My Styling Classes

I take quite a range of classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology - everything from advertising to computing and styling - all of which come together to build the perfect curriculum to teach me everything I want to know. Two of the classes I am enrolled on involve styling; Photographic Styling focuses on small-scale, tabletop styling, and Styling for Visual Presentation involves photographing fashion and furniture. I wanted to share an insight in to the kind of work I do in these classes for anyone considering studying here themselves, or those of you who may just be curious as to what goes on in the classes.

These two images were taken in the Styling for Visual Presentation class. The brief for this project was to select a large scale object, then taking inspiration from its characteristics, create a set to place and photograph the object in. We came across this pink chair and thought it felt a little bit sixties. The pink screamed romance/lust, so we responded to this by creating a scene from a motel where a 'hookup' may have taken place.

We designed and printed our own paper for the walls, and found some old linoleum for the flooring. The bed was fashioned from a blanket thrown over a table. We decided to add in a few props such as the makeup and lingerie to suggest a story behind the object. It was really difficult working so large scale and having to create a set so large with minimal resources, but I always like a challenge!

This photoshoot was done in my Photographic Styling class. I find this class a little easier due to the set being much smaller in scale, which I prefer to work with. These images were part of our food styling brief. My group were given the subject of cocktails to photograph, so we all brought in props and food items and set this up on a table in order to create something that looked like it could have been taken in a bar.

The surface and backdrop tend to be the hardest thing to master, as it can be tricky to recreate a realistic looking environment for the subject. Working with food was much harder than our previous still-life shoots, as food is always changing. As soon as we poured the ice in to the glass it began to melt, so we had to work fast. The same occurred with the mint leaves. Shortly after we had chopped them up and placed them on set, they started wilting. This shoot definitely taught me to come prepared and organised, as you don't always have very long to get the perfect frame.

While I'm not sure if styling is something I will definitely pursue, it has been really helpful to gain an insight in to all the different aspects that go in to capturing a shot. I have learnt to consider how differently a set comes across on camera rather than to the eye, and lots of different tricks to help create a more visually pleasing shot.

Aderyn x