Fashion Photography Styles To Inspire Your Next Clothing Shoot
Photography is a huge factor in purchasing decisions and brand recognition in the fashion industry. 75% of online shoppers consider product photos crucial to their buying decisions, and research also suggests high-quality images boost conversion rates by up to 30%.
It's clear that choosing the right photography styles contributes to the success of a brand. We've listed some of the most effective ecommerce photography styles commonly commissioned by our fashion clients.
Each photography style has its benefits, and can all be used to create an identity that is attached to the brand. This makes choosing this identity incredibly important as it will either attract customers or turn them away from your products.
You should also consider the marketing channels you plan to use, as this will affect the choice of style. In this article we talk about when and where to use each style most effectively.
Essential Fashion Photography Styles for Brand Success
Model Photography: Bringing Fashion to Life
We believe model photography is the best way of creating aspirational imagery that resonates with customers. This style demonstrates how garments look on real bodies, helping customers to better visualise themselves wearing the clothing. Using models that reflect your target customers will help this even further. According to industry research, sizing issues are the primary reason for clothing returns. Model photography can help reduce return rates by providing a sizing reference and showing the fit.
Key considerations:
- - Use diverse models representing various body types and ethnicities
- - In your brief, ask to capture genuine emotions and expressions on models
- - Choose complementary garments that work well with your products
Professional model photography requires careful attention to the lighting setup. It’s important to use a trusted studio for your brief – they may suggest different styles that could work for your shoot.
The choice of lighting style will also depend on how you plan to use the images. Ecommerce model images tend to work best when the lighting is focused on the garments, showing the fabrics, details and fit. On the other hand, lighting can create impact with dramatic shadows that give the model more personality in the image. For advertising campaigns, and social media, creating impact this way can work better. The same is true when choosing backgrounds for the models – white or grey for professional ecommerce listings, or bright and colourful for impactful advertising.
In 2025 fashion photography trends centre around bold, vibrant colour palettes that stand out on social media.
Retro and vintage-inspired styling approaches have also been included in our recent shoots.
Invisible Mannequin Photography: Clarity and Consistency
Invisible mannequin photography, also known as ghost mannequin images, creates the illusion of garments floating in mid-air by digitally removing the mannequin where it is visible. This style eliminates distractions and focuses attention entirely on the clothing's fit, drape, and design details.
Key Benefits:
- - Eliminates model costs and scheduling complexities
- - Provides consistent, professional images across your product lines
- - Allows customers to focus solely on garment features without distractions
This technique works exceptionally well for ecommerce platforms where product clarity helps customers understand listings. An invisible mannequin style shows how clothing naturally fits whilst maintaining cost-effectiveness.
On-Location Photography: Brand Storytelling
On-location fashion photography places garments in real-world environments, creating lifestyle images that demonstrate how clothing relates to your customers' daily lives. This approach is particularly effective for advertising and PR campaigns or social media content that aims to engage audiences. An aspirational approach usually works well which means understanding your audience demographics is the starting point when planning a shoot.
Key Benefits
- - Provides authentic, relatable contexts for fashion items
- - Enhances brand narrative through location selection
- - Adds interest with aspirational location choices
Successful location shoots require thorough scouting and planning to ensure they fit with your brand’s identity. Your product needs to look at home in the chosen environment.
Examples of good locations include holiday settings, the natural environment, and unique buildings that align with your fashion story and customers' lives.
It’s also worth considering whether your ideal environment could be created in a studio. With a skilled set build team, it’s possible for outdoor scenes as well as interior settings to be built from scratch, bespoke to your requirements.
Still Life Photography: Creative and Abstract
Still life fashion photography includes creative freedom to photographing garments. The technique can be used to emphasise texture, colour, and design details through carefully composed arrangements. This style allows for creative experimentation and can transform ordinary clothing items into visually striking compositions.
A mix of accessories and props can be used effectively with this style of photography. Link your choices back to your brand story as this style lends itself to speaking directly to your customers' interests and passions. The style can be used across digital channels, as well as look books that set your brand's tone.
Key Benefits:
- - Creates mood-driven imagery through lighting and composition
- - Develops a brand-specific identity with creative visuals
- - Versatile content for multiple marketing channels
Still life photography requires patience and attention to detail, often involving multiple setup adjustments to achieve the perfect composition. We use various tools and tricks to create dynamic arrangements that bring static objects to life.
Flat Lay Photography: Simple or Creative
Flat lay clothing photography presents garments and accessories arranged on flat surfaces and photographed directly from above. This style can be used in different ways, either as a replacement to ghost mannequin photography on ecommerce sites, or as a creative style for advertising, social media, and website banners.
Strategic Benefits:
- - Cost-effective production without models
- - Ideal for showcasing outfit combinations and styling options
- - Emphasises product details and colourways
The style works particularly well for accessories, outfit combinations, and showing a range of colours. You could also bring video into your project, as flat lays can work well as stop motion animations.
Stack Photography: Volume and Variety
Clothing stack photography showcases multiple garments or colour variations by arranging them in layered compositions. This creative fashion photography style can be used to effectively demonstrate a product range in a captivating way.
Creative approaches:
- - Organise items by colour gradients for rainbow effects
- - Stack similar items to show size or colour variations
- - Create geometric patterns with folded garments
This approach works exceptionally well for in-store promotions, websites, and catalogues where showing multiple options appeals to customers.
Fashion Video: Creating Engaging Content
Video has always been a popular format for product promotions. In recent years, it has become an ever increasing part of strategy for many brands. This is primarily down to social media and advertising platforms promoting these more readily than stills. This lends an advantage to brands that opt for video in their marketing strategy.
Videos taken of fashion models are often the most effective style and can be easily incorporated into an existing stills model shoot. There are also creative options such as stop motion and motion graphics that are effective and potentially more affordable. You should assess your brand identity and how certain video styles can complement this.
Creative approaches:
- - Stop motion adds a playful element to a product
- - Model videos allow you to create a strong brand identity
- - Short punchy videos work well on social media
- - Long form video allows brands to create a relatable or aspirational brand story
Building Your Visual Strategy
Successful fashion photography requires an understanding of your brand's unique identity and the themes that are likely to resonate with your customers. This is the starting point for choosing your photography styles. Whether you decide on invisible mannequin photography for clarity, model photography for lifestyle appeal, or creative flat lay arrangements for social media engagement, each style serves specific marketing objectives.
The key to effective fashion photography lies in consistency, quality, and strategic implementation across all marketing channels. By selecting the style that appeals most to your customers, you can create compelling visual narratives that drive engagement, build brand loyalty, and increase sales conversion rates.
Fashion Photography Services
We shoot a range of styles for fashion brands and can discuss the options with you to help you get the most from your shoot.
