If you want to present your spaghetti strap dress online, you need to know how to photograph it to achieve the desired look. In this tutorial, we will show you how to style your spaghetti strap dress with the help of a ghost mannequin, so it will look great on your online store. It is easier to shoot a strap dress hanging, but it gives a flat and lifeless look to the dress. So if you want to make it look great, then you need to style it using a ghost mannequin. This gives the dress a full bodied look that gives your store a more professional appeal. Here you have the list of the essential things you need to have to style and shoot a strap dress: Ghost mannequin. You need to choose a mannequin with removable V-chest and arms, so it can be used to get invisible product shots by removing the unnecessary pieces individually. You need to get a camera that can provide you with professional-looking photos. Studio lighting. You are recommended to use a source of continuous cool LED lamps to ensure exposure, shadows, and contrast is kept consistent. A dress. No matter what kind of dress you wish to shoot, get it ready for the photo session. A reflector. You can use a whiteboard, or any other sturdy bright and reflective surface, to help cast light back into specific areas of the dress. Styling tools. Now that you have prepared all the equipment you need, it is time to see the steps you need to follow to get the desired ghost effect for your strap dress: Choose the right ghost mannequin for this job This style of the dress requires some post-production work. Even so, a ghost mannequin will always reduce the time you need to spend on post-production, as it allows you to remove pieces of it individually. When you choose the ghost mannequin for this dress, you need to choose the one that fits closest to the size and shape of your dress. If you remove the neck and inner chest piece of the ghost mannequin, it will be possible for you to include the straps on the back of the dress in your shot. Fit the dress on the mannequin It is possible that you won’t have a ghost mannequin that fits your dress perfectly. This is why you can use various tips and tricks to better fit the dress on the mannequin. For this, you need various tools. To arrange your dress on the mannequin, you need to first focus on the shoulder of the dress. Make sure the shoulders are symmetrically aligned on the mannequin. Use double sided tape to prevent the shoulder straps from falling down. Style your dress on the mannequin Check out how the back of the dress tapers around the bust and hips. If there is any excess fabric, grab and fold it. For a better result, you are recommended to do this along the zipper line of the dress. Then lightly pull the dress tight. To hold the taut fabric in place, you should use clips. Turn the dress back around and see how it looks. It is now time to find any areas where the fabric is scrunching up, and make the necessary adjustments to the clipping. When you style your dress on the ghost mannequin, you need to pay a special attention to the areas beneath the shoulders and armpit. You can use pins to stick together any excess fabric on the back of your dress. Use lighting to highlight details You probably would like to highlight specific features or fabric of your dress. You can easily do this with the help of lighting. You can experiment with the angle of your lighting to see how you can cast various shadows on the dress. A reflector is also useful for this job, as it reflects light back into areas you need to highlight. Shoot the dress When you want to photograph a strap dress, you may encounter several problems, because it is quite difficult to make the straps look as if they were being worn by an invisible woman. You need to use a simple trick to get the desired result: turn the dress inside out and put the straps in the same position that they were in to match the front. You need to make sure that the straps lay in a similar way as the front shot. Shooting this image helps you in post-production, as it allows both shots to be composited. This will make the photo look like the straps of the dress are flowing naturally over the woman’s shoulders.
