There is a particular charge to a Mumbai beauty photoshoot when the frame is tight enough to make skin look like topography. In the new work shared for Simply Nam, the camera lingers where most campaigns rush past, at the seam between makeup artistry and light design, where a half millimetre of highlight can change the entire face.
Mumbai beauty photoshoot, starring Namrata Soni’s precision
The caption tells you the core team, and it is a team Mumbai’s beauty world recognises immediately. The makeup is credited to Namrata Soni, a Bollywood and editorial mainstay whose work has moved fluidly between glossy cover faces and film sets, and the shoot is tagged to Simply Nam, the beauty brand founded by actor and entrepreneur Namrata Soni’s longtime collaborator Namrata (Nam) ???. The post also credits Kripali and photographer Kunal Gupta, positioning the images squarely as a collaborative, production minded set rather than a casual test.
Even without product callouts or shade names, the story reads in the surface details: a focus on complexion finish, the geometry of liner, the way lip colour is kept within a clean edge. It is the sort of shoot where retouching has to respect makeup, not replace it.
Why the Nikon Z8 matters to beauty photography
One technical detail is stated outright, and it is worth pausing on: this campaign was shot on a Nikon Z8. In beauty, where pores, powder, and the transition between undertone and blush have nowhere to hide, camera choice becomes an aesthetic decision. The Z8’s high resolution sensor and modern autofocus are built for speed and precision, but what matters more here is what it demands from the set. Lighting has to be clean. Texture has to be intentional. Makeup has to be finished the moment it lands, because the camera will keep receipts.
Nikon positions the Z8 as a compact sibling to its flagship line, tuned for hybrid shooters who move between stills and video. For photographers like Gupta who work in advertising and fashion, that flexibility is not a spec sheet flex, it is a practical advantage when a client needs multiple outputs from the same look.
For Nikon’s own overview of the camera’s feature set, see Nikon’s Z8 product page.
Inside the Simply Nam look: what it signals, even without a product list
When a brand tags a beauty photographer and an advertising photographer in the same breath, it signals intent. This is imagery meant to sell, yes, but also to define a house style, one that can live across e commerce crops, outdoor hoardings, and the brutal clarity of a phone screen.
Simply Nam has spent the last few years building recognisable codes, bold lip moments, eye looks that photograph cleanly, skin that reads fresh even under hard light. These new frames feel calibrated for Mumbai’s visual noise, designed to hold their own in a feed filled with colour, jewellery, weddings, film, and fashion drops.
If you track how Indian beauty imagery is evolving right now, it is increasingly less about fantasy characters and more about exact finish, the kind of makeup you can imagine on a real person at 8 p.m. after a long day, still intact. That shift makes the photographer’s craft more visible, because the camera is no longer hiding behind theatrics.
Where to follow the work
The shoot is credited directly in the original post to photographer Kunal Gupta, with makeup by Namrata Soni and work created for Simply Nam. For the brand’s latest releases and campaign imagery, start with Simply Nam’s official site.
For more from BEST on image making and the aesthetics driving campaigns across the region, see Beauty.
Photo Credits
Cover image courtesy of Kunal Gupta. Additional images courtesy of their respective owners.
