How To Set Up (and Rock) A Styled Shoot

As most of you know, I’m a fashion photographer. That’s what my passion is and what people know me by. However, I also take on several intimate weddings every year. Wedding photography is grueling but also so rewarding.

When I first thought about getting into weddings, I came to realize that the wedding photography market was overly saturated. That meant that it was hard to find clients that would hire me without an established wedding portfolio. I knew that my editorial aesthetic would stand out once I had an opportunity to show it off.

So what did I do? I created my opportunity, and I’m going to tell you exactly what to do to create yours.

Enter the “Styled Shoot.” What’s a styled shoot? It’s basically a shoot with a pretend event, in my case, a pretend wedding. Not only does it give you the opportunity as a photographer to showcase your skills, it also gives you the opportunity to network with other professionals in the wedding industry.

Step 1: Plan.

Before you begin anything you really need to plan out a general direction you’d like to go with this shoot. Are you wanting it to be more boho? or are you wanting an extravagant and elaborate look? While you don’t need to get super precise, you at least have to have a basic image in mind before you can move on to the next steps. (Pinterest has a wealth of ideas, you can check out my boards for lots of inspiration here.)

Step 2: Understand who you’ll need to collaborate with. 

Think of a wedding. It’s basically a well-orchestrated team event. You have a bride and groom, a photographer(s), a wedding planner/stylist, stationary designers, cake decorator, florist and hair and makeup artists all working together to create magic at the wedding venue.

You must gather this same type of team and agree to “play pretend” and in turn mutually benefiting all your businesses. The photographer gives relevant photos to each of the vendors, who each provide their goods or services for the pretend wedding set up.

Step 3: Research & reach out.

I personally found all of my awesome team members through Instagram hashtags and that’s a method I’d highly recommend. Use tags like #columbusmodel, #columbushairstylist, #614wedding, #columbusmakeupartist, #columbusflorist – you get the idea. I looked through a ton of profiles and found/followed my absolute favorites.

The reaching out part was what really made me nervous. At the time I had just under 500 followers and was way behind the follower counts of the ladies I wanted to reach out to. Nevertheless, I sent all the potential team members an email – if it was provided – or a direct message. This is what I wrote:

“Hey there! My name is Zahra and I’m a photographer based here in Columbus. I absolutely love your work! I’m hoping to set up a styled wedding shoot around [insert date] and was wondering if you’d like to provide [insert good or service] in exchange for professional photographs for your portfolio. This styled shoot is a collaboration, which will give us all the opportunity to tag one another and benefit from advertising eachother to our followers. I’d love to have you on the team!”

And wouldn’t you know, all that anxiety was unnecessary because they all agreed! That being said, keep back up options in mind!

Step 4: Set up a meeting or group chat.

Because we all had super busy schedules, we opted to create a group text so we could communicate easily. Since I was spearheading the shoot, I offered a location idea that was beautiful and easily accessible to all of the team members. I also got the conversation flowing, by asking what types of photos they were hoping to get. The makeup artist, for example, wanted close-ups, the hair stylist wanted different angles etc. there’ll be example images later in the post. Everyone got the same photos, so they had a variety of different shots as well as the ones they specifically wanted.

Once we all understood what the general theme was and what was expected from each of us, we all confirmed the date and location and patiently waited for shoot day.

Step 5: Confirm 3 days before the shoot.

Confirming is very important and I honestly think 3 days before the shoot is a realistic time frame to make sure everyone is still on board. Whadya know? The wedding dress provider, florist, cake decorator and stationery artist all backed out. 3. days. before. the. shoot. Ultimately we decided to continue without those vendors. Our stylists found a beautiful dress, we were shooting at a botanical garden and felt that would make up for the lack of bouquet, and we decided to focus on portraits so the cake wasn’t missed. *spoiler alert – we rocked the shoot.*

Step 6: Get ready for the shoot!

I’ll be posting in more detail about my gear and camera set up in a future post, but in general, make sure you have your gear in check the night before. That means batteries are charged, memory cards are at the ready, lenses are packed and/or rented, and you’ve set yourself up for success in general.

Step 7: Rock shoot day!

It’s finally here and all of you have set up the best locations and times to work with the models. In our case our model, Blair, first had her makeup done, then went to get her hair done, and then met our stylist, and I at the Franklin Park Conservatory to change into her “gown” and get the show on the road.

All in all the shoot lasted about an hour. It was super fun and I got some great shots! This is when you want to message everyone with an approximate turn around time for the photos (if you haven’t already), and make sure they all send you their emails.

Step 8: Edit and Share.

Once you’ve given an approximate date to deliver photos, you better stick to it! I personally told them it would be a week, but I delivered them in 3 days – because I’m a rockstar, amiright?

Everyone loved the photos and got the types of images that they wanted for their portfolios. If you’re interested in how I edited these photos, let me know down below and I’ll answer it in a future post.

The Dream Team (Links are in pink):

Models: Blair Bocook & Travis Nickles

Stylist: Dana Kittaneh of Kittnco

Makeup Artist: Halli Marie of Columbus Bridal Makeup

Hair Stylist: Sarah Whittaker at The Bride Bar

Location: Franklin Park Conservatory

 

And that’s it! 8 easy steps to rock your first styled shoot.

Are you planning a styled shoot? Let me know!