Photo Tricks From the Front Row: Our Editors Share Their Best Tips for Getting a Good Shot at a Fashion Show
When blurry images just aren’t an option.
Fashion week is a heck of a whirlwind. A series of back-to-back shows, presentations, parties and events that, by the end of the week, blur into one long, sleep-deprived memory. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to quickly recall the standout shows, the must-have pieces, and the moments that defined the week—scrolling through our phone’s photo albums. And of course, as the editors of FASHION who attend these fashion weeks each season, it falls upon us to document everything we see and experience for our readers and followers. Which means, those photos and videos we snapped and recorded endlessly? They better be good.
From each FASHION editor covering fashion week, here are some tips and tricks we use for getting great photos, along with some handy things we learned at a ‘Today at Apple’ class on photo skills at the brand’s Eaton Centre store the week before fashion month began.
Pahull Bains, London Fashion Week
For me, the biggest challenge during runway shows is getting shots that capture the details of what a model is wearing in the few seconds as she passes by your seat. More often than not, these images are over- or under-exposed and extremely blurry. (Models walk fast.) Focusing on elements like shoes, jewellery or head accessories can be even trickier, but these three iPhone features helped me up my photo game this season.
Photography by Pahull Bains
London Fashion Week
Burst mode This was probably my biggest saviour, and helped me capture this beautiful close-up of a textural, technicolour Mary Katrantzou dress. Holding down the shutter button allows you to capture literally dozens of shots of a moving scene instead of just a blurry few. When you go back and look at each frame captured in these “bursts,” chances are you’ll find at least one great shot buried in there. You can select the frames you like best, and then the iPhone gives you the option of keeping just those selected shots and deleting the rest, or keeping them all.
Isabel Slone, New York Fashion Week
I like to self-identify as the ‘world’s worst photographer’ -- seriously, whenever tourists ask me to snap a photo of them I decline out of respect -- so when I was assigned the task of documenting the greatest moments of New York Fashion Week using the new iPhone XR camera, I was intimidated, to say the least. Luckily, the camera was able to do most of the heavy lifting – all I had to do was notice something interesting and the camera was there to get the shot.
Photography by Isabel Slone
New York Fashion Week
Portrait Mode Before I took my seat at the Badgley Mischka show, (where I spotted Molly Shannon and Tess Holliday in the front row), I had to go over and compliment this woman on her incredible gothic –meets-Rainbow Brite outfit. Turns out she’s a rapper/model who goes by ‘JZL the Empress’ and walked in the Nicole Miller show later in that week. I nabbed this photo of her taking a selfie with another showgoer using Portrait mode, where the studio lighting setting illuminated her skin and highlighted the bright colours in her outfit.
Noreen Flanagan, Milan Fashion Week
After each show, I love knitting together quick videos on my iPhone XS Max either using iMovie or Videoshop. (This last app is great if you need to edit vertical clips for Instagram stories.) But there’s still nothing more satisfying than capturing a still image that captures—and freezes—the details and moments that inspire you at fashion week.
Photography by Noreen Flanagan
Milan Fashion Week
Up Close and Personal Portrait mode isn’t only useful for humans! I use it when I want to play with the depth of field so some parts of the picture are blurred. This helps to draw attention to the detail that has caught my eye, but layers in some context for where the shot is being taken. (In this case, it was at the resee for Gucci.)
Eliza Grossman, Paris Fashion Week
Although it’s nine days long, Paris Fashion Week feels more like two. A jam-packed schedule means that even the most memorable collections can be hard to recall. The photos I take at each showroom appointment and runway show are a constant reference point as I map out the magazine’s fashion coverage, so clear detailed shots are a must. Tapping subjects to focus and brightening images have become game changers when it comes to getting the perfect shot on the first try.
Photography by Eliza Grossman
Paris Fashion Week
Panorama The pano mode in the camera app helps capture beautiful wide shots. Once in pano you can steadily mode your cameral left to right to capture an extended view. Paris is the perfect backdrop for pano since every inch of the city seems magical. This shot was captured leaving the Louis Vuitton show at the Louvre. It’s quiet and eerie as the crowd exits the last show of the week.
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