Photo Styling: The Invisible Career
By Susan Linnet Cox
The goal of photo styling is to make a photograph look as though there wasn’t a stylist involved. So it’s no wonder most people don’t know about 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 right. But people hear the word “photograph” and stop right there. Even after your explanation, they may say, “Oh, so you’re a photographer?” Then you bring out a catalog and describe the process, how you stacked the T-shirts so that one might see every color, making them thicker with batting, tucking in the sides, lifting the stack with a brick so it would look perfect. The response will be, “Oh, I had no idea every photograph took so much work!”
The preparation – and expense – involved in a fashion shoot on location will amaze them even more. Weeks of planning are involved including scheduling, booking models, prop shopping, travel to locations, hotel rooms, meals, and steaming merchandise. The response then may be, “All that for a background that you can hardly see?”
“It’s the light,” you’ll say, “and the local landmarks we include in some shots for atmosphere.” They won’t believe you, but who’s complaining?
Discovering Photo Styling
What leads one to discover this fascinating hidden career? Most stylists say they just “fell into it”. Recently the word has gotten out. Many young adults have heard of styling, perhaps because of celebrity stylists in magazines, and it has become their dream job. This glamorous image of styling, though, is inaccurate. Long hours, physical work, thorough organization, and business management skills are as crucial as creativity.
Generally photo stylists emerge from creative fields like fine art, graphic design, theater, or fashion. Many have a college degree in these fields, but what is really required is a visual aesthetic, an independent spirit, with an organized and practical nature. Most stylists have a desire to create something visually pleasing, while earning a good income.
Six Areas of Styling
There is no absolute description for each type of styling; there are regional differences and overlapping specialties. Here is a summary of the six most common areas of photo styling.
Fashion Styling
For years, I looked at magazines trying to figure out who put those fabulous clothes on the models, never finding a stylist listed. The image that many of us have of what a stylist does, dressing all those fashionable models, is not called a stylist at all, but a fashion editor. Catalogs that market clothing may not be cutting-edge fashion, but they provide a great deal of work for stylists. Resources are limited to what is available for sale, rather than garments pulled from many designers into an exciting new combination.
Wardrobe Styling
Wardrobe and fashion styling can easily be confused. Wardrobe styling for lifestyle photography is more practical, finding clothing to be worn in advertisements, commercials, stock photography, and other photographs that aren’t selling clothes. The stylist is dressing the talent in generic items that don’t distract from the featured product or concept.
Styling Off-Figure
Styling clothing off-figure is a large part of catalog and editorial (magazine) styling. Presentations for clothing not shown on models include stacks, hangers, mannequins, laydowns, and lifelike wall styling. There are specific techniques to create a natural look, while showing garment details, color selections, and fabric texture.
Product Styling
This styling can be challenging and fun, especially when props are needed, or there is the problem of making a handbag strap drape in midair. Products to be styled may include beauty products, household items, the fore-mentioned handbag, jewelry, or shoes. Prop stylists working with food stylists have resources for finding just the right items, like dishes, tablecloths, flowers, or something more unusual, to complete a shot.
Food Styling
In a world of mysterious techniques, the food stylist has a unique kit, training, and specialized skills. Except when propping the shot, the food stylist is in a separate realm, not a jack of all trades, like many other stylists. Cooking skills are crucial even though the styled food may not be ready to eat. Projects include advertising, cookbooks, editorial, and packaging.
Room Sets and Bedding
Working with architectural photographers, stylists for room sets must think large. Furniture, rugs, curtains, and props that make a room look like home are the stylist’s responsibility. Clients might produce kitchen cabinets, appliances, window coverings, or grills. The product is the feature and the environment, like wardrobe, enhances it. Bedding, blankets, towels, and other linens are a large part of the catalog industry. Stylists use special techniques to make these products beautiful and inviting. The stylist is again thinking big and decorates the whole set.
Careers in Photo Shoots
Whether your role in a shoot is photo stylist, art director, model, or photographer, you are participating in one of the most unique and intriguing careers in the world. What’s so fascinating about the world of photography is how it touches every other field. What other career can bring you into contact with everything from running shoes to beds to edible flowers?
About the Author
Susan Linnet Cox is the author of “Photo Styling, How to Build Your Career and Succeed” a comprehensive career manual for photo stylists, published by Allworth Press, www.allworth.com and co-owns stock photography company Mistral Images, www.mistralimages.com. She also teaches career workshops through her site www.photostylingworkshops.com
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, provided the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. This article has appeared in Create Magazine and the online publication, Tweezer Times.
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