Fashion editorial in France

An editorial shoot is the only session here that routinely involves other people’s schedules — a stylist, hair and make-up, a model whose agency booked a window. Five hours is the length that lets a team work through several looks without the last one being made in a hurry, which is invariably the one that gets dropped.

On location or in studio is your call and mostly depends on the clothes. Studio gives absolute control and a consistent set. Location gives context, weather and the risk of losing an hour to it — worth it when the garments need a world around them, not worth it for a straightforward lookbook.

Forty photographs retouched to publication standard is a smaller count than our other sessions and takes longer to deliver — ten days — because editorial retouching is a different job from correcting colour. Come with a reference deck if you have one; an hour of alignment before the day saves two on it.