Snappin’ Sexy

When shooting fashion, there are 5 essential tips everyone should follow to ensure amazing results:

1. Test your equipment. Before a shoot you really want to test what you’re going to be shooting with. As soon as I was able to download the new wmag FreePak from Hipstamatic, I grabbed my daughter and said “Ruby, model for me.” I did a quick shoot with her to find out how the wmag FreePak reacted to light, how the tonality of the shots looked, etc.

2. It’s the work, not the gear. One of the things that I love about shooting with my iPhone is that it just gives you so much freedom. It’s like having a few hundred cameras in my pocket!

3. Scout your locations and backgrounds. It’s really important to know where you’re going to shoot before you get the model, stylist and makeup artist going because you don’t want to waste their time (or your time) so find some really cool places to shoot. Places with some atmosphere. Places that have nice, colorful walls. Places that have something for the model to do.

Unleash your inner fashion-photog with these pro tips from Peter Ellenby, the photographer behind our September cover story photo shoot

4. Find light that works with your tools. Light is everything for photography. You have to be a little bit more in tune with what’s going on because the light quality can really affect the quality of your photos. I prefer to shoot in natural settings rather than in studios, and the iphone’s flash isn’t much to brag about so natural light is the lord of your shoot.

5. Do something crazy. We grabbed a giant chair and stuck it out in the middle of the street South of Market in San Francisco. Why is there a chair in the road? Why is there a beautiful woman in an amazing dress sitting on it? Who cares! It looks amazing!

Bonus: Take a lot of photos...it’s not like you’re going to run out of film. —pe