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I am shooting in a studio in manual mode, but when I see the finished photo, the model's clothing is lacking a sheen and the creasing that was visible. For example, I have photographed a model wearing a particular dress

Here is the shot from the "Asos" clothing site wearing the same dress:

enter image description here

And my shot, where the creases and texture of the dress are not visible:

enter image description here

Why is this?

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    A sample of what you shot and how you lit it would be a good start to enabling us to help you. – John Cavan Feb 5 '15 at 1:13
  • John,Many thanks for your reply to my question regarding loss of texture/creases in models clothing.The studio setup I use is ..2 STUDIO LIGHTS SHINING ONTO A WHITE BACKDROP AND 2 HEXAGONAL SOFTBOXES AT THE FRONT SHINING ONTO THE MODEL FROM A SIDE ANGLE, this seems to be what you advise, unless you mean that the front lights need to be AT MORE OF AN ANGLE FROM THE SIDE?.I want to upload a couple of photos for you to compare the models photos but there seems to be no provision to do this in this comment box.Can you send me your email address and I will send them to you directly? – Roger Keay Feb 5 '15 at 10:42
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    You don't upload them through the comments, just edit your own question to add the images. Also, please, don't "shout" in comments or questions. All caps text is not desired. – John Cavan Feb 5 '15 at 11:23
  • An example of the type of look you'd like to achieve may also be useful. – James Snell Feb 5 '15 at 17:34
  • You should see an edit link directly under the tags and to the far left of your avatar on the question. If not, just use the link in this comment. – Jon Ericson♦ Feb 16 '15 at 23:13
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the creases and texture of the dress are not visible

If you want to emphasize folds and texture, you need shadows. Think about a brick wall -- if you shoot it with very soft light, or with light coming from the direction of the camera, the wall will look very flat. If you shoot it with very directional light coming from the side, every little bump on the wall will create a shadow, so that the texture of the wall is visible.

It's the same idea with clothing. You some contrast between the peaks and valleys of the folds, but you probably don't want hard shadows. So you want light that's directional, so you get some texture, but soft, so that transitions between brighter and darker areas are gentle. Soft light comes from large light sources, like a softbox, an umbrella, or even just flash bounced off a wall or ceiling.

In short, it sounds like the problem in your shots has a lot to do with the lighting that you used. If you post some example shots, I'm sure folks here would be happy to give you more specific advice.

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  • zack Arias just released a two video piece on lighting and using white seamless that covers these issues quite well: dedpxl.com/the-many-uses-of-white-seamless-pt-1 -- also look at buying his onelight class available on his site as a resource. – chuqui Feb 28 '15 at 18:15
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In addition to what Caleb said, the picture isn't sharp enough. If you magnify it to see the texture, you'll see that the details at that level start to become unsharp. So, you do need to make sure the focus is very precise. Also, what you can always do is to amplify the Fourier components corresponding to the small details that you want to make visible better. This is also a rudimentary form of sharpening. If you do this for this image, you get this result:

enter image description here

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