Photography is one of the most artistic, creative, shapeable skills to pursue these days. You can take your skills to almost any industry and make a living. One of the most popular sectors of photography is fashion. 

You’ll want to ensure you have a polished skill set to bring to the table when you decide to fuse your passion for fashion and photography.

Whether you’re interested in fashion photography as a hobby or a potential career, the following tips will help you refresh your fashion photography skill set and get you on a path to pursuing fashion photography full-time.

Three Ideas for Refreshing Your Fashion Photography Skillset

Fashion photography is one of the most exciting careers in the industry.

Adobe quotes notable photographer Flo Ngala: “Fashion photography is the way a photographer uses their own eye and perspective to highlight, curate, or speak to anything in the fashion industry.”

Photography is essentially telling a story through visuals. Fashion photography allows you to tell stories through the photographs and the fashion being worn in those photographs. If you’re enthusiastic about refreshing your fashion photography skillset, here are few ways to do so.

Do photoshoots with family and friends 

Picture By holdosi, Pixabay

As basic as this suggestion may seem, the best way to get better at anything is to do it. So, doing photoshoots with family and friends could be a great way to start rebuilding your fashion photography skillset.

Family and friends will usually give you the freedom to be as creative or simplistic as you’d like to be in the photoshoot. Being the creative director of a shoot can boost your communication and collaboration skills. You can practice how to give suggestions to models, explain your creative vision to them, and nurture everyone involved in the process to ensure the photos turn out exactly how you pictured them.

Shooting family and friends also gives you a sense of comfortability. You don’t have to worry about it being perfect, the criticism you’ll receive, or whether or not you will get along with everyone on set. Instead, you can focus on bettering your general photography skills and your eye for what makes good fashion photography.

Take a fashion photography course or complete a degree program

Fashion photography is an intricate career path. With so many opportunities in the fashion photography world, it can be hard to pinpoint precisely what skills you need to succeed. A photography course or degree program can give you the guidance and specific skills required to pursue this endeavor seriously.

Some of the skills a course or degree program in fashion photography can teach you are:

• Technical photography skills
• Artistic perception
• Time management
• Fashion and photography trends
• Collaboration
• Active listening
• Public speaking
• Critical thinking
• Interpersonal skills

Although a degree or certificate isn’t required to begin a career in fashion photography, the network, extensive language, and technical skills learned, as well as the resources you acquire when pursuing higher education, are all valuable assets.

Become a photographer’s assistant

Picture By Free-Photos, Pixabay

If you aren’t sure a college degree in fashion photography is the best route for you, becoming a notable photographer’s assistant may be a good option. You can learn on-the-job skills and receive a variation of “in-class” instruction to ensure you’re getting a holistic fashion photography experience.

If you’re unable to land an assistant position, look into internship or apprenticeship opportunities in your area. These sorts of options also allow you to gain real-world experience as a photographer and polish your skills simultaneously.

You can also look for an entry-level fashion photography position or explore getting in on the ground level of a startup or small business.

Moving Forward with Fashion Photography

Once you’ve decided to pursue fashion photography seriously, use the following tips to find opportunities to hone your craft, create a list of routes to follow to become a pro, and identify which type of fashion photography is best for your vision.

You’ll want to decide which type of fashion photography is best for your career goals. Shot Kit lists the following as the main types of fashion photography: 

• High fashion
• Editorial fashion
• Street fashion
• Catalog fashion
• Runway fashion
• Look book photography
• Advertising fashion
• Glamour photography

Use the internet to research any university or college degree programs that fit your location, curriculum, financial, and professor desires. Join groups on social media geared toward supporting new fashion photographers. Sign up for free resources like email lists, webinars, and classes to hone your photography skills and garner support from others moving forward with a fashion photography career.

If you aren’t pursuing higher education in fashion photography, utilize job search engines to see what positions are out there right now. See if any of them resonate with your career goals and apply for those that do.

If you want to make money off your fashion photography skills, it’s also best to brush up on specific business skills to ensure you're running a seamless operation. Sharpen skills like how to fill out and send invoices to clients, how to conduct interviews to solidify business relationships, and how to do taxes when you’re self-employed.