How to Get Started in Fashion Photography

If you have the ability to afford a good camera, such as a DSLR, that is ideal. However, you can still do great things with a relatively inexpensive camera; while you won’t reach a professional quality, you can view this as an exercise – a challenge that prompts you to think of other ways to make your photography more interesting. Ultimately, your vision and passion will play the most important role in developing your career as a fashion photographer.

As the famous fashion photographer Norman Parkinson said: “Always keep your eyes open. Never go to sleep in the car or anything like that. Keep watching, because whatever you see out the window or where ever – it can inspire you.” To develop as a fashion photographer, always observe whatever is around you, since that could trigger your imagination and creativity. Experiment a lot. Go out, play with the light, the shadow, the color, the composition. Take photos of objects, places and ask your friends to pose for you. Lastly, allow yourself to make mistakes, and learn from them. In this way, you’re always practicing and getting better.

The power of social media can really contribute in getting yourself out there and promoting your work. When you reach the point where you have sufficient material and enough work to show, create an online portfolio or even a website – BeHance is a great platform where you can upload your work and display it as online portfolio, for people to see your work. Also, use as many social media platforms as possible, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, so as to promote your work and share ideas. A photography blog would be a good idea as well, allowing you to give more details about your projects and establish more personal contact with potential clients and collaborators. 

This final point is the most important. Keep yourself inspired! Never stop looking, researching, discovering new things. This is the only way to stay creative and innovative. To be a great fashion photographer, you have to have new and fresh ideas, and you cannot have those ideas if you don’t know what is out there, and what’s already been done. Keep an eye on all the sectors that could help you keep developing your photography, including arts, movies, books and exhibitions.

Athena Thoma is a fashion photographer based in London. She graduated from Cyprus University of Technology with a bachelor’s in Graphic Arts and Multimedia, and recently completed a Master in Fashion Photography at London College of Fashion. Through her work in fashion photography, she aims to explore and promote diversity and different notions of beauty, in order to empower people. In her final master’s degree project, she focused on investigating ways in which photography could help women overcome anxieties about body image. You can view her online portfolio here, and some of her master’s project work here.