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Spotlight On: Tina Eisen

London Calling: From Amazon to Street Style Mavens

For German-born London-based photographer Tina Eisen, shooting fashion was never the goal. Her first foray into the “fashion” world occurred via the e-commerce route while shooting fashion products for e-commerce goliath, Amazon, and later for ASOS.

While Eisen says that she was never super interested in fashion, she admits that she was always drawn to the editorial side of fashion, particularly its ability to craft engaging visual narratives.

“I love witnessing the transformation that occurs with fashion,” said Eisen. “You can see these models show up on set, completely knackered and uninterested, and when you see them put on these nicely tailored outfits, and then witness how suddenly their mood – even their character completely changes.”

As for her own transformation, Eisen said it did not happen for at least ten years, pointing out how she only noticed the change occur in models and never thought of it as something that could happen to the person behind the lens.

“Always for years, I said I am not interested in fashion – I am just here to take the picture,” said Eisen. “Finally, one of the brands I worked for approached me and said, you are always wearing black, do you want to try something else? Afterward, I became a lot braver in what I wore, which until then was primarily all black.”

Soon, Eisen began experimenting with more patterns and injecting more color into her wardrobe.

“I realize that there is some joy in being the only person in a floral dress,” she said, “You can easily make yourself feel good without necessarily showing off.”

Fashion Week Mania

Before the pandemic, Eisen was covering Copenhagen Fashion Week and New York City Fashion Week. She had also covered London Fashion Week, covering the Sibling show while dividing her time as a speaker for Canon – her camera brand of choice.

For Eisen, the main challenges covering a fashion week are balancing between speed and quality.

“The first time that I ever covered for a client, I was amazed by the speed of delivery,” said Eisen. “You shoot the runway and then immediately deliver to the client, but I also did not know that as a fashion week photographer, you also see the outfit before they go on the catwalk. So, you get to see and document these new styles before they make their first debut, which is such a thrill. The first time this happened to me, I felt so privileged to see the trends before they reached the world.”

Eisen’s experience highlights a critical challenge for the most seasoned of fashion photographers – that of juggling speed and quality – in addition to two different devices.

Juggling different demands is another story as Eisen points out that some clients want the quality of footage while others prefer the speed to post immediately on social platforms, like Instagram.

As for the other fashion weeks she’s covered in the past, she notes that fashion weeks like Copenhagen Fashion Week have provided a window into the rise of Scandi-cool style and the minimalist trends that have emerged from the Nordics. While New York City fashion week tells a different story –one where beautiful frilly over-the-top styles tend to dominate.

Each fashion week’s designers and styles differ in their aesthetic attitudes and predispositions and the crowds they attract.

“There are massive differences in the characters of the crowds,” said Eisen. “It’s cool how outside of each fashion week show, these crazy characters are lurking nearby.”

Street Style Mavens

No Fashion Week is complete without its street style spectacle, which in Eisen’s opinion, can give you a good idea of upcoming trends.

“The first time I was asked to cover street style, I was nervous because I am not a people photographer – I don’t do weddings. So naturally, I was super nervous about approaching people on the street to snap their photo.”

Eisen’s reservations were immediately quashed.

“These people are there to be photographed and are ready with little business cards detailing social media info,” she said. “And some of them don’t even go to the shows – they are just there to have their photograph taken.”

The Future Forecast

As for what’ next on the fashion horizon, Eisen’s commercial fashion shoots have hinted to her that incoming trends will focus on being more environmentally conscious and using recycled materials.

“The whole theme of fast fashion is done, and there seems to be this push to be much more conscious,” said Eisen.

While recognizing its detrimental behavior is a positive step forward for the fashion industry, Eisen notes another theme at play- one that seems to be happy and celebratory.

“I noticed that there are a lot of primary colors – 90s smiley-themed clothing adorned with beads, which is quite fun and happy,” said Eisen recognizing that the fashion industry wants to shake off the pandemic and celebrate – in style, naturally.

Working with Offline Photos

Since their introduction in Capture One 7, catalogs have provided an effective solution for working with large sets of images with a relatively tiny data footprint and centralized file structure. This is done by caching the preview files within the catalog package, minimizing the need to access the source RAW files. When the original source files are not available, the previews are marked at the top with “Offline” and the thumbnails in the browser pane have a question mark icon.

In joining, you’ll learn about:

What are offline photos?
What are the benefits of offline photos?
What settings should I optimise in Capture One?

A thorough understanding of how the Catalog works in relation to preview files opens up new workflow options and increases the robustness of your Catalogs.

Download a 30-day trial of Capture One.

Spotlight On: Philip Edsel

Capture One Brand Ambassador Philip Edsel on the Link between Fashion and Sports Photography.

It’s uncommon to hear of a creator on the rise who simultaneously steps back to give their artistic ability room to speak for itself and chooses to be most vocal about his morning musings, and yet Philip Edsel does just that. Maybe it’s the degree in Rhetoric and Writing, maybe it’s the sports background, or maybe it’s that you don’t need to shout it from the rooftops when you’re winning. Either way Edsel is equal parts curiously obtuse, psychoanalytic, and post-structural Dionysian. Add a client-list that reads like the sponsor page at the US Open and customary black-on-black attire into the mix, and the result is a creator’s creator that’s less Travis Scott, more Brian Eno.

If you’ve been in this arena long enough to remember when digital was an anomaly, you’ll have learned that ‘genuine’ as a quality can be hard to come by. As such, it’s difficult not to be a little skeptical of how sincere Edsel comes across but spend a little time with him and you quickly realize that genuine demeanor and introspective tendency has much to do with the fact that you sense Edsel would truly welcome the day when people go from telling him “I love your work,” to “I love what you have to say.”

That’s the difference. Edsel’s work has something to say. It has a backbone. It’s intentional. All the best art is.

And brands want what he has to say, and how he says it visually. From a global campaign for Reebok with Conor McGregor in Dublin, to the isles of Scotland for the world’s largest Scotch brand, or getting unplugged with Hozier and personal with Simone Biles, there is room it seems for this thinking man’s creator. So much so, that even rivals in the telecom world of one-upmanship can’t resist, as Edsel has recently completed a campaign for Verizon’s new company and one with T-Mobile. All this, mind you, in his time as Creative Director for Austin FC, a Sony Alpha Imaging Collective Ambassador, and a Capture One Ambassador.

When asked about his experience matriculating through the courses of the creative career journey, he responds with what seems like a scoop from the top of the platitude grab bag, “If you keep an open mind and make good work, the opportunities are always random, fun and exciting.” But the perfectly punctuated and formatted email betrays this veneer of frivolity, and there’s more insight to come. It also shows that while Edsel is nothing if not calculated, there is this element to his work that’s a bit of Freud’s ‘talking cure’ with imagery, where it’s only after the shot’s been taken that the analysis and discovery occurs.

And it’s this proclivity to analysis and discovery that gives him this perspective to share:

I got into sports by way of fashion. I liked shooting graphic colors, bold attitudes and energetic movement. Both industries share that in common. Also in the last 5-10 years, fashion and sports have basically become the same genre. In the apparel space, fashion brands are releasing fitness clothing, but also athletes are some of the most fashionable people in the world. At the end of the day, it’s all about culture.

Shooting fashion brought me into the fitness brand world which brought me into sports. That’s how I ended up shooting Simone Biles for Mondelez’s Olympics campaign in 2019. Little did I know it would be two years before that campaign would release. She was incredible sweet and easy to work with. I was mostly just caught off guard by her size. She’s only 4 feet tall, which is amazing considering her commanding influence on the world’s sports stage.

You never know the types of clients that will see your work and apply it to their brand. The key is to have a recognizable style, and clients will ask you to apply that style for them.

Edsel, in his own words, is “drawn to an elevated version of simplicity,” and having read that you’ll see in his work the tendency and ability to capture the common uncommonly well. You could insert the appropriate Clare Boothe Luce quote on simplicity being the ultimate sophistication here and it wouldn’t be out of place – especially in this era of ephemeral social media where the trend is homogeny.

Maybe that’s the real takeaway Edsel is teaching through example, where he defied the cartesian duality of separate body and mind and found success by aligning his work more closely to who he really is.

And if you want to get a dose of who he really is check out his Instagram stories for his morning muses. You might learn more about Edsel and yourself as a creator through the esoteric philosophy he espouses.

True to self – what a concept.

capture one webinar Tina Eisen fashion week

Fashion week with Tina Eisen

The return to the new normal for the fashion crowd means fashion weeks are back on the menu. Loosely translated, this means physical runway shows are for the most part, in full swing, and with them the herds of designers, models, influencers, and photographers that comprise the fashion theater.

Before the pandemic, Tina Eisen was covering Copenhagen Fashion Week and New York City Fashion Week. She had also covered London Fashion Week, covering the Sibling show while dividing her time as a speaker for Canon.

In this webinar we have a great opportunity to hear what goes on behind the scenes from Tina and understand how the importance of speed vs delivery translates into a flexible workflow with Capture One.

Download a 30-day trial of Capture One.