So You Want to be a Photographic Model?
I'm a professional commercial photographer who hires models all the time, and I also run a small agency for fashion and character models, so I know about the business. This tutorial deals with all types of photographic modelling. Most of the people who want to be models are looking for fashion or catalogue work and most of them are young and female. Don't be put off if you have to read a lot about types of models and modelling that doesn't seem to apply to you, ALL the information contained here will be useful and I want you to read every word of it. Sooner or later you will get to a bit that is 100% relevant.
You may decide, after reading this, that modelling is not for you. If so that's fine.
Where shall we start?
Let me tell you about a typical, fairly successful model who was here just before I started writing this article.
She is 19 years old; she has a lovely face, a very good body, a very nice personality and no tattoos or piercings. I've photographed her many, many times for all sorts of products ranging from workwear to beds to fashion.
This time it was lingerie. She arrived, as always, exactly on time. She turned up in her brand new BMW sports car and changed into the bras & knickers we had for her, and we got on with the shoot. She was booked for 4 hours but the job was done in less than 3, so she made a bit of extra profit on her time. The client also gave her all the clothing; worth I suppose around £700. She was happy, I was happy and the client was happy! The following day I sent her a CD of all the shots, as I always do, so she gained a few more pics for her portfolio.
This girl is a full-time professional model and she has been modelling for 3 years. I like working with her because she's good, the clients choose her partly because of her lovely face and partly because she has outstanding photos.
If all this seems like a dream job, let me tell you right now that this model is doing OK but she is a long way from being in the top league - she is a long, long way from being a supermodel.
Having said that, she is in the top 2%. I say that because 98 out of every hundred wannabe models never make it onto the books of a reputable agency, never get any modelling work and simply don't have what it takes to be a model. That is 98% of the people who think that they want to be models, whose friends and family think that they look great. 98% of the people who try, fail completely.
So why do they fail?
Well, some of them just don't have what it takes to be a successful model. They don't have the looks, or they don't have the personality, or they aren't prepared to make themselves available at short notice, or they think that the world owes them a living and that all they need to do is to sit on their backsides and wait to be 'discovered' or they aren't prepared to invest any time or money into making their dreams come true.
Some of them - many of them in fact are just complete timewasters.
Many of them though are genuinely trying to do something with their lives, they just don't know where to start. And so they fall into the greedy hands of the con artists, thieves and perverts that exist in every business but who are drawn to the modelling industry because it's so easy to find new people to cheat!
How can you get started in modelling?
Well, there are many different types of modelling and some of them require different approaches, but let's assume for a moment that you are interested in being either a catalogue or a fashion model. We'll talk about other types of modelling later.
There is an organisation called the Association of Model Agencies (AMA). Their members are governed by rules of conduct that should ensure that you are treated fairly, and in accordance with the DTI (Department of Trade & Industry) guidelines for best practice in the modelling industry.
If you can get onto the books of one of their members then you have a very good chance of success! They are listed at the end of this tutorial.
Unfortunately, it isn't easy to register with members of this organisation. The reason for this is that everyone else wants to be on their books too, they get many thousands of applications and accept very few of them. They are also likely to have criteria that you simply don't match, for example height, weight, size and age.
If you want to try your luck with A.M.A. members, all you need to do is to send them a snapshot of your face (don't bother with a professional photo) and your personal details. If they are interested they will contact you and ask you to attend an interview. If they accept you they may offer you a contract. They will then arrange for you to be photographed by their photographer (or by a photographer they deal with) and they will pay for the photography. They will then send you on 'look-sees' - auditions for modelling work. They will also provide you with all the training you need. None of this will have cost you a penny, like all reputable agencies they make all their money by deducting their commission from your modelling earnings.
Try it. Ring them up. All of them! And keep ringing them until one of them accepts you or it becomes obvious that none of them are interested in you.
The next stage is to approach agencies who are not A.M.A. members but who might be perfectly respectable too. These agencies don't generally get the really exotic work and so they don't get the high-flying supermodels either, but they operate in a very similar way to A.M.A. members and you should be safe with them. There are hundreds of these agencies and you can find lists of them very easily on the Internet. You might like to start with the agencies listed right at the end of this tutorial - don't worry about the fact that most of them are in London, most of them are national agencies. You can also take a look at the Creative Media Handbook - click on Model and Promotion Agencies and go from there. Warning: not all of the agencies listed may be genuine!
The smaller genuine agencies will probably do less to promote you than the industry leaders, and although they won't ask you to pay them any fees they may ask you to provide them with two essentials, photographs and model cards. They may only ask you for model cards but that's much the same thing because you'll need the photos for the model cards. Model cards are a simple double-side printed card, around A5 size, with 4 of 5 photos of you, your vital statistics and your contact details. The agency will be able to give you the names of printers who can produce them for you and they will probably cost you around £100 for the first 1,000.
Why do you have to pay for the model cards and photos? Well, there are 2 reasons for this. Firstly, a small agency won't be making as much commission from you as a larger agency would and really can't afford to subsidise you and secondly, there are an awful lot of timewasters around. A good way of weeding out timewasters is by making them put their hands in their pockets to prove that they are serious about modelling. At the same time, although they are making you spend your money, none of it is going into their own pockets so you know that they are a genuine agency and not a scam merchant. If, however, the agency suggests that you should use their own photographer you should walk away, it is probably a scam.
So far so good, but these smaller agencies aren't easy to get into either and you will probably have to contact a lot of them before anyone accepts you. Some of them are specialists - they only accept people of a certain height, weight, size or age, or only accept children, or only accept people who live in certain areas. If you don't meet their criteria just cross them off your list, but if you do meet their criteria don't take no for an answer, "No" today may turn into "Yes" next week, and anyway some of them may tell you that they're not interested at first just to get rid of timewasters.
There is one type of agency that definitely will accept you (even though they will probably tell you that they only accept a small number of applicants). These are the people who will charge you money to join, or charge you for photographs, or for training, or for publicity, or for an 'assessment' or for something else. Walk away - the chances of getting any paid modelling work from these people is somewhere between nil and none! There is a section on modelling scams further down, make sure you read every word of it.
Do YOU have what it takes?
Well, let's go back to the model I mentioned earlier. She has that natural 'girl next door' look. Nice hair, natural colour and in good condition. Her makeup looks natural and she knows what suits her. She looks sweet and innocent. She is slim but not underweight. She looks fit. No tattoos, no piercings and no skin blemishes.
Does that describe you too?
A lot of young girls have tattoos and/or skin piercings. Piercings aren't really a problem because they can be removed, but tattoos are very largely a matter of personal taste and many clients simply don't like them. Photographers don't like them either, because although we can take them out on computer quite frankly we have better things to do with our time and we would rather hire models who are not tattooed.
And what about your hair?
Well, shoulder length or longer is good, because it can be up, or down, or back, all of which produces a very different 'look'. Bleached hair is not necessarily bad, but there are an awful lot of blonde models out there and you might do better with your natural colour. And if your hair isn't natural, it is essential that the natural colour doesn't show at the roots.
And as for weight, most people photograph about 2 sizes larger than they actually are, so excess weight can be a real problem for fashion models. Nobody really knows why people photograph larger, but most do. There are some exceptions, such as Marilyn Monroe, who was size 16 but she photographed as a 12.
What do you have to do to succeed?
Well, this particular model is a good example. She is registered with several small agencies. She is a genuinely nice person who is a pleasure to work with. She never talks about her other clients, her private life or how much she is being paid to model (photographers put a bit on top of model fees and get very upset if the model tells the client how much she's getting). She always arrives exactly on time. In short, she is very professional. Because of this, any photographer who she has worked with before is likely to recommend her to clients - and believe me, photographers have a great deal of influence in the choice of model!
But not all decisions are made by the photographer. When the client makes the choice the model card has a large part to play. This model has truly outstanding photos of herself, taken when she started her modelling career at the age of 16. I don't know how much she paid for her photos but she definitely got a bargain!
And I have another model, very different, who also does extremely well. This one is male, aged late twenties. He has a fairly dark complexion and black hair. His distinctive feature is that his hair is very short, which makes it very easy to 'cut' him out from the background on the computer. Apart from the obvious differences, he is very similar to the female model mentioned above - very reliable, nice person, very professional, very good photos.
And another very successful model is an Asian girl, with beautiful hair that reaches her waist. Again, she has all the right qualities but the reason that she does so well is because there are very few black and Asian models.
What happens to all the people who fail?
Most people, whether they have what it takes to be a model or not, are genuinely nice people who are honest and straightforward. Perhaps because of this, they simply don't realise that there are rogues about in any business, and so they get ripped off.
Unfortunately, would-be models are prime targets for fraudsters. There may be several reasons for this:
Mainly they are young and perhaps a little too trusting.
For many people modelling is a dream, and when a rogue promises to make their dream come true they want to believe it even if logic screams out at them that something is wrong
Reputable model agencies are inundated with applications and can be a bit offhand with people.
The thieves are friendly, pleasant and make them feel important.
Reputable model agencies can be difficult to find because many of them don't advertise. The thieves are very easy to find and may advertise in Yellow Pages and/or local papers.
Most of the rogues are after your money but some are sexual perverts, who have a constant supply of new victims.
So who are these rogues?
Well, I'm going to tell you how to recognise them but I'm not going to name them. There are 2 reasons for this. Firstly I don't know who all of them are, and there is no point in only warning you about some of them. And secondly, I don't want to get sued!
This is a small extract from a 12,000+ word article by Garry Edwards. The full article, plus detailed tutorials on Portrait, Still Life and Glamour photography, is available from www.photolearn.co.uk.
So You Want to be a Photographic Model?
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