I asked my Bf for advice, this is what he suggest to you. It might cost a bit so u might need to budget a substantial sum to pull it off
* Get a fashion stylist to loan designer clothes/ branded stuff for high fashion shoot. Typical fees ranges from $60-70/outfit to $250-$500 including styling fees.
* Art director/set director which can be settled by the fashion stylist if he/she is experienced enough and resourceful enough to get u the sets or location
* Sets
You can purchase some ply wood/ metal/ plastic/ acrylic large sheets (min 1m x 2m type) to build simple and stylo milo sets and place the model in it
* Location
You can ask for permission to shoot in places such as Oosh, Kandi bar, fashion bar, MOS, Cafe Del mar etc which have very stylo milo furniture, couches for a high fashion shoot.
Alternatively, you can ask those stylo milo Designer/ fashion/ furniture concept boutiques along Haji Lane, Clubstreet whether you can do a shoot at their place. You might even wanna use their clothes to shoot so you can barter trade a bit
* Makeup/hair
You need a fashion makeup artiste and a good hairstylist. Recently there are a lot of hair competition/show ongoing and hence you can look for a hairstylist whom require some help in taking their show/competition photos. You can ask them to help u do/ design hair peices or do stylo milo hairstyles to match the outfits for a really good high fashion shoot.
* lights (suggestions only)
1 light
You can do high fashion shoots with just 1 light (next to window/natural light setting). Direct harsh lights can also work just 1 light placed correctly or bounce off a white wall/ reflector/ white board
2 lights
You can place one light in front/side (Direct/wide/standard reflector for harsh lighting, umbrella, beauty dish, Parabolic umbrella or soft box depending on the contrast u need) and a hair light behind for dramatic effect typical in many high fashion shoot
3 lights
You can try gels on 2 of the lights and a soft box and umbrella for the main light. This is very often seen in Tech savvy high fashion shoots
Use of HMIs, Kinoflow and other hot lights
When you are more proficient, you can try renting these lights from people like Trucatus or other lighting company. Ask for a butterfly or Scrimp setup together with the lights. You will be able to play with the lights on a higher level, control it with reflectors/mirror and blockers. Just like what you see in the production of MTV, movies, drama serial, print/commercial advertisements and high end fashion shoots on shows like "American Next Top model"
Note: A good way to learn these lighting is to intern with our local broadcaster or a reputed advertising agency/ production house. Alternatively, you can learn a lot from the distributors such of lights as Gin studio. Keep in touch with these distributors as they often fly in demo experts to share with local photographers on new lighting techniques with their lights.
Hope the above is useful to you.
