Pixapro Tips

Fashion Photography Tips to Make Special Effects Pop

If you have been in this field for long, you would have easily come across brilliant and breath-taking shots of high-end fashion photography. However, nothing compares to the use of light and visual elements to create special effects in a scene. The core of special effects is knowing how to manipulate light, and today, we will give you a few fashion photography tips to make special effects pop.

It could be a golden halo around your model’s head or ripples weaving through somebody’s midsection; there is no limitation to what you can imagine and create using the right tools. All of this adds to the fun and quirkiness, mystery, and animation of a scene.

Despite its apparent charm and extraordinary appeal, generating special effects is extremely difficult. This is because the photographer needs to capture movements and moments as they are floating away in front of him, and despite a fast shutter speed, it takes hundreds of attempts to produce a quality shot. For this purpose, having an adequate lighting setup is essential to continuously recreate magic moments until you are able to capture the perfect one.

Using Magilight for Light Paint Photography

For the past few years, light painting has established itself as an entirely new genre where photographers use vivid streaks of light against dark environments, mostly at night, for special effects. It requires a great deal of experimenting, time, and creativity in addition to some extra equipment.

Since it is a technique specific to long-exposure photography, you need durable artificial light sources that last a long time and will illuminate a scene or add new elements to the frame consistently over the course of the shoot.

We have magilight kits, bundles, standalone sticks that you can get separately, and kits with modifiers. The large kits have 140+ LED bulbs, while the sticks have 43 bulbs. The mini sticks are compact, thus portable, and ideal for creating precise effects in smaller spaces.

Here are some bundle sets and individual painting sticks we highly recommend:

These sets are ideal for light painting and creating effects in fashion and beauty photography. The full adds-on bundles also have modifiers so you can control the intensity and direction of light and rollers that help you create circular lighting illusions at your desired speed and rotation. A vast range of shapes and designs can be reflected onto a scene, and while there are many default images already loaded on the stick, you can download new ones and cast them onto your subject or environment.

If you have a Magilight LED Light Painting stick, you can get more Mini LED sticks and modifiers as the controller of the Painting Stick is used to handle the Mini LED sticks and modifiers. You can find more lights and accessories here.

Stabilizing Equipment

Light painting in fashion photography is a highly technical and demanding task, and you cannot capture such art or motion without adequate technique and equipment. While the magilights can be rotated or introduced at different locations on the set, you also need to keep your camera stable and ready for rotation.

You need to invest in sturdy tripods, reliable gimbals, and even sliders, so you are able to move with the image and take pictures from different angles.

Optical Snoots

So you now understand the intricate process of casting light and handling equipment, but another important feature of the shoot is the camera lens. Lenses enhance the camera functionality by allowing photographers to take more clean and crisp photos.

The alternative method to achieve this crisp projection is using an optical snoot. For spot projection on your subject or your background, you can either get the whole kit, a separate optical lens, and other accessories.

Here are a few spot projectors we recommend:

If you already have a PiXAPRO spot projector, you can get a Lens Optic, and Shutter Blades that fit into the gobo holder slot, allowing you to project four-sided shapes.

Gobos and Gels

Gobos are unique patterns carved onto steel, and they can be very intricate and you should be able to see the variety of beautiful, detailed, and highly creative designs that you can project with it. Here is the complete gobo set for EF mount optical snoot.

To add more drama and creativity, and especially more colours on the set, you can use the 30x30cm Creative Colour Gel Pack and Multi Clip Double Spring Clamp Bundle that can be easily mounted onto light modifiers. If you already have clamps and accessories for mounting, simply get the 30x30cm Creative Colour Gel Pack that has eleven full-sized sheets in varying colours.

Shadowcasters and Lighting

There are two different types of lighting equipment that work really well for this sort of photographic venture.

One is the fresnel light, a focused beam of a wide and soft-edged spotlight that can be narrowed or widened, and the Creative S60 60W daylight-balanced Focusable LED Light Twin Kit includes everything you might need. The other is RGB lighting that allows you to create a wide selection of colors without using gels. There are waterproof RGB Light Wand and mountable RGB LED panels that you can select from.

Much like Gobos, shadowcasters are used to create patterns or shadows on the subject. You can get the individual Large Shadowcaster Gobo or the Complete Kit that is definitely worth its value and pretty durable.

Backgrounds

Last but not the least, you can also experiment with various textured backgrounds to enhance the special effects. There are many options to choose from other than the traditional Black PVC background. You can go for an Aquamarine Grey or Sapphire Blue Handpainted Background.

There is no limit to the kind of special effects you can generate in fashion photography, and this list of equipment is only a brief introduction to the endless possibilities you have as a fashion photographer.

To learn more about photography products, please visit our website, where we provide industry insights and high-quality products to help photographers stay up-to-date on industry standards and new technologies.