Lights, Cameras, Action!

Last week, I was given the task of styling a photo shoot on my own! Getting into Public Relations, I never thought that a photo shoot would be part of my job, but I really have gotten to experience new things that hadn't crossed my mind before. Each Wednesday, we have a scheduled time with a photographer in the studio to photograph whatever samples come in that week. We use the images from these shoots to send to editors who may potentially request those samples for an upcoming shoot of their own.

During my first week in September, I got to accompany one of the women I work with to the weekly photo shoot, but I was just a bystander. There also weren't too many samples to be shot so it was quick and just a glimpse of what really goes on. The following week, I didn't go to the shoot and then we didn't have one, but last week, I was sent there with tons of samples and got to conduct the whole thing on my own. There are so many things that can go wrong with a photo shoot, and all I'm working with is a mannequin, not even a live model!

I had to style the clothing items on the mannequin to make sure that there were no wrinkles or oddities that would cause the garment to come out less than perfect in the photo. The photographer I worked with is actually a Drexel grad and it was fun to hear about her co-op when she did it at a photo studio in Center City. One major problem that we ran into a few times was with the color of the item. We had a neon yellow crossbody bag that looked awesome in person, but then on the computer screen, it looked like a pastel yellow Easter egg!

I don't know about you, but I really never questioned how items look the way they do on shopping websites. If it is a handbag, how do you think the handles stand up? Well, I'll let you in on a little secret...I had to use fishing line to tie the handles and then there was a rod lowered to the height of the handles where I tied the fishing line. It is quite clever, but also pretty tedious. The other issue was with getting the bags to stand up. I stuffed them with paper to make them look fuller, but that did not always keep them standing. There was a rounded hobo like bag that just would not cooperate. We got a stand to go behind it and even used a tape dispenser to prop it up. (Hey, whatever works, right?)

Other than clothing items and bags, we also had shoes. There was a pair of metallic ballet flats that were metallic and those caused all kinds of problems with the lighting and reflection. The photographer was holding up white boards and even used some white board contraption with a hole in it for the camera lens to fit through in order to get a result that wasn't blurry or too reflective. Seeing how hard it is just to photography a product really makes me appreciate looking at online shopping sites! The other thing that takes time is editing the photos on Photoshop. Luckily, I get to be creative and put my extensive Photoshop skills from my classes to work and edit/retouch the images before they are saved and sent out.

The office has been pretty quiet the past few days because of the FFANY Shoes on Sale event that I mentioned in my last post. The Fashion Footwear Association of New York that teams with QVC to raise money for breast cancer had their event last night in NY at the Waldorf Astoria, so a lot of people were there, leaving the office pretty empty. The show airs tomorrow at 5pm on QVC and you can purchase designer shoes for half the price and the proceeds go to benefit breast cancer! Some celebs that were out to show their support last night include Kristin Cavallari, Katrina Bowden and this years PSA, Nicole Richie. I have been hearing about this event since I started and it is the 19th Annual one, so it is rewarding to see the good turn out and hear the positive things about the event that the people in this office have been working so hard to promote. I'm sure that in the next few days, I will have a lot of coverage to track and record in the monthly excel sheet about this event!