An often critical part of a successful photo shoot is your stylist. Whether your shoot involves models, food or products, a stylist can help take the results to the next level. So, what exactly does a photographic stylist do?
Photographic styling is often a misunderstood art (and asset to your photo shoot). For professional photographers, like us, stylists represent an essential part of the team that fulfills a key role in making our clients’ products look amazing.
Props Stylist
In general terms, your photographer is usually in charge of the lighting and camera angles, plus managing our client expectations, the project and team as a whole. A prop stylist is in charge of the sourcing, selecting and general positioning of all the props and backgrounds.
Fashion Stylist
A fashion stylist can coordinate everything from the models, to hair and makeup requirements, to props, outfits and accessories. While it may seem simple to put clothes on a model in preparation for a shoot there’s a lot more involved – ensuring the right type of model, the fit of the clothes is perfect, that everything is in sync, and that it all translates exactly as per the creative brief.
Some of a fashion stylist’s duties are:
- Keeping up to date with current and changing trends in fashion and design.
- Advising clients on fashion styling for visuals.
- Selecting the most appropriate pieces from collections and ranges for the shoot.
- Sourcing and/or purchasing props for shoots.
- Working with the photographer on photo shoots.
Food Stylist
A specific type of stylist, a food stylist knows exactly how to source produce, prepare ingredients and dishes to ensure they present as tantalising and mouth-watering. A food stylist is a creative professional who prepares food for photography sessions, working closely with chefs, editors and photographers. They know all the tips and tricks to prepare dishes and use styling techniques so that food not only looks great, but lasts for the length of the photo shoot.
Food stylists have an understanding of both art and science. They truly understand the properties of the foods they prepare and cook for photo shoots in order to know how far in advance they need to be organised. This includes knowing what colour an item would appear if it were freshly prepared or how to alter chemical compounds of the food so it looks its best and lasts longer – pretty cool huh?
How do you work with a stylist via Front, Back and Sides?
This really is the easiest part of the process. Discuss your needs with our studio manager and we will handle it all. Depending on your niche, requirements and budget we will arrange for a stylist from our roster of experienced stylists to work on your project. They will work beforehand to ensure everything required for your shoot is ready on the day and stay on set for as long as they are needed.
In general, an enormous amount of planning is invested in a shoot and a stylist’s job starts well before the shoot day itself. Once a concept and general style have been agreed upon, your stylist will gather all the elements that might be useful on the shoot day
Contact us today to discuss your project.
