In the previous post we had discuss with Mike Wardhana about basic fashion photography, today we’ll review how to get inside the business.

Share us some tips on how to
discover our distinct personal
style in our work.
This is probably the question I cannot
answer for you. If you are doing any
form of art whole-heartedly over a long
period of time, you are actually doing
a study about yourself. It is a journey
of discovering who you really are in
person, the deepest, unseen fragments
of yourself.
When you have a body of work in
which people can recognize you
through, you’ve successfully formulated
your style. So keep on doing
your art and reflect back on your own
work continuously. It is a journey and it
won’t happen overnight.

Share with us also the mindset &
habits that we should have to be
up to date to the current trend.
(I don’t quite understand this question)
Look at other photographers work and
study them carefully. Question them
why, why and why? Why are they good
or why are they not good?
Find a few artists whose work inspires
you the most and move towards that
direction.
Now I’m not talking about the work of
Joe the photographer from around the
corner here. You should be looking at
world’s best photographers’ work to
inspire you. Aim high and it is okay to
be a little bit ambitious, because that’s
what will take you far.

What words describe your work
best?
If I can only choose one word, it would
be the word ‘sultry’.
Sure I have made many non-feminine
images but I always tend to fall back
to my own nature – soft, feminine, and
sultry.

In your opinion, what makes a
great fashion photographer?
If we look back, the iconic fashion
photographers have always been those
who can reflect and respond to the
social issue happening in their era. And
they dare to respond to that controversially.
Helmut Newton is one good
example for this. And we have photographers
like Steven Meisel and David
Lachapelle in our time now.

And whats the definition of
“great image” for you?
Oh wow, it’s like asking what is the definition
of delicious food! Everyone will
have different opinions about this.
But art is about self-expression and it
is something that comes from inside
the creator’s feeling. So it works on a
personal level. Hence, in my opinion,
a piece of art is great when it is able to
evoke the emotion of the viewer.
This applies to photography. If you can
create an image that can evoke the
emotion of the viewer, whether it is
love, sadness, grief, awe, or even anger
or whatever it may be, you have made
a great image. And an image with emotional
level impact like that will not be
forgotten easily.
A great image has to work on a deeper
level than just being ‘eye candy’, like a
postcard photo that you will forget in
no time at all.

Could you share with us, beginners,
how to learn photography
effectively?
I think when you start learning photography
there are a few things that
you have to do. You have to start by
learning the basic camera operations
like shutter speed, aperture, white
balance, ISO, etc. You really need to
get very familiar with these. Also, learn
about what different focal length of the
lens have different effects on your image.
And finally and most importantly,
learn how to use artificial light sources,
flashes and tungsten.
This is photography not cameragraphy,
so please stop wasting time arguing
about which camera is the best and
which lens is the sharpest. Many photographers
spend way too much time
discussing about their equipment. My
advice is, to buy the equipment that
you can afford and get over it and start
shooting. Working professional photographers
treat their cameras as a tool
to create their work, just like a painter
uses a brush to paint.
After you pass that basic stage, you
need to learn how to make striking
images more than just correctly exposed
or correctly composed. This is the
stage where you have to think a lot and
prepare a lot before you shoot. Learn
about colours, learn about light, and
most importantly learn about making
conceptual images.
And the last stage, which I have discussed
before, is finding your work style.
This won’t happen overnight and will
take many years on the field to develop.