A must read for "Start-ups": Creating a photo-shoot on a budget

Last week, we shared some gorgeous images of The Ladymaker’s new Prints lookbook.See link to post HERE if you missed it.One of the biggest challenges a budding entrepreneur faces is the start-up capital to enable them run their business on a level playing ground.

New Contemporary Womens wear label, The Ladymaker boldly went ahead and created their much needed first look-book with a very tight budget.Did they succeed? Yes!!. Please read their inspiring story below:

Photoshoot on a Budget

Perhaps because we’ve spent many hours ourselves searching online for pieces we need in our wardrobes, we decided to launch our first items online at www.theladymaker.com. Samples were made, remade, and edited to the final items we truly love. So it was time for a photoshoot! We would need: a model, a photographer, a stylist, a location, the clothes, hair styling and makeup.

The only thing we had was the clothes – and as a start-up, we are necessarily on a tight budget. How to organise a good photoshoot for a fraction of the usual cost?

Simplify! Our aesthetic is very classic and restrained, so fortunately simplicity suits us very well. There would be no jewelry or accessories (other than footwear and plants) in the shoot. With less decisions to make and no elements to organise other than the clothes, we were able to convince ourselves that it wasn’t total madness to proceed without a stylist.

Learn hair and makeup. Fast! As if we needed any confirmation – there is hardly anything that cannot be discovered online. After a few hours (probably about 10!) of watching videos and tutorials online (Thank you, That Igbo Chick), we had all the tips we needed to create a natural look for the photoshoot. A few make up items were purchased from the market to match our model’s skin tone exactly. Hair was a big break – One of us wears her hair in a large bun every single day so she’s quite the expert in that look, and it suited the photoshoot aesthetic perfectly.

Find a beautiful lady you know and ask her to model for you. Our model, Joy, actually isn’t a trained model – she used to work as a caregiver at a charitable organisation The Ladymaker is involved in. She just left Lagos to start her undergraduate studies in Benue, and the shoot had to be rushed so it could take place before she left. She served as our fit model as well and was very lovely to work with.

Shoot at home. This is not necessarily cost-saving as we understand some photographers charge more to mobilise their equipment off-site. For us, we were able to use some beloved props as part of the shoot. Not all worked out, but we really love those that did.

All said and done, we learned so many lessons that will come in handy for our next photoshoot adventure. Hopefully, next time, we can hire Zinkata to style the shoot for us!

The Ladymaker

Email: info@theladymaker.com

Tel: 08091000257

Website: www.theladymaker.com