Juanma Blanco wrote:
What is lookbook photography for you?
Is there a difference between catalog photography?

There is a difference between a lookbook and a catalog. Catalogs are designed for direct sales to end consumers. Lookbooks typically are to present a single season line to retailers and press. Lookbooks will typically have one style or set that predominates the photography for the line.

Traditionally they were only seen by people within the industry. Giving the more advanced familiarity with the industry and line, the photography tended to be more simple and direct, frequently on white seamless. The focus of the photo was the direct presentation of the shape/cut/color of the fashion with few distractions. Lookbooks would display the entire line and often shot in a single day and possibly include samples that would ultimately be cut from the final line. Sometimes the models would be the fit models, not higher fee elite models. Companies would economize on lookbook photography and save more embellished shoots for advertising/campaign shoots with more emphasis on style, higher budgets for photography, location, models, etc.

More recently, smaller companies want to produce only one photoshoot per season and look to photographers to create either lookbook quality images for entire line and embellished images of a smaller number of styles within the same day, OR they look to the photographers to create editorial/catalog level images of the entire line.

Conversely, catalog images are generally getting watered down into e-commerce style images, but that is almost an entirely different debate.

Dan Howell wrote:

There is a difference between a lookbook and a catalog. Catalogs are designed for direct sales to end consumers. Lookbooks typically are to present a single season line to retailers and press. Lookbooks will typically have one style or set that predominates the photography for the line.

Traditionally they were only seen by people within the industry. Giving the more advanced familiarity with the industry and line, the photography tended to be more simple and direct, frequently on white seamless. The focus of the photo was the direct presentation of the shape/cut/color of the fashion with few distractions. Lookbooks would display the entire line and often shot in a single day and possibly include samples that would ultimately be cut from the final line. Sometimes the models would be the fit models, not higher fee elite models. Companies would economize on lookbook photography and save more embellished shoots for advertising/campaign shoots with more emphasis on style, higher budgets for photography, location, models, etc.

More recently, smaller companies want to produce only one photoshoot per season and look to photographers to create either lookbook quality images for entire line and embellished images of a smaller number of styles within the same day, OR they look to the photographers to create editorial/catalog level images of the entire line.

Conversely, catalog images are generally getting watered down into e-commerce style images, but that is almost an entirely different debate.

Dan Howell wrote:

There is a difference between a lookbook and a catalog. Catalogs are designed for direct sales to end consumers. Lookbooks typically are to present a single season line to retailers and press. Lookbooks will typically have one style or set that predominates the photography for the line.

Traditionally they were only seen by people within the industry. Giving the more advanced familiarity with the industry and line, the photography tended to be more simple and direct, frequently on white seamless. The focus of the photo was the direct presentation of the shape/cut/color of the fashion with few distractions. Lookbooks would display the entire line and often shot in a single day and possibly include samples that would ultimately be cut from the final line. Sometimes the models would be the fit models, not higher fee elite models. Companies would economize on lookbook photography and save more embellished shoots for advertising/campaign shoots with more emphasis on style, higher budgets for photography, location, models, etc.

More recently, smaller companies want to produce only one photoshoot per season and look to photographers to create either lookbook quality images for entire line and embellished images of a smaller number of styles within the same day, OR they look to the photographers to create editorial/catalog level images of the entire line.

Conversely, catalog images are generally getting watered down into e-commerce style images, but that is almost an entirely different debate.

Juanma Blanco wrote:
Thanks for the reply! I understand that today what is usually done for ecommerce is lookbook photography like this

https://www.zara.com/es/es/abrigo-corto … v2=2184185

correct?

In general I would agree. I think an important part is that all outfits in a group or season would be treated in a similar manner, so in that case it is hard to tell from a single image. One aspect of how lookbook photography would differ from catalog or advertising photography is that the budgets are most often lower and the pace is higher because they want to complete all looks in a single day.