Member-only story
A Guide to London Fashion Week for Photographers: February 2023
London Fashion Week is back, running from 17th to 21st February at various locations around London.
As a photographer covering the various shows this week, I will be shooting over 30 shows. It is essential to be applying for passes early in February. As you need photo passes to gain entry into the shows. You also need to plan locations and how long it will take you to get to them.
Will you be going through rush hour, which inevitably will have delays? It’s also no good getting passes for shows on the other side of London. Planning is important.
Another consideration is that when filing the images to photo agencies, you must get all the details from the PR agencies beforehand. You can prepare ahead of time with biographies of the various designers, as you would need to have titles and descriptions ready to go. Also, knowing the list of celebrities that will be going, so you know who they are.
Food and drink are important subjects as the places you are in, in the photography pit, are hot, and you can dehydrate quickly. Remember to bring plenty of memory cards; I usually shoot around 7,000+ photos over the week.
Get there early for the fashion shows, as a pass doesn't guarantee an ideal shooting position. I try and get there early to mark out my position; once you have marked it out, you can go off somewhere else. So remember to bring masking tape and a marker pen.
The ideal position is near the centre and about a meter high. It is crucial to get the clothes in focus. Remember, it is a fashion shoot, not a portrait shoot. The model leading leg should be planted on the ground, and the back leg touching the ground. The fashion show should also have enough lights to light the stage evenly. The model should be fully lit as they walk down the catwalk so that you don't have to increase the ISO, which increases the noise. When I shoot models on a catwalk, it would be in a manual model with at least 250th of a second shutter speed at F5.6 and depending on the lighting at 640 ISO. But all these could be out the window if it's very dark. My lens of choice is 55 to 300mm, which gives a lot more flexibility.
