As product photographers in Edinburgh, we’re often asked to do product photography of clothing using ghost mannequins.
This is a very common method of photographing clothing. When you are visiting e-commerce websites to buy various items of clothing, you will often see them presented in a way that they look almost three dimensional, as if someone is actually wearing them, except no-one is; hence to spooky name given to this type of product photography.
The mannequin is removed in post production.
We have a male and a female mannequin in the studio for this type of work. The garments are placed on the mannequin and then photographed. The mannequin is then magically removed in post production, creating the ghost effect.
We spend time carefully arranging the clothes on the mannequin.
As a photographer, that is the easy part. What actually takes longer is the preparation of the clothes. We use a clothes steamer to get all the creases out and spend time carefully arranging the clothes on the mannequin so the they hang properly. Often dresses or trousers don’t quite sit right, so we have to pin these so they hang evenly. After that the mannequins go back to the corner of the studio until the next shoot.
Good even lighting is very important to show detail properly.
Surprisingly, having grown up as a fan of Doctor Who, I don’t find the mannequins spooky. Maybe it’s the fact that they represent people that I find myself wanting to give them names, although they don’t have heads which worries me a bit!
>> Read our Glasgow Ghost Mannequin Clothing Photography blog here