While it is definitely true that there is an elite class of super high budget beauty photographer, there is no reason why a modern day small business can’t make the most of current technology and a professional photo shoot to create some fantastic promotional material. The traditional formula of beauty photographer goes something like: stylist, makeup artist, killer location and post production. At the very high end, the photographer would be nearly always surrounded by a sprawling creative team, patching and post processing every single unwanted line, crease, shadow and texture into oblivion.
To be honest, this certainly has it’s place, it’s pretty standard these days for the very high budget work but as technology moves on, the potential project pool gets bigger and bigger and the opportunity for a smaller business to take advantage of a smaller scale photo shoot gets easier to accomplish with each passing year. With some carefully thought out lighting, quality prime lenses and an hour or two, your business can get some really top notch results flying with just a solo photographer. All the detail, energy and vibrance but with a better value proposition than pitching a Vogue cover. The absolute top end operate throughout creative media, top end blogs, magazines, TV and film, but a smaller scale production can still provide months of creative material to base promotional material on and help elevate your business above the competition.
Also, another query that comes up time and time again – the lack of a dedicated photographic studio is not going to hamper achieving great results. Beauty photography in particular can require very little physical space. A well organised hair or beauty salon can be the perfect location. Closeups are especially location forgiving, but that doesn’t mean every shot needs to be Macro level. A beautifully made up full face can be photographed in almost any location as long as the lighting is appropriately thought through. If exterior locations are considered in the job brief, we need to of course be practical about the weather. Rather than pining for a £30,000 budget, let’s make it happen for a few zeros less.
Lucy Robson is a local, Spalding, freelance makeup artist, experienced in both traditional beauty and media special effects makeup. She needed some top quality portfolio images that displayed her talents in full detail. A9K Photo shadowed Lucy for a two hour shoot, on location. We used a combination of natural salon light and diffused strobes when we needed some extra pop. She now has an full range of shots from setup to completion that can be used as part of her promotional materials across print and the web. The images can be included in everything from social media, to flyers and even large format posters and signage if required.