Glance at the summary firstThe summary from the end of the lesson, as a road map before you start reading.
On the street, a fashion frame is built with a location echo that repeats the place's color or texture in the garment, or with a location contrast that deliberately sets the garment against the place, and both are decisions that come from the concept on the board. The color spill colored surfaces cause on skin and garment is checked on the screen and managed, and the rights of the places' owners and of passersby are respected.
Learning goal
You will be able to build a fashion shoot on the street, in a real place, minding that the place carries the garment and doesn't smother it. You will tell apart the pairing that repeats the place's color, texture or line in the garment and the pairing that deliberately sets the garment against the place, and see that both are decisions. You will notice how the color of a colored wall, an awning or a canopy of leaves spills onto the skin and the garment of a model standing near it, and manage this when needed. While working on the street, you will mind the rights and the work of the shopkeepers, the passersby and the owners of the places.
The question
The team comes to the old bazaar one Saturday morning. Your friend first stands the models in the liveliest corner, in front of fruit stalls, colorful bolts of fabric and a red awning. Everything in the frame is shouting: the mustard jacket gets lost among the orange apples, the model's face has turned pink under the awning. The designer asks where the jackets are. What does a crowded street give a fashion frame, and what does it take away? How is a fashion shoot done on the street?
Context
On this track you tried pouring four colors, from pier gray to dark red, into a palette at the table (Lesson F.2). In the difficult light lesson you used the soft shade that direct sun doesn't reach but that sees the open sky, open shade (Lesson 18.5). In the permissions lesson you also saw the written consent obtained from a private place's owner for photographing it for commercial purposes, the property release (Lesson 29.2).
In the studio, the background is an empty surface you choose. On the street, the background comes with its own story: with a history, a function, sounds, colors and the people who live there. This adds a depth to a fashion frame that the studio can't give; but if the place's story speaks louder than the garment's story, the garment gets lost.
Simple explanation
When does the place carry the garment?
A location echo is a pairing in which a color, texture or line of the place repeats in the garment and the two strengthen each other. A navy jacket in front of an old, blue-painted door of the bazaar; a coarse knit sweater in front of a worn stone wall; a finely striped shirt in front of the lines of a shop's shutter. In an echo, the eye goes back and forth between the garment and the place and notices their kinship.
The echo has a limit. If the garment and the place are exactly the same color and the same brightness, the garment melts into the background; the kinship turns into camouflage. That is why in an echo at least one difference is kept: if the color is the same, the brightness differs, if the texture is the same, the color differs, or the model is separated from the background with light. Looking on the scouting trip for where the palette's colors find a match on the street makes it possible to set up the echo before the day of the shoot.
When does the place compete with the garment?
A location contrast is a pairing in which the garment is deliberately set against the place, and this opposition creates a story or a tension. A smooth, newly cut jacket in front of the soot-stained wall of a century-old coppersmith's shop; a muted pastel coat beside a bright red butcher's counter. A contrast makes the viewer ask a question: what is this person looking for here, where are they going?
A contrast works when it is a decision, and creates chaos when it is an accident. The crowded corner in the question isn't a contrast but a race: the fruit, the fabrics and the awning speak in the same language as the garment, with saturated colors, and all of them want attention at the same time. In such a corner, to bring the garment forward, the framing is tightened, the background is thrown out of focus, or the model is moved to a quiet edge of the place. Which pairing is chosen depends on the concept on the board; both can be right.
How does the place's color pass onto the skin?
Color spill is the light reflected by a colored surface, a wall, an awning, a canopy of leaves or a counter, giving color to the skin and the garment of the person near it. The sun passes through a red awning or reflects off it, and the face standing beneath turns pink, a reddish brown; under a green vine the skin gains a greenish pallor. This spill is often not noticed with the naked eye, because the eye adapts to the surroundings; the camera, though, records it as it is.
The spill looks different on every skin tone. Light skin shows the incoming color more clearly and easily turns pink or green; on dark skin, the same color leads to a deeper but less noticeable shift, and is hard to find later in editing. The ways to manage the spill are simple: moving the model a few steps away from the colored surface, giving their face a neutral light with a white reflector, or keeping the spill in the frame on purpose, as a warmth. The decision is made by zooming in on the model's face on the screen.
Visual evidence
Your friend takes the models out of the crowded corner to a quiet side street of the bazaar. The dark-skinned model wearing the navy jacket stands in front of a faded blue door; the door is lighter than the jacket, the jacket separates from the background, the two are related. Then the light-skinned model in the mustard jacket moves in front of the blackened stone wall of the coppersmith's shop; new fabric and old stone face each other.
They go back to the frame under the red awning. The light-skinned model's face is clearly pink; on the dark-skinned model's face the shift is less striking, but zoomed in on the screen a reddish tone can be seen. The assistant holds a white reflector to both models' faces; the awning's warmth stays on the shoulders, and the faces return to their own color.
Before the shoot the designer asks the coppersmith whether they can work in front of the shop, and gets their permission in writing. Your friend sets up so as not to block the narrow street, and leaves passersby out of the frame; if someone stays recognizable in a frame, they don't put that frame in the selection.
Common mistakes
Common mistakePutting the model in the street's most colorful, most crowded corner.
The place and the garment race for attention, and the garment gets lost. The fix: choose an echo or a contrast and tighten the framing accordingly.
Common mistakeChoosing a background the same color and brightness as the garment.
The garment melts into the background. The fix: in an echo, keep at least one difference, brightness or texture.
Common mistakeShooting near a colored awning or wall without checking the face.
The skin turns pink or green. The fix: zoom in on the face on the screen, and if needed move the model away or use a white reflector.
Summary
On the street, a fashion frame is built with a location echo that repeats the place's color or texture in the garment, or with a location contrast that deliberately sets the garment against the place, and both are decisions that come from the concept on the board. The color spill colored surfaces cause on skin and garment is checked on the screen and managed, and the rights of the places' owners and of passersby are respected.
Mini assignment
In this assignment you will shoot a garment, with its wearer's agreement, on the street with two different pairings; a market, a bazaar or an old neighborhood is enough.
- Find a place that repeats a color or texture of the garment, and shoot a location echo frame where the garment doesn't melt into the background.
- Find a place that deliberately clashes with the garment and shoot a location contrast frame; look at whether the contrast raises a question.
- Shoot a frame near a colored surface, zoom in on the face on the screen, note the color spill; repeat once by moving away or with a white reflector, and once leaving the spill on purpose.
Check yourself
- In the echo frame, does the garment separate from the background, or melt into it?
- Does the contrast frame read like an accident, or like a decision?
- Beside the colored surface, is the person's skin the color you want?
Glossary
| Term | Short definition |
|---|---|
| Location echo | A pairing in which a color, texture or line of the place repeats in the garment and the two strengthen each other. |
| Location contrast | A pairing in which the garment is deliberately set against the place and this opposition creates a story or a tension. |
| Color spill | Light reflected by, or passing through, a colored surface giving color to the skin and garment of the person near it. |
Mini quiz
1. How is the garment kept from melting into the background in a location echo?
- A) By choosing the garment and the background in exactly the same color
- B) By keeping at least one difference, in brightness, texture or light
- C) By turning off the flash
- D) By sticking the model to the background
2. Why is a crowded, colorful corner often not a contrast?
- A) Because permission can't be obtained there
- B) Because the light there is always hard
- C) Because the place and the garment speak the same language and race for attention
- D) Because colorful places don't fit in the frame
3. Why is color spill often not noticed during the shoot?
- A) Because the eye adapts to the surroundings, while the camera records the color as it is
- B) Because the camera corrects the color automatically
- C) Because spill only happens at night
- D) Because spill is only seen on the garment
4. What is done before shooting in front of a shop?
- A) You wait so that the shop owner won't appear in the frame
- B) The shoot is finished quickly
- C) No one is told anything
- D) The shop owner is asked and their permission obtained
Answers
- B — When the kinship comes with a difference, the garment separates from the background.
- C — Saturated colors want attention at the same time, and the garment gets lost among them.
- A — The visual system adjusts the white balance, the sensor doesn't.
- D — Minding the place owner's work and rights is a condition of working on the street.
Summary card
- The street comes with its own story; it shouldn't speak louder than the garment's.
- Location echo: color, texture or line repeats; a difference remains.
- Location contrast: a deliberate opposition makes the viewer ask a question.
- A crowded, colorful corner is a race; tighten the framing or move.
- Color spill: zoom in on the face, move away, or hold a white reflector.
Bridge to the next lesson
On the way back from the bazaar, the designer has dozens of frames from the pier, the studio and the bazaar, and a magazine offers to set aside a few pages for the collection. But the pages are limited: however good the frames are, not all of them will go in, and the ones that do have to tell a story. To build a magazine story, which frames are chosen and how are they ordered? The next lesson takes up building a narrative of six to eight frames.