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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive summary 1 2. Introduction 2 3. History 4 4. Popular digital cameras 6 5.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of writing this report is to enhance my knowledge on the topic that most interests me. Fashion photography is an essential part in the fashion world. The scope of writing this report is to learn all I can about fashion photography and use my findings in the future. I began my research by referring to some books from the library. Then I referred to the web. I learnt many interesting facts. I learnt about the techniques used in fashion photography, the lighting used, famous photographers, various cameras and its features and the types of fashion photography. It was a lot of fun working on this report.

INTRODUCTION
Everyone wants to see exciting pictures of beautiful people and great products presented with incredible artistry. Nonetheless, the phrase fashion photography means different things to different people. Whether they are involved with the fashion industry or just a viewer of the final results makes a difference.
To a photographer, fashion photography is a way to express himself, the models, and the products as one coherent piece of art. The fashion photographer tries to bring to all three a liveliness that transcends each one individually, and to simply make the viewer stop, stare, and think “wow! I want to go out and buy that Valentino evening dress or that pair of Jimmy Choo pumps or that new Louis Vuitton handbag!” although photographers may be limited by their budgets and by any reins that the creative director might place upon them, their goal is to invoke desire and passion in the viewer by creating a memorable shot. A photographer’s vision is ultimately his or her own unique way of seeing things; this uniqueness can be so successful and personal that one can simply look at an image by that photographer and identify who took it.
The client, or designer, has a different view of fashion photography: as a way to bring their creations to the masses. One’s ability to become a world famous designer is very much tied to the abilities of the fashion photographer. Some of the most creative and memorable shoots are set up ,sometimes at extravagant costs.
The final party involved with fashion photography is the public. After all, if no one admires these incredible shots painstakingly created by photographers and designers, what’s the point? The fashion photographer influences the viewer’s lives in so many ways- stoking in the viewer the desire to buy a product, and sometimes even creating fads that change the way an entire generation looks or feels about itself. Fashion photography is also a way for the public to see what the rich and famous are wearing, connecting the public with the unreachable. Fashion photography is fashionable.
Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Elle.
Over time, fashion has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories. The images are no longer exclusively devoted to flaunting clothes and fashion items, but also exotic locations, story lines, and gorgeous models.
Ultimately, fashion photograph involves informing viewers of what a product looks like, and what buying and wearing that product might convey to their friends. There is no underestimating the power of combining beautiful people, beautiful clothes, and beautiful accessories like jewellery, shoes and handbags.

HISTORY
The science of photography was slow to develop. Chief among the reasons that photography took some time to catch on was cost. Photography was developed in the 1830’s. In the first decade of the 20th century, advances in halftone printing allowed fashion photographers to be featured in magazines such as La Mode Pratique.
In 1911, photographer Edward Steichen was “dared” by Lucien Vogel, the publisher of Jardin des Modes and La Gazette du Bon Ton, to promote fashion as a fine art by the use of photography. Steichen then took photos of gowns designed by couturier Paul Poiret. These photographs were published in the April 1911 issue of the magazine Art et Decoration.
In the mid 1940’s the artists abandoned their rigid forms for a much freer style. In 1936, Martin Munkacsi made the first photographs of models in sporty poses at the beach. The models in early fashion photographs were most frequently society ladies and theatre and screen actresses rather than women working as living mannequins.
Even early fashionistas needed some place to turn for the latest in style information- hence the publication of fashion magazines. Among the first was Godey’s Lady’s Book and Harper’s.
While early fashion photographers focused simply on taking pictures that made both the clothing and model look good, they soon evolved to view fashion photography as a great outlet for expressing their artistic viewpoints. For example, photographers in the early 20th century, such as Baron de Meyer, generated artistic effects by using a lot of backlighting and soft-focusing. Other photographers, such as George Hoyningen-Huene and Cecil Beaton, used props. Still others, like John French and Irving Penn, created images that evoked their love for women. These greats inspired photographers everywhere- not just in the fashion industry.
Since its inception in 1880’s, the fashion photograph has generated criticism. Some photographers consider it too commercial, an impure application of an art form. It has sometimes been dismissed as frivolous and criticized for promoting negative stereotypes. Yet it has generated some of the most widely recognizable, provocative, and enduring imagery of our time.

POPULAR DIGITAL CAMERAS
THE SIGMA SD9 AND SD10- Sigma sd9 and sd10 cameras are unsung heroes. They are 10.9 megapixel cameras.
NIKON- Nikon has been on roll with its cameras, with the release of the Nikon D2x, a 12 megapixel camera, the company has climbed back into the fight with Canon for the for the best hand- held professional digital SLR. It has being adding features to is every innovation. The speed of Nikon is impressive.
CANON- like Nikon, Canon has long enjoyed a reputation for quality and excellence. But unlike Nikon, Cannon has managed to keep innovating with each camera it releases, further tightening the company’s grip on the professional D- SLR market: with the release of the canon 1DS –Mark 2, the company has kept this tradition alive. Very widely used by professionals in the beauty and fashion world, the Mark 2 offers exceptional quality at a very affordable price.
KODAK- Kodak has had an interesting time with the professional level digital cameras over the past few years.
HASSELBLAD- One of the heavyweights in the digital camera back world in Hasselblad. It has made quality cameras for nearly 50 years, and has garnered a strong following of photographers who feel that Hasselblads are the best cameras there ever were. The Hasselblad H1D is a 22 megapixel medium format camera offering a beautiful capture that is nearly unrivalled.

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS Martin Munkácsi May 18, 1896, died July 13, 1963, New York. He was a Hungarian photographer who worked in Germany and the United States. Munkácsi was a newspaper writer and photographer in Hungary, specializing in sports. At the time, sports action photography could only be done in bright light outdoors. Munkácsi's innovation was to make sports photographs as meticulously composed action photographs, which required both artistic and technical skill. More than just sports and fashion, he photographed Berliners, rich and poor, in all their activities. He travelled to Turkey, Sicily, Egypt, London, New York, and famously Liberia, for photo spreads in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung. On March 21, 1933, he photographed the fateful "Day of Potsdam", where the aged President Paul von Hindenburg handed Germany over to Adolf Hitler. On assignment for the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, he photographed Hitler's inner circle, ironically because he was a Jew and a foreigner. In 1934, the Nazis nationalized the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, fired its Jewish editor-in-chief, Kurt Korff, and replaced its innovative photography with pictures of German troops. Munkácsi left for New York, where he signed on, for a substantial $100,000, with Harper's Bazaar, a top fashion magazine. Innovatively, he often left the studio to shoot outdoors, on the beach, on farms and fields, at an airport. He produced one of the first articles illustrated with nude photographs in a popular magazine. His portraits include Katharine Hepburn, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Jane Russell, and the definitive dance photograph of Fred Astaire. Munkácsi died in poverty and controversy. Several universities and museums declined to accept his archives, and they were scattered around the world. Berlin's Ullstein Archives and Hamburg's F. C. Gundlach collection are home to two of the largest collections of Munkácsi's work. GAUTAM RAJADHYAKSHA Gautam Rajadhyaksha (16 September 1950 – 13 September 2011) was one of India's leading fashion photographers, and was based in Mumbai, India. He was one of India's best known celebrity portraitists, having photographed almost all the icons of the Indian Film industry. His first encounter with fashion photography happened 1980, when he happen to shoot pictures of actress Shabana Azmi (a college mate), Tina Munim and Jackie Shroff, and his passion for portraiture photography was lit. soon, he started working for magazines as - The Illustrated Weekly of India, and film magazines like Stardust, Cineblitz and Filmfare. Apart from doing occasional television talk shows, he edited Marathi entertainment fortnightly, 'Chanderi' and composed a popular column, Manas Chitra. In 1997 he released coffee table book, titled FACES, contained profiles of 45 film personalities beginning with Durga Khote, one of India's first ladies of the Indian screen and ending in a leading with Aishwarya Rai, the former Miss World and today Bollywood's leading actress. In 1992, he wrote his first screenplay, for the film, 'Bekhudi', which launched actress Kajol's career and his second, 'Anjaam' presented, Madhuri Dixit with a challenging role. In 2000, he held his first ever photo-exhibition in Pune which showcased, twenty years of his photography work. Exhibitions of Rajadhyaksha's work have been held in Pune, Goa and Kolhapur with all attracting large crowds. Further exhibitions of his work in San Francisco, London, Birmingham and Dubai, have all been well attended as well. He used to idealise the work of Jitendra Arya and was also influenced by his works published in Flimfare, The Illustrated Weekly of India and often The Times of India. MARIO TESTINO Mario Testino (born 30 October 1954 in Lima) is a Peruvian fashion photographer. Testino has shot fashion stories for Vogue, V, Gucci, and Vanity Fair. Celebrity subjects have most famously included Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons. Testino has become one of the world's most well-known and celebrated fashion photographers. His work has been featured across the globe in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and V and he has crafted and contributed to the imagery of leading fashion houses such as Burberry, Gucci, Versace, Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana, among many others. Mario Testino has had many successful exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world. In 2002, The National Portrait Gallery in London staged the landmark exhibition “Portraits” by Mario Testino that to date remains its most successful exhibit. Testino has also received royal commissions, including The Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, The Duchess of Cambridge, Diana, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, and Her Majesty Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan. CONCLUSION Fashion photography’s importance in the fashion industry can’t be overlooked. Today designers depend on editorial fashion photography to bring their creations to the attention of the buying public. Fashion photography is a fast developing field. It’s a mystical ring of fire. It moulds careers. Fashion photography, over the years is encountering significant economic and technological change. It is a fast developing field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY * www.wikipedia.org * www.google.com * www.thegreenloopblog.com * www.style.com BOOKS * Tatantino, C. and Tan, K. (2005) Digital Fashion Photography, Canada: Thomson Course Technology.

* Larg, A. and Wood, J. (1999) Fashion Shots: lighting, Singapore: Rotovision.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS * Image 1; Monique huillier prefall, favourite things, http://bootsmcblog.com/2011/01/20/favorite-things-a-dress-for-dancing-accepting-an-award-or-eating-a-cupcake-on-the-couch/, (20-1-2011) * Image 2; fashion-photography4, 35+ sizzling hot examples of fashion photography, http://www.hybridlava.com/photography/35-sizzling-hot-examples-of-fashion-photography/, (11-12-2010) * Image 3; unknown, fashion photography, http://jazzminad.webs.com/, (2009) * Image 4; vanity fair, fashion and lifestyle, http://fashaddix.com/2008/02/vanity-fair/, (5-2-2011) * Image 5; The Countess in a photo by Pierre-Louise Pierson, fashion photography history, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_photography, (9-10-2011) * Image 6; martin Munkácsi, Boy Meets Girl. A Transatlantic Project, http://boymeetsgirlproject.blogspot.com/2011/01/jacques-henri-lartigue.html, (21-1-2011) * Image 7; Harper's Magazine by Fred Hyland, art republic, http://www.artrepublic.com/prints/11141-harpers-magazine.html, (11-2008) * Image 8; Adorevintage, Ellen von Unwerth | A Study in Vintage Erotic Femininity, http://adore-vintage.blogspot.com/2011/01/ellen-von-unwerth-study-in-vintage.html, (30-1-2011) * Image 9; Front of the SD9 with a 28-200mm lens, Sigma SD9, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_SD9, (28-10-20110 * Image 10; CANON SLR XT-350D 13000.00, camera accessories, http://kolkata.olx.in/canon-slr-xt-350d-13000-00-iid-229262983, (17-7-2011)