Do you know your High Fashion from your Haute Couture

After being invited to watch the Burberry and the Yves Saint Laurent shows a few weeks back, I got to thinking about High Fashion and Haute Couture. So after searching online for ages and seeing loads of images and photographs posted all claiming to be High Fashion, I thought it was time to give an idea of what these are exactly.

So I thought I would write a blog post about just exactly what is High Fashion and what is Haute Couture.

Haute Couture

Haute Couture is the top end of the fashion tree, and it actually a licensed term in France due to the exclusive nature it. This type of fashion is typically custom made, one of a kind items, typically not off the peg stuff.

So when shooting clothes that are classed a Haute Couture you will normally be dealing direct with top end fashion houses, and shooting one of a kind pieces or one of a kind ranges, typically stuff that has a high price and is by a well known top end brand, such as
Jean Paul Gaultier, Frank Sorbier, Elie Saabwere, Maison Martin Margiela to name but a few.

Simple rule is you cant normally just buy haute couture on the high street.

High Fashion

High Fashion is kinda the next step down on the fashion ladder, and although it does not have the same exclusiveness as Haute Couture, these clothes are still very top end of the labels designs, and can be on occasion one off pieces, such as cat walk styles. Again the designers tend to be high end such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada and alike, basically not the stuff you will get on the high street, although it is possible to by off the peg high fashion due to the nature of the lines, and the fact they dont tend to be all one off pieces, although some are.

So basically to give you an idea of high fashion clothes, they are not clothes that you pick up in Primark or normally on the high street, they are designers doing what they do best, although you can buy cheaper versions of some designers clothes such as Yves Saint Laurent at some stores, these lines are not the high fashion end of the range.

I hope this makes some sense and gives you an idea of what Haute Couture and High Fashion are, just keep in mind that these two terms have nothing to do with the type of shoot, they have everything to do with the clothes.

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Models Bringing Chaperones to Photo Shoots

Ok this is one of those subjects that pop up time and time again, the subject of chaperones, whether that is the model, mua, stylist or photographer bringing someone with them to a photoshoot.
First off I will start by saying as a photographer I don't have any problems with anyone bringing someone with them on the shoot, I would rather have someone happy on the shoot and if that means being having someone with them, thats cool with me.

Now the reason I don't have a problem with this is that on most of my shoots, there are normally a lot of people on set, or if its a location shoot and a public place, of course there will be people around.

I don't have a problem with it because when I am taking photos I am only concerned with what I can see through the camera, and as I am professional and my concentration is on this, people around me aren't a problem and don't effect my photography.

I find it really hard to believe that anyone has a problem with someone else bringing someone with them on a shoot, especially if the shoot is something like lingerie, implied, topless or nude. I mean you have to look out for yourself, and if you are unhappy on a shoot not only will you have a horrible shoot, but your photos will be effected, but it just amazes me that some people throw their toy out of the pram when a model turns up with someone, even more so when they say they will be fine if the escort was female but have a problem if its a man, my question to them is "why do you have a problem?" and "why is it different is someone brings a woman?" my only conclusion is that your are either up to something you shouldn't be or you are not confident in your work to have someone watch you while you do it.

So in closing I will finish with this, if you want to shoot with me and you want to bring someone with you, thats fine with me. I am even happy with it, when someone turns up with a chaperone and I was unaware of them coming to the shoot, as my feelings on this is that, the shoot is about everyone, not just me as the photographer. Every must be happy and feel relaxed on the shoot in order to get the best results.  So a little message to my fellow photographers, keep in mind that your job is to take photos, and if you cant do that with someone watching your in the wrong job or at least the wrong type of photography, remember the shoot is not just about you, its also about anyone else involved models, make up artists, stylists and anyone else.

Without the whole team there can be no shots.

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New Online Fashion Collaboration Project

After getting inspired by the recent Fashion weeks worldwide everywhere from London, Leeds, Newcastle to Milan and Paris. I have decided to launch a fashion project with a bit of a difference.

I read alot of fashion related material and always wonder how the latest cat walk trends will end up on the high street. As we all know that in reality what we see on the catwalk never really gets anywhere near the high street, well not in the shape and style we see on in the shows anyway. So I got to thinking about a new kind of fashion magazine, centred around street style and the art of collaboration.

My plan is to publsh a magazine featuring artists from all over the UK and the world, and unlike most fashion publications every artist featured will get full credit as well as a brief description about them and their work. The magazine will be an online magazine, aimed at showcasing peoples talents, from  photographers, models, make up artists to journalists and beyond with the first edition lauching before christmas 2012 or possibly a bit sooner, but definately during the Autumn / Winter season in terms of fashion.

The magazine will be a full colour publication, with both photos and articles, basically a magazine aimed at showcasing street style, and will give anyone the opportunity to show off what they can do.

How You Can Be Part of This Project

So although in the perfect world I would love to publish a magazine with only my work in it, I know this would make it very boring and one sided. So what I need is any of the following people who are interested in getting work published, in my new magazine.

1. Photographers
2. Models
3. Make Up Artists
4. Stylists
5. Fashion Editors
6. Fashion Journalists.

And basically anyone else connected with the world of fashion or hair and makeup.

So if you are interested in being part of this project please get in touch.

You can Email me at sean.connolly@seanjconnollyphotography.co.uk
FaceBook me at www.facebook.com/seanjconnollyphotography
Tweet me at www.twitter.com/SeanJC

I look forward to hearing from you and look forward to showing off your work.

Thanks for reading
Sean

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Burberry Prorsum Spring Summer 2013 Mens Collection

I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the latest lines to come out of Burberry for next Spring Summer season as part of Milan Fashion Week, and have to be honest I was pleasently surprised. In my head I was still picturing the Burberry line as being a very chav driven line with the traditional check pattern on caps. But to my surprise there was not a cap in sight.

Instead there was a whole load of colour and very smart looking lines, suits and formal work wear are very much on the agenda for the Spring Summer 2013 range from Burberry.

This makes me very happy as this in my view is what Burberry are all about, smart clothes and professional people, it was such a shame that there line got taken over by chavs, but it seems they are back on track and very much on target.

Burberry Spring Summer 2013

Colours

I was actually taken a back first by the use of bright colours on what would normally be very dull things, suits, formal trousers, jackets etc. But after a while I found them very appealling, nothing better than bringing back the suit by adding a whole load of bright colours to it. When I say bright I mean bright, reds, yellows, blues are as bright as you can imagine.

And in my opinion this works, as the suit in general is on the decline so its nice for Burberry to not only get back to their roots, but to bring their roots bang up to date.

Eye Wear

One of the key features of the new lines is eye wear, and again although they are very traditional looking sun glasses, they are splashed with colours, and bright colours. Almost made me think of kiddy sunglasses for adults. But again it worked.

Bags (no not hand bags)

Another huge thing next season is the continues rise of the bag or man bag as some people call them, I see a bag like this myself being used not on a daily basis, more of a replacement for my briefcase. As you look a bit silly dressed smart - casually but carrying a briefcase, and this is the market and exactly where the bags fit in.

In my view most men will use them just as I do, as a work bag, dont think many men will actually use a bag daily as a woman does her hand bag. Yet again the look of some of the new Burberry bags are on trend, not feminine as you would expect, although some were at bit girly for my tastes. But I am just happy that after all these years these bags are being mass produced, I remember a few years bag I could not find a casual briefcase replacement anywhere, so well done Burberry for bringing them up to date.

Foot wear

Now as you will expect there are some very smart looking shoes in next seasons line up, just the fairly normal work and casual wear. But and here is the bit that I will never get, there are sandals, yes sandals although the bright colours feature on these again. The fact that they are paired with socks just screams old man, just like your grandad would always wear his sandals with socks.

So my advice would be take sandals out of the range, I dont know anyone would would wear sandals with a suit, that is unless you live in a hot country, but even then only at a stretch.

But all in all I really like the new Burberry look, they are going back to the formal style where they started from and lets hope that in doing so the Chav element disappears.

Well done Burberry for a great show, cant wait for the ranges to hit the shops

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Thank you for supporting my Blog

Just thought I would say a Huge thank you to everyone for reading, sharing and commenting on my blog. I always love sharing my knowledge with others and being social in general.

Now on the subject of being social I was thinking my readers must have their own blogs ro being on social media websites so why dont we share with each other our blogs, social network profiles, twitter handles, etc.

So I will start, you know the url of my blog already as this is what you are reading, but here are my other social networking presences.

Twitter - @SeanJC
FaceBook - @SeanJConnollyPhotography

So please follow me on twitter and give me a like on FaceBook. Once you have done that please add your own social network presences and blog links in the comments. After all thats what social media is all about.

And once again thank you for reading and supporting my blog
TTFN
Sean

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HDR (High Dynamic Range) - Good or Evil?

Ok as most of my work involves the fashion side of life, I dont really take many HDR shots. But I decided to try out some of a few places just to see if firstly I could get it right and secondly what it would look like. I would highly recommend the Expert Video Guide to help you improve your photography skills

So what is HDR or High Dynamic Range

If you dont know HDR standard for High Dynamic Range, and its a technique that by combining multiple of shots you get to have a broader range of exposure and colours than a single shot. What this means is that you get more details in your shots, as you may have experienced when you take a shot and some of your subject is in the shadows, if you expose for the shadows the rest of the shot is over exposed, if you expose for the rest of the shot the shadows are under exposed and lack detail.
This is where HDR comes it, by combining shots taken at different brackets (or exposures) into a single image you get the best of both world shadows have detail and high lights are not over exposed.

If you look at the two shots below, you can see that the one on the left is exposed for the sky, which has meant that the grass is too dark or under exposed. The shot on the right is exposed for the grass, which means the sky is too bright or over exposed.

Ok so in order to get the perfect shot, we have the option of using filters such as Polarizing or Neutral Density to correct the exposure. OR and this is where HDR come in we can combine the two shots and produce a single perfect image.

Now you can see that the detail in this final HDR shot is way better than either of the two shots above, by making the HDR we have been able to combine both sides of the dynamic range to get a better shot.

"But this shot looks surreal"

One of the problems you can get with HDR is that the end shot doesn't look real, and I personally quite like this look in some shots. I think it adds something. But you don't always have to be so extreme when producing an HDR shot, you can get a result that looks just like a normal shot. Just with more detail.

As you can see the shot above is perfectly exposed across the whole shot, and yet it looks just like a normal photograph.

So is HDR Good or Evil?

So is HDR good or evil? I like the extreme colours thats come with HDR and that surreal feeling it can give an otherwise boring shot particularly of night time shots, yet I love the way it can make a shot look perfect without any bells and whistle, simply correcting the exposure.

If you are still hungry for more take a look at Tony Pages Tool Box for everything you could ever want to make your shots creative.

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Being Social with Media

OK so we all use social media just about everyday, whether you are liking something on FaceBook, tweeting something on Twitter, +1'ng something on Google or Pinning something on Pinterest. The question I put to you is how many of you don't use if correctly?

Now I am not going to go into how to promote your stuff online or the best ways to increase your twitter followers or FaceBook likes, but the point of this post is that it has become apparent to me that their is an increasing amount of people who seem to think the point of social media is to just advertise their own stuff.

I am sick and tired of people who post things and expect to get people to share, like or whatever yet on the other hand these people dont share other peoples content, nor do they even go as far as to like other peoples work. I mean for example I work as a fashion and advertising photographer, which means I dont do weddings, so what do I do when someone asks me about doing a wedding. I refer them to someone I know who does do weddings, I intend to stick in my area of photography and not move into areas I dont do.

You will no doubt have seen the types of people I am talking about, you read on their profiles such comments as "friend requests will be ignored" or "if I am interested in working with you I will get in touch". Now dont get me wrong this behaviour comes from people in all areas of life photographers, models and MUA's so what I dont get is that if these people are not wanting to be social, how do they know anyone in the first place to get work.

This post may sound like a bit of a rant, and I guess it is, but then its my blog so I can rant if I want. But in all seriousness here are the GOLDEN rules to being social and winning at social media.

1. Comment on other peoples work
2. Like other peoples work and pages
3. Refer work to your colleagues if its something you dont do
4. If you really like someones work, share it.

Here are the GOLDEN DO NOT DOES

1. Don't just post your own stuff everywhere
2. Don't ignore your fans / followers
3. Don't write such stupid things like "friend requests will be ignored" on your profile, that is unless your a twat.

So I think you get my point, we are all on this world wide web to connect and we are not going to do that by not being social, so go forth my friend and be social.

Dont forget whilst your being social to like my FaceBook page or follow me on Twitter

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