Catwalk photography...

mani

mani

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Imran
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There's a charity fashion show happening soon which is being arranged by a friend.

I've asked to photograph it seeing as originally it wasnt going to be.

Now I'm going to go to the venue to check what lights will be like on the walk itself, but would it be good to hire some portable lighting too?

specifically for a point where the models reach and then i can get a good capture?
 
I doubt you will have a chance to set up your own lighting, it will get in the way of the guests for a start.

You say it is for charity, but it still could be well lit, you will find this out when you check it out. Do you know id there are stands at the end of the runway for photographers, or are you standing?

I have only done a couple myself, at small private studios. But the whole setup was still all very good in my opinion.

I would use a monopod and on camera flash to give a little bit of fill if needed, lens choice would most likely be a 70-200.

As an addition, and i have seen this a few times and will be giving it a try at my next one, it to use a rotating flash bracket on the monopod, so you can easily change between portrait and landscape while keeping the lighting consistent.

These are from my first catwalk fashion show, to give you an idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwalker-photography/sets/72157624886294825/
 
I think the runway is still to be set up. its a function hall that its being held in. i'll have to set up a spot myself at the end.

I'll give a look over on the pics once i get home - stupid work firewall :(
 
great pics there. lets see what the lights will be like once i speak to the organiser.
 
I remember seeing a video a long time ago where a guy was shooting a catwalk show in a school gym so basicly with crap lighting. What he did was took 2 flashes and taped them to a wall and aimed them at a sweet spot at the stage, think he was getting f4-5.6 off the flashes, not a lot but enough for him to get decent light on the models and have the flashes out of the way of the public.

I've seen some pretty odd setups for shooting catwalk stuff, one guy had essentially made a square ringflash out of a shoebox that the camera went inside. Gave an interesting look, but was enough to stand out from all the other shooters so i think he did quite well out of that :D
 
I'm going to a studio shoot tonight i'll see if i can get any tips there. i might place a flash at the front of the catwalk and shoot with a 200.
 
70-200mm, on camera flash, f2.8-f4 depending on distance to models. Mostly full length shots.

Setting a flash up along the length of the catwalk isn't advisable because you can't control what happens at that point in the stage. If models cross eachother's path at that point, you'll miss the shot and have no chance to reshoot if you have your settings on manual and set for the flash exposure.

Ambient or on camera gets my vote, in my experience it's always been the easiest option with the best results.
 
Thank you Danny

I went last night but the place only opens on bookings or saturday nights!
 
what danny said. Also don't forget to colour balance your flash with the lights on the catwalk - assuming it's not a pro fashion show, so tungsten light, so you'll be wanting a CTO or 1/2 CTO gel ;)
 
yeah i'm going early and getting a few practice shots off just to make sure there's no errors on the actual walk.
 
RELIEF!!!

the lighting is really good where the models will be appearing!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrmCkSUAexE thats a gig where the models will be walking.

so with the above in mind - how would you approach this? 70-200 still in hand. Though saying that they may use coloured lighting too as it is in that vid. could you work around that or would it be unreasonable to ask them to use just white?
 
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good grief, if you think that's good lighting, you must have been to some truely terrible venues! its certainly not catwalk lighting... :bang:

Sorry can't help you much about specifics, but I'd suggest a 70-200 at f2.8, auto-iso, raw to sort colour balance after, and pray you don't get any saturated colours...
 
haha its better than it used to be thats all i'm going to say!! its not perfect but its not the worst. i'm sure that was put up there for the gig rather than a walk

its a charity event put up by two local businesses so i wasnt expecting a milan cat-walk level of light!
 
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