Three Essentials Beginner Models Must Know

New model 'Katiegirl' has made herself well aware of the pitfalls associated with forging a career in the field of modeling.

The most frustrations for industry professionals and beginner models alike involve the public perception of modelling and model photography.

Like most beliefs that are essentially wrong, these fallacies develop a life of their own, and permeate through society, until even many models and photographers begin to believe them.

 

Presently modelling is at all time time low in the public eye, perceived as a deviant activity where naive girls are made to flaunt themselves for the entertainment and gratification of dirty old men with pony tails, a giant dose of mid life crisis, a shiny new camera and a battery of long, over sexualised lenses.

 

So if you are a girl who realizes that there are many aspects to modelling to which this horror image is complete nonsense, or that being a model is a very viable career choice, and you are wishing seriously to become a model, these three points should be firmly in your mind.

 

1. Modelling,  developing and maintaining a career is seriously hard work, 

NOT standing in front of a camera and 'doing your model stuff' or  'having a bit of a laugh' as many imply.

If you pose for the local camera club, or that studio down the road, for a couple of hours once a week, dressing up, costumed as a zombie, or a cupcake, or a sugarskull with fairy wings...

you are NOT a 'model', you are NOT in the industry, and you certainly are NOT,  (nor will a career in  modeling ever make you a 'public figure'), and NO-ONE at these types of events will ever 'make you a star'.

 

On the contrary,  if an industry professional ever 'discovers you', or does see model potential in you, valuable time and effort will be needed for you to unlearn all the bad habits, awkward posing techniques, unphotographable makeup gaffs, and totally irrelevant  modelling nonsense which you have learned. The general consensus of photographers I know is unless you have exceptional potential, that it is all too hard, and time consuming to re-teach, so basically it ain't gonna happen.

 

 

2. Hoping for useful portfolio pictures from amateurs, pretenders, and fauxpros, the majority of whom have never actually set eyes on an actual working model's portfolio is hoping beyond hope.

It seems now that every man, woman and dog who has recently bought a 'professional' camera offers 'model portfolio shoots', and it is also very true that almost all of them wouldn't know the requirements of a model's 'book'. (those who call it a 'port' instantly give away their lack of knowledge and fauxpro status).

 

Likewise anyone who chants the mantra of "it will be great for your folio", is equally a waste of time, money and effort, because invariably the resulting pictures,  if you ever see any, will be ANYTHING BUT SUITABLE for a working portfolio.

3. Modelling does not, I repeat DOES NOT, involve getting naked...

Regrettably the requirement of nudity in modelling has become a staple of the public perception of the 'evil arts', and of course nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Any photographer, model or hanger-on who tells you that nudity is required for you to get anywhere as a model is at best naive, but more likely an ill informed amateur, a pretender, a charlatan, or a pervy old wanker.

 

There are three major things to consider here, even if you strongly desire becoming a nude model...

• A. Posing in the buff for amateurs or pretenders will never get you anywhere, except a reputation as the girl who gets her gear off for anyone with a camera.

• B. The actual market for photographs of the nude is so small, and already overfilled that ONLY work from a very small, well established, highly respected, AND HIGHLY SELECT group of photographers and models is ever accepted, with most opportunities being well and truly sown up, and well beyond the dreams and abilities of any neighbourhood snap-shooter.

• C. Contrary to the bleatings of socially challenged amateur snappers, not every girl looks good with her clothes off. Unless your body is equal to or better, than the girls already doing nude modelling, even the girls appearing in those cheap rag-mags, i.e. close to PERFECT without relying on 'fix it in Photoshop', well you simply won't be good enough.

And very important to remember also: everything you do in front of a camera, including nudity, IS YOUR CHOICE!

For more detailed information have a read of my blogs specifically on unreasonable demands for nudity:

https://thedefinitearticlephotographyandvideo.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/nudity-naked-truth-part-one-of-three.html

https://thedefinitearticlephotographyandvideo.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/nudity-naked-truth-part-two.html

https://thedefinitearticlephotographyandvideo.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/nudity-naked-truth-part-three.html

Stephen Bennett is available for Guest Speaking, Seminars, and Workshops in a group or on a one to one basis for:

Models and aspiring models on all things Modelling, including Successful Portfolios and Building a Modelling Career … please visit my website to contact me.

©Copyright: Stephen Bennett, MMXVI

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Professionalism, other Redundancies, and the New Meaning of Life…

We are told by those who study such things, that the meanings of words, and interpretations of concepts drift and change over time, and our language becomes richer for it.

The realm of photography is no exception becoming richer as it evolves and adapts.

Calm down dirty old men! According to the New world order this IS NOT a photograph containing Implied Nudity! Why?

• The model was in fact fully clothed
• It is not a full figure nude picture digitally manipulated to eliminate the clothing, or even to create and enhance the girl’s  “naughty bits” by retouching.

Remember for example when that otherwise indefinable term coined and used almost exclusively by the amateur fraternity  “implied nudity” meant an ambiguously clever camera technique where a photograph of a fully and discretely clothed woman left the viewer wondering wether she was nude or not?

( Camera technique? Wow..ya can do that in the camera? Lot easier after in Photoshop!)

Now though, as I was emphatically told recently by a “widely respected professional” – well he did have a small but efficiently tamed gang of facebook likers to back him up – that he worked to the “accurate and only definition” (?) that implied nude means full figure nudity achieved by removing nipple covers and  g string from a model by digital retouching…

It seems therefore that the model does not need to be payed at the nude rate, because she is not nude in the original photo…just g string and falsies (???)

Woops forgot: Pay a model !!! Who is stupid enough to pay a model??? tfp rules right!

Well obviously “accurate definition” wins out over subtlety and art every time in the vast, murky depths that is creative internet photography!

…

But there are three words used on a daily basis which have drifted in meaning so far from their original concept to warrant a review of the “accurate” (?) dictionary definition

NB: If the New World Meaning of Life has not reached your particular neck of the woods, it soon will…it is certainly firmly established in my region.

and more importantly New Meaning of Life definitions do not in any way apply to legitimate, or real world photography.

Definition:

Professionalism:- this is the divine right of those with a modicum of ability, a lack of talent, a tenuous control of their gang of disciples, but a thorough mastery of schoolboy bullying techniques to denigrate, discredit and vilify anyone outside of his immediate gang, who disagrees with his beliefs, or threatens in even the smallest way  to expose the fraudulence of his self proclaimed importance , or the pathetic and derivative quality of his “work”

Those with “opinions”( see below) are the obvious natural targets of the “professional”

Definition:

Opinion:- A belief or knowledge of traditional techniques, concepts, ideas and ideals, well proven theories; real knowledge especially when gained from  long experience, education, and the ability and willingness to advance learning and skills through reading and research ( as opposed to knowledge gleaned from your mates, and  religious worship of “internet experts” on forums and YouTube.); reliance on actual proven facts and the immutable science of light and photography

Definition:

Hater:- anyone who adheres to, holds, believes in or makes the mistake of publically expressing opinion (see above)

anyone who has deliberately opened a camera instruction manual, and …god forbid!…gone to the extreme of actually reading a photography book, irredeemably brands you as a latent hater.

 

Additional Notes:

Legitimate or “real world” Photography: a phenomenon which it seems is merely an out-dated figment of the imagination and, if it ever really existed, is an historical insignificance when compared with “where true art and creativity is really happening” Nevertheless it’s influence was long ago and long forgotten, having occurred in the real “old days”, of …well…wow…five years or more ago.

Professionalism: has absolutely nothing to do with earning a living from your creativity ,or that “dirty” word used by those who have sold out;  money. True professionals not only exude a fuzzy good guy feeling about their “ethical treatment of others and their approach to life in general”, but also far too much “artistic integrity” to have ever earned a cent, or the likelihood of ever doing so: that would not only sully their ”work” drastically reducing their  natural to bully, intimidate, exploit and be fully exploited by their “collaborators”

 

©Copyright: Stephen Bennett, MMXV
Except as permitted by the copyright law applicable to you, you may not reproduce or communicate any of the content on this website, including any  photographs  and files downloadable from this website, without the permission of the copyright owner.
The Australian Copyright Act allows certain uses of content on the internet without the copyright owner's permission. This includes uses by educational institutions for educational purposes, and by Commonwealth and State government departments for government purposes, provided fair payment is made. For more information, see www.copyright.com.au and www.copyright.org.au.
We may change these terms of use from time to time. Check before re-using any content from this website.

Interesting Links:
My Photography Webpage
Facebook page for Professional Photographers and Models
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10 Ways to Improve your Photography

A wink is as good as a nod.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Increase your Credibility

  Appear More Professional

 

 

and become trooley awesome!

 

 

 

 

To be taken with a grain of salt, and a dash of vitriol.

NUMBER 1: stop pilfering other people's works for “inspiration”, because they are so awesome, then announcing to all and sundry that you wish to conspire with other equally imaginative creatives to blatantly copy them, or at least make an awesome derivative work from them, while of course clearing yourself of all the blame by adding the useless disclaimer: “No copyright violation intended.”
Far from using these as inspiration to learn from you will simply be compounding the poor technique and mistakes of the 20 or 30 generations of the awesome brain dead copyright violators since the original image was made, to reach the depth of awesomeness that you have found in the bowels of the Internet.

NUMBER 2: look at some good photography and study good photographers.  There are hundreds both from the past and present, and even if all you do is look at the work of Ansel Adams you will still be streets ahead of all the armchair experts who drop the only name they know all over Internet forms.

NUMBER 3: learn about lighting techniques and when and why they are used.  A good starting point for portrait photographers are Beauty, Rembrandt, Butterfly, and  Loop lighting, although there is a technique coming to prominence called “cheap skank ” lighting which in any of its many variations is guaranteed to affect even the most flawlessly attractive model.

NUMBER 4: study just some of the many more useful elements of composition and open your mind far enough to realise that you will not make your image instantly awesome by superimposing an imaginary tick tack toe gird across it.

NUMBER 5: refrain from trying to make that hugely oversized, ugly, designed-it-yourself logo an essential design element of your image.  Better still throw it away completely and use the tried and tested, conventional copyright cut line as a watermark.

NUMBER 6: limit the application of the “Reduce to Mud” Photoshop plug-in to a maximum of three times per image. No don’t Google for it: just learn  how to process properly!

NUMBER 7: search out one or two models whose beauty, personality, charisma, self respect and pride in their appearance actually make it worth taking your lens cap off for, rather than any person you come across in your desperation.  If a model herself is deluded about her ability or her prospects surely it is the photographer’s professional responsibility to tell her she has not presented acceptably or is possibly not even model material.
Be aware that “Snog, Marry, Avoid” is a satire, not a training film about what to look for in a potential model.

NUMBER 8: pay attention to details: garish, inappropriate makeup; ugly,broken or bitten nails; worn or chipped  nail polish; badly fitting clothes; unclean hair; awkward posing; unrelated, badly framed or poorly chosen background; skewed horizons; bony feet in “Minnie Mouse” shoes, etc.

NUMBER 9: show it little professionalism, and a serious approach to your work rather than hoping for the best from a Neanderthal Facebook grunt: “Wanna shoot…make woman look awesome”

NUMBER 10: have some kind of useful concept which some imagination can be applied to, and/or a viable useful purpose for the resulting images in your mind before the shoot.  If the best you can come up with is

a ) my Facebook friends will tell me it is awesome and I could be a professional. 
b) it will be awesome for your folio.
c) it will be awesome exposure.
Then the iconic phrase from the movie “The Castle” springs to mind: “Tell’im he’s dreamin”
d) “possible magazine submission – no pay” is also a notorious laughter maker these days too.

BONUS NUMBER 10: and possibly the best solution for so many: sell all your photo gear and take up stamp collecting, at least you will then be exposed to some well designed, and maybe even some truly awesome images.

Is Good Compostition still relevant?

Great care and thought seems to go into photographing landscapes, seascapes, trees, cars, sports, insects and wildlife, but  alot of contemporary photogaphy would suggest that by putting a human in front of the lens and all the conventions of composition seem to fly out the window.

The result, even when using the most accomplished and beautiful of models, is a round blob of a face, or a rigidly lifeless figure standing in the midst of an expanse of blandly lit studio, or a vast desert of sand and sky: DEAD CENTRE of the photo.

The centre of a picture has been called ¨dead¨ for centuries for a reason.

Even the occassional telegraph pole growing out of the top of the head,  or ear piercing, or neck slicing horizon would make the composition more interesting to look at.

Or possibly the use of that seemingly one and only, all encompassing rule of composition beloved and belaboured by ¨internet experts¨ the world over : The Rule of Thirds...even the name is an anathema to anyone with even a semblance of understanding of artisitc composition.

Maybe, improvement could also be made by a little less reliance on the current amateur jargon of photography where every shutter button push is ¨imaging¨ or a ¨capture¨, creating the impression that all a photogapher has to do is wait until something vaguely interesting passes in front of his lens, and then unthinkingly press the button.

Remember: people ¨take¨ a snapshot, but an artist has to ¨make¨ a picture.