I recently had the pleasure of spending time in Crete — arguably the most stunning of the Greek islands. While the original intention was to unwind and take a proper break, it quickly became clear during my holiday research that I simply had to do a shoot whilst being there: The scenery was far too inspiring to resist. Crete’s volcanic rock formations, pebbled beaches, and breathtaking natural light offered an irresistible contrast to the controlled environment of my studio,

Working with the team of Ashiana London on our 2nd shoot! The brief was centred around capturing their staple collection as well as new designs in a variety of backgrounds, outfits and detail shots. HMUA by Panda Makeup Lighting, Jewellery Photography & colour grading by me. Choosing the lighting design for the campaign was based on the need to light even small items of jewellery with kick and make them stand out. It also needed to be versatile and work from all angles, whils

At the end of last year I had the pleasure working with the team from Belif Europe and Foundation Agency ( Liberty Marketing ) to launch their re-formulated skincare products on the European market. The brief evolved around all natural, glowing and hydrated skin and showcasing their key products in single portraits as well as group shots on a variety of backgrounds. Lighting, beauty photography and retouching was executed by myself, whilst MUA Marie Reitner prepared the mod

Natural Beauty Photography by Kathrin Werner in London, showing a soft and skincare inspired lighting

My approach to contemporary beauty photography

As a 'do it at home' gel polish brand, Mylee gained great following during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they keep shaking up the nail industry with new products to create showstopping nail art. I had the pleasure to work with their creative team on a vast range of briefs - from the below pictured campaign product photography imagery to their e-commerce needs for various platforms. The every changing variety of briefs and continuous need for new imagery, made working with Mylee

Cosmetic Texture Photography by Kathrin Werner in London

Being a Beauty Photographer also comes with the responsibility to make things more real - at least in my eyes. Over-edited images (Looking at you, Instagram filters!) are part of our daily media consumption. And it needs to change. We can make the model/skin/product....make look more real and STILL give them the aura of perfection. It starts with a great crew that is skillful and will realise a natural finish on glam without making the skin look cakey or the hair too perfect.

As a beauty photographer I have lots of talented retouchers reaching out to me about raw images to retouch for their portfolio. I'd love to give everyone the chance to do so, but always struggled to keep up with the requests and new imagery in the weekly whirlwind of being a freelancer. Hence, I decided to move everything online and set up my own Retouching Challenge with a selection of three 'barely-there', natural make up images. The beautiful glowy make-up by Marie Reitner

Hand photography had become incredibly popular in the last years. Weather it is in cosmetics & beauty photography, to show an application process, to showcase nail products or just to introduce 'a human touch' - it's a versatile tool to make a product more real and approachable. It's especially 'handy' if the beauty campaign has been shot, but the Instagram machine still needs to be fed. If you want to hear more about strategies for content from a beauty photographer's perspe