challenges to help you build your book and promotional materials.

PART I

INTRODUCTION TO PHOTO STYLING

CHAPTER What Is a Photo Stylist?

P HOTO STYLING IS THE little-known art of manipulating and controlling all the physical elements in a photograph to create an effective image. It takes a creative and organized person to be a good photo stylist. Many artistic people find styling to be a more practical outlet for their creativity than a career in the fine arts.

And now the word is out about this behind-the-scenes career. Many young adults have heard of styling, having read about celebrity stylists in magazines, and it has become their dream job. This glamorous image of styling, though, is not wholly accurate. Knowledge and understanding of the interdependent fields of photography, graphic design, and marketing are important factors for success as a photo stylist. Long hours, physically demanding work, thorough organization, and business management skills are as crucial as creativity.

Boston stylist Ann Fitzgerald says, Becoming a good stylist takes time; to build resources, train your eye, and learn to beg, borrow, and steal in the nicest way possible.

DESCRIBING WHAT YOU DO

The goal of styling is to make a photograph look as though there wasnt a stylist involved. So its no wonder most people dont know about photo styling. They see photographs in catalogs, magazines, and advertisements and have no idea of the amount of work involved in creating them. As a stylist, you can explain that you make everything in a photograph look just right. But there are people who hear the word photograph and stop right there. Even after the explanation, they may say, Oh, so youre a photographer? Then you bring out a catalog and describe the processhow you stacked the T-shirts so that one might see every color, making them thicker with batting, like the kind used for quilting, tucking in the sides, lifting the top one with cardboard held up by a brick; how you adjusted and readjusted the stack so it would look perfect. The response will be, Oh, I had no idea every photograph took so much work!

The preparationand expenseinvolved in a fashion shoot on location will amaze them even more; the weeks of planning, scheduling, booking models, prop shopping, the travel to locations, hotel rooms, meals, and steaming the merchandise. The response then may be, All that, just for a background that you can hardly see? Its the light, youll say, and the local landmarks we include in some shots for atmosphere. They wont believe you, but whos complaining?