Dark Eye Sockets

Peta makes an appearance at Fashion week

For me, Fashion Week day two started off by seeing three girls dressed in cat suits. They were Peta people. At this point I wondered if any of the designers were using fur. I couldn't think of anything made for the spring summer season collections but maybe some jacket had a button made out of elephant ivory.

As large as Toronto Fashion week is to the people in Toronto it is still quite small on a global scale. The first year photographing in London I'm reminded of a reporter from the Netherlands. "Toronto? As in Toronto, Canada? Has a fashion week? How cute." Yes, despite what we may think of ourselves we are but small potatoes in the grand (fashion) scheme of things. Milan; Paris; London; the big three, then some where down the scale is New York, and even further way, way, way down the scale is Toronto.

I suppose a way to know how big any fashion week is would be the number of magazines and media that cover the event. Sure we get coverage of selected designers in the local papers but do newspapers like the New York Times or the London Times see photos from Toronto? How about the newspapers in Wilkes-Barre, PA or Paris, Texas?

Eye sockets

One of the things I noticed this year and generally every year at Toronto Fashion Week is the lighting compared to other catwalks. London in particular as I've shot there, but even if you look at photos from Paris or Milan, check out the model's eyes.

The angle of light is steeper here and perhaps because the catwalk is an off white this season results in dark eye sockets. Check out London. You'll notice that the models photographed in the London main tent have evenly lit faces, even Jenny Packham's line looks good; darker eyes perhaps but it's a glossy black floor! Toronto resembles the lighting of the Blue Bird venue.

Here are some photos from the various catwalks today. Notice the dark eyes.


Jules Power Collection


Angela Chen collection


Lovas collection

As a photographer in the pit there's not a lot you can do to alleviate this.

1. You could use a flash as a fill and get yelled at (plus it's just annoying, and why should you light something that's supposed to be lit. where is out $100 going anyway?)
2. You could photoshop the photo (Personally this takes too long and doesn't always look right). Unless you have an assistant that can do this while you're shooting do you really want to go home to do this before an upload? Maybe if you don't like sleep. There are some newpapers that don't want photos that are doctored anyway.
3. Wait for the model to tilt up their head. Although not all models will do this. Some will even look down at the floor while walking. Note to models: Please don't do this.
   

Pink Tartan collection

Props to the Pink Tartan collection for putting sunglasses on most of the models. While this doesn't change the lighting it does hide the eyes and lack of lighting in that area. Plus it is a spring summer collection and what says summer in a non-sunny environment more than sun glasses.