What does an Industry professional want to see in a Model´s Portfolio?

Part Five:

How do I go about getting good pictures for my folio?

There are several avenues available to a would be model to get photos for her folio...called a "book" in professional circles, and a "port" by the general run of internet wannabes.

Some avenues will provide good portfolio standard pics...others will be a complete waste of time and energy, and the worst will be a complete waste of money.

• Go to a legitimate agent - (really you only have a choice of about ten or so here in Australia) - they will most likely recommend suitable photographers.

• Go to an ¨agency¨ : they will probably insist that you go to their own in house, or highly recommended ¨Internationally Famous, Award Winning Photographer¨ and cost you anything from $500 to $3000

• Go to one of the glamour portrait studios (Starshots is the kind of thing I'm talking about). Cost anything up to $5000, and you will get pictures totally unsuitable for a folio, simply because they are designed specifically for the lady who wants a feel-good pampering, a boost to her ego, or an intimate glamour portrait for her husband, boyfriend or lover (existing or potential): a different purpose entirely to a portfolio.

• Go to an amateur photographer, friend with a camera,or the guy down the street with a studio in his garage ; no need for me to comment further.

• Go to a commercial ¨social" photographer- you will get varying quality, some tenuously suitable for a portfolio, but the majority will be really portraiture rather than showing you off as a potential model.

• Volunteer to pose for a camera club model night, or a meat market ¨theme" shoot,: you may or may not get pictures from it, but those which you do get will be all about what the photographer thinks a model should be, and the ¨skills¨ of the makeup artist : not about you as a potential model: pics will vary in quality from average to abysmal,  and unfortunately, especially with theme shoots, will be almost identical to hundreds of other theme shoots from around the country.

• Go to a professional photographer skilled and knowledgable in shooting model/actor portfolios. Cost will be about $300 to $500, but you and your photographer will be dedicated to getting pics which will showcase you and your potential as a model, and nothing else.

A pic specifically taken for a portfolio by a practising portfolio photographer, but just different enough to grab attention

Remember, that all photographs accompanying this blog are Copyright (All Rights Reserved) and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the photographer.

NB: It has long been a tradition that professional photographers will work on a TF* basis with a beginner model who shows better than average potential.
However most, these days, are wary of such arrangements for a variety of reasons :

•  Internet experts have decided that models have a natural born right to free photos.

•  the concept of TF* has been distorted and corrupted to such a degree by the concept of ¨internet modelling¨, that very few newcomers actually know what TF* actually means any more.

•  girls use the term ¨model¨ loosely to get free pictures to impress their Facebook friends, with no intention of becoming models.

No legitimate photographer has a problem if a girl decides during or after her first shoot that modelling is not for her...after all that is a prime reason for a first folio shoot...but if a photographer is used by a time wasting wannabe,  it is a completely different matter: and professional photogaphers do talk amongst themselves.

( I myself have been almost ´burned´ twice in recent months; a girl wanted foliopics ...I think she was quite relieved that the pictures she was under orders from your boyfriend to do, although a valid branch of the industry, would never be done during a legitimate folio shoot..
The other girl was simply testing whether her ¨posing techniques´ would still have an effect after a few years away from the dating game, but why she picked a jaded, useless old git like me to try out her ´charms´ is beyond me.)

So if you are a model who would benefit from a TF* folio shoot, make certain that you impress your chosen photographer with genuine enthusiasm, dedication, and at least the promise of ability.

Also keep in mind if setting up a folio shoot is too easy, too cheap, or too expensive , especially if ¨photographers¨ are leaping at the chance to get a totally unknown and inexperienced girl in front of their camera) the results from the shoot will probably be of little or no use to you in the long run


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What does an Industry professional want to see in a Model´s Portfolio?

Part Four:

What will have them immediately look elsewhere!

Below is a short list of the things ¨models´ do either unwittingly, or under the (mis)guidance of others, which will immediately lose them work, gain them the wrong type of reputation, or even get them blacklisted by reputable photographers and work providers.

• The most revealing fact that you can state on an internet modelling site is that you are ¨registered with Brutus and Desire@ripofftalentagency and pizzaria.com. This will speak volumes about your knowledge or lack thereof, of the modelling industy.

Industry Professionals know ALL of the agencies operating at any given time, the reputable, the OK ones, and the downright shonky, and if they need an agency represented model for any of their projects, they will book one through one of the 10 or so reputable Australian agencies with which the entire industry deals.

They will not book a model from an internet modelling site, only to have to deal with ¨agency¨ demands later on in the workflow.

• Just as revealing is the sentence in an email ¨I am with shonky.com, but they allow me to find my own work¨ (!?!)

As the sole reason for existence of a legitimate modelling agency is to find their clients work, surely a model would query the idea that after a long wait through months of silence from their ¨agency¨, they are told ¨but we allow you to find your own work¨: and then of course the agency hand goes out for the commission.

Other things which can be only an annoyance to many, are an anathema to most, such as:

• An answer from a model which arrives two weeks or more after the inital contact. Believe me you will be forgotten if no answer arrives within a day or two at the most. So check your account everyday if you are really serious about modelling.

• An email exchange which continues until everything is arranged: time and day are set, location chosen, costumes sorted, and then goes mysteriously dead.  Although you may still be able to play at being a model with many of the internet amateurs, your career as a serious model has just gone mysteriously dead as well

• A model who turns up late, or not at all (with no notice of course), or cancells at the last moment, or even tries to constantly rearrange the date, will be regarded as nothing but a time waster, or to use the current lingo ¨a flake¨.

• A model who turns up, inappropriately dressed, or with the wrong clothes, or clothes she decided would be more suitable.

• Allied with this is the model who turns up poorly made up, with ugly chipped nails, or worn nail polish, dried out skin or hangover eyes, unwashed hair, and/or a  totally unprofessional attitude will soon be shown the door because a shoot requiring extensive photoshopping after the event is not a worthwhile shoot.

• And then there is the model who arrives with an unagreed and unannounced boyfriend, manager, minder, pimp, etc or entourage of dogsbodies...how many girls would attempt to take the same entourage to their job behind the counter at Maccas?

And lastly the dead giveaway of a model who is on a internet site for anything other than actual modelling:

• A model who´s folio page is obviously written by someone other than herself, and communication which is obviously answered by someone other than herself, or someone who is ¨looking out for her welfare¨

 Remember, that all photographs accompanying this blog are Copyright (All Rights Reserved) and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the photographer. 

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What does an Industry professional want to see in a Model´s Portfolio?

Part Three:

What Industry professionals DO NOT want to see!

Selfies... and distorted phone pics.

Faces obscured with ¨creative¨ zombie or theme shoot style makeup

Nudes, not even topless. ( only exception is if you specialise in nudes to the exclusion of everything else...and really the internet modelling sites are not the way to get established as a professional art or glamour nude)

Heaps of almost identical pics of over made up, over photoshopped, badly lit, and obviously amateur efforts identical to everyone else on the site.

Huge and ugly watermarks on your photos placed there by photographers who want to use your portfolio to advertise themselves.

Your portfolio should be to showcase YOU and nothing else. ...if your photographer doesn´t treat you as the subject, and the sole reason for a folio shoot, simply get another photographer who understands what a model´s folio is all about.

A Model who also claims to be a MUA, stylist, stage crew, actor, full time mum, nuclear physicist, rousabout, photographer, ...Oh and I forgot has a full time job as well.

A good clear figure pic suitable for a folio

 Remember, that all photographs accompanying this blog are Copyright (All Rights Reserved) and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the photographer.

What to avoid like the plaque!

One self description which will send fear into even the most hardened professional photographer:  Model/Photographer

The words: ¨No experience´ next to ´Professional Model- paid work only.¨

Great long lists of everytime you have ever appeared in the same room as a camera, since the maternity ward you were born in .



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What does an Industry professional want to see in a Model´s Portfolio?

Part Two:

What Industry Professionals are looking for!

A pleasant personality evident from the model´s words as well as her photos.

Between three and twelve photos maximum. No one will bother wading through more than that to get to other relevant information.

The three essential shots are :   
One good clear face shot with minimum makeup, and a pleasant, not outstanding , expression.

                    
One good clear three quarter or full length photo of your figure in either swimsuit, or figure hugging tights and top.
                      
One good clear photo of you wearing fashionable, relaltively conservative clothing: like the perennial little black dress, Tshirt and jeans or similar.

The rest of the twelve pictures are made of a variety of different styles of clothing, casual, formal, etc.

If you have actually done some professional work* they want evidence of this, such as photos from the shoot, or tearsheets from the finished work ( eg a scan from a magazine page or advert)

*professional work can be either commissioned or spec work, tfp or paid, done with a professional photographer with the aim of being published...it does not include amateur camera club shoots, ¨workshops¨, theme nights, or amateur ¨glamour¨ shoots


Remember, that all photographs accompanying this blog are Copyright (All Rights Reserved) and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the photographer. 

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*What does an Industry professional want to see in a Model´s Portfolio?

The biggest complaints I hear from models are :

Nobody ever contacts me on internet modelling site_of your_choice.com.
I get lots of enquiries from idiots, perverts, amateurs etc...

I do a shoot which promises everything, but never get any pictures or ever hear from the guy again.
I get booked for shoots and then f***ed around with venue, time, day changes, ignored for two hours and then treated like nobody when I arrive (very common with Music video clip shoots)
I get promised great shots of myself for my folio, and then get muddy, badly composed, over photoshopped things in which I am hardly recognisable and hidden behind a huge ugly photographer´s watermark. (the watermark is ugly, and Iĺl keep my comments about the photographer to myself)

Don´t despair: simply be aware that internet modelling sites are specifically designed for amateurs and wannabes from both sides of the camera.
However some industry professionals do seek new models and sometimes established ones from these sites.
But also be aware that they are looking for very specific things in an online portfolio ; these are the very same things they look for and have always looked for in printed folios ever since photographic modelling began., but unfortunately they are the very things they rarely see.
Knowing what they are looking for is the first part of gaining a real advantage: the second part and the hardest to achieve is supplying what they are looking for , and appearing to be the odd one out in a vast sea of misinformation and photographic crap.

The next post in theis series will discuss more fully exactly what type of shots need to be in a model´s  portfolio



Remember, that all photographs accompanying this blog are Copyright (All Rights Reserved) and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the photographer. 

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