First and most important editorial fashion photography is for the purpose of publication in magazines, newspapers, and other printed media. Editorial images are usually meant to accompany text and can cover a wide range of subjects. Fashion editorials are used to illustrate a story, article, text or an idea within the context of a magazine or to embellish a certain theme visually. It can be in any genre, including photojournalism, fashion, portrait, landscape, sports etc. Editorial fashion photographs may also tell a story by themselves without a single written word or may be accompanied by a short description of an intended story or a short title only.
This is what exactly happens in fashion and fashion photography field. Fashion editorials are often feature as full page photographs. All image set is based on a particular theme or concept, designer, model or other single topic. Commonly they are fashion images that tell a story or suggest that there is a back story to the whole idea. They may also serve as photo-essay to illustrate unwritten story. In this case, creative editorial stories are born and they may take several spreadsheets in one magazine.
Fashion editorials are not about a ton of clothes or makeup products. These editorials are more about the mood and the situation the garments would be worn in. In editorial photography clothes become an illustrative mean to tell a fashion story or at least make it look like a fashion story but it is never limited to the fashion.
Furthermore, editorial photography goes along with edgy concept and it does not tell a story in a traditional sense.
There may also be no story at all. A mixture of fashion, lifestyle and location usually creates viewers emotion and gives an impression of a story behind. It makes viewer to think and to take another look at it. Usually edginess can be achieved by untraditional lighting, intense model poses (check it out), extreme makeup and hair or certain shooting location. Sometimes these strong visuals are what unite the series of all shots. Editorials generally have a different wardrobe per page/spread and it also may have the whole wardrobe of similar look, for example, colour red or showcasing garments from one particular online boutique.
High quality editorial fashion images require professional shooting equipment and professional lighting. Shooting indoors or in studio requires different photography equipment than shooting on location.
Quality fashion images require professional photography equipment and professional lighting. That’s why professionals always carry a dedicated camera for low light conditions. You must follow this, especially if you are in fashion blogging or are a fashion influencer; otherwise, you will not get the expected results – to catch readers attention.
When taking dynamic fashion images outdoors, photographer may need some additional pieces, such as different camera straps (worth checking Harber London for leather camera straps), specialty tripods, mono-pods, various reflectors, additional camera lenses, portable batteries, cables and many more. Everything has to be compact and lightweight to avoid heavy carrying especially when photo-session is planned in a wild nature or in a very busy urban area.
Not every editorial has to be outdoors, on location or have a lot of props. Some can be as simple as a grey photography backdrop. Shooting a model in front of a seamless gray backdrop can be very editorial depending on the lighting, clothes, make-up, hair and styling. Usually fashion editorials are highly styled; they give a lot of creative freedom that is controlled by a photographer and a stylist. Magazines also include beauty editorials that focus on makeup, hair and/or accessories.
On the other hand, editorial defines usage not style. Editorial fashion came about when people of advertising world decided to sell the product in a less straightforward way. In this way focus falls less on the actual product but more on the telling of a story as a means to sell the item. The fact is that editorial images are not advertisements. Actually, photographic editorials come along with credits line and sell story. In opposite, advertising images are always anonymous and are created to sell a particular product.
Mostly, editorials are assigned by editors who dictate the story, idea or theme of the magazine for the particular issue. Editorial art directors like smart, sharp images with straight lines and clean composition. The difference with shooting for magazines is that the images often take up the entire page and need they bleed room. It simply needs giving extra room along the image sides. By the way, magazine covers are also editorials.
Generally speaking, editorial fashion photography has a very broad meaning and there is no absolute definition of it. Editorials may illustrate one printed word or may give the reader a perspective of what the whole concept is about. Editorial fashion photography gives artists a lot of freedom in creativity and interpretation to show what words cannot communicate.
For more information on fashion photography we recommend reading this fashion photography guide.
Copyright Notice: Sheeba Magazine 2017 | Article cannot be copied or republished without owners, being Sheeba Magazine, written permission | This article is the original article providing the very first description and definition of what ‘editorial fashion photography” is and it was the most visited article on Google from 2017 to 2022.
