Advertising Photography (Fashion, Product, Stock, etc.) - Questions!

[bethany138]

Ok - same thing as with music photography. Lets put a lot of info in one place!

Questions -

1. How do you go about getting this business - those of you in small markets?

2. Contracts? Agreements? This is my weekest area - any help is appreciated.

3. Models - do you prefer to find your own models or let the client do that?

:) Thanks - please feel free to add your own questions!

b:lol:

[bethany138]

Ok - I guess just Nikoneers shoot fashion! lol.. Just Kidding.

Give me some thoughts people!!! Or at least more questions!

:)

[coreypolis]

theres a lot to it. you can work for someone or for yourself, so a lot depends on that to start with. A friend of mine shoots the Macys catalogs, and is contracted by them, REI etc, so she ends up working for them on a contract basis for a catalog etc.

Models - again depends on what you're doing. Usually the client will provide, but when you're just starting out and doing portfolio work you're obviosuly on it.

contracts - its a must. model releases, work for hire agrements, who holds the copyrights, whats expected etc. they need to be detailed.

For getting business, its all about networking. You can send promo cards to art directors, look for job openings etc. Once you get in its a little easier,, but you still have to keep on fighting for new clients forever. That part never goes away.

Internships. While I was at Brooks Inst. a lot of fellow students who were fashion majors would intern down in LA (or NY). You can get picked up by a lbig time photog to do grunt work, and if you're good, have a learning and positive outlook, and are willing to put in the long hours you can slowly move up. Working for a David LaChapelle or the like is huge later on. You learn a lot from the best, and make contacts along the way

[bethany138]

Well.. my problem is that I am located in SOUTHERN Mississippi. There are no other fashion photographers..lol. I am in desperate need of some sort of contract or aggreement. I have always used model releases but I don't have the contracts.

Thanks!
b

[coreypolis]

well then I guess you have to look at what you want to do. the need for fashion photos in Mississippi is probably really low. You could get some local businesses and do stock work (on your own dime). But it'll be a struggle

[ssim]

There are times that one has to face reality and go to the work rather than hoping it will come to you.

I live in a relatively small market area in Canada, probably around 225,000 people with the city I live in having a population of about 85K. The closest largest city is a little better than 2.5 hours away and it has slightly better than 1 million.

I make very good income from doing work for an advertising agency. There is more to advertising photography than high fashion and product photography. I know that this is the glamorous stuff that allot of us would love to get but in reality those doing this are living in large cities where those particular industries are situated around. In Canada the fashion industry is in a big way in maybe 3 cities with other cities having some content to a lesser extent. If you want to talk working the design fashion shows and the like you are talking New York and Europe, if I understand that industry. For product photography you have to be near or available to the ad agency that is doing the company's work. So I took these realizations and said to myself, do I want to go live there and try to get that kind of work or do I settle for something less with a lifestyle that I am happy with. I chose the latter.

The work that I get from the ad agency that I do work for almost weekly (notwithstanding the forced sabbatical I had to take the last month and a half) does allot of corporate work. Is it flashy stuff, hell no. But it pays well. It is allot of companies that do some print media to highlight their product or service. Small companies do not use an agency to typically do this so we are dealing with medium to large corporations that know the value of getting the job done right in the first place (I'm talking about using the ad agency). I've done everything from bicycles to horseback saddles, from workers on a potato chip manufacturing line to shopping malls. Next week I have 3 days worth of shooting large steel buildings built by a specialty company.

In a few of the shoots that I have done that have required models this has presented a problem in that the closest modeling agency to me is situated in that large city some 2.5 hours away. Having them come to us was cost prohibitive from their fees point of few in every case so far. The agency presents the cost to their client and so far they have declined. So we end up using friends, family and whomever we can find. We are kicking the idea around of cost sharing on putting some ads in the local paper that would allow us to at least compile a list of people that would be interested in this. We would interview and shoot test shots of potential keepers. Going back to the last shopping mall photo shoot, we ended up using whoever we could find to make the stores or mall area in question look busy. These are people of all shapes, sizes and age range. So living in this smaller city certainly has its advantages for me personally but it has its detractions as you can see.

One of the first things I did when I decided to do this full time was to retain an attorney and an accountant. The attorney has worked on my contractual and liability matters while the accountant tries to keep me on the straight and narrow financially (I hate bookkeeping).

When I do work for the ad agency I always have an assistant with me and I insist that they supply one of their people for the shoot. If necessary we will meet prior to make sure that we have all of the ideas and details worked out.

You have to get out there with a good portfolio in hand and knock on doors. Have your pitch practiced. You need to know what you are going to charge and live to it. Most of all you have to sound confident when making this pitch. Don't over promise and don't say you can do something when you don't have the gear to do it. I've turned down some jobs because I didn't feel that I was equipped to do the job. Taking one of these jobs and then doing a poor job on it will insure that you will not even get the chance to make a bid in the future.

I don't want to make this sound hard because it really wasn't all that hard. The area that I live in has a very robust economy right now and that has made things allot easier.

[chtgrubbs]

Interestingly, one of my best contacts for getting clients was my local camera store. I got quite a few jobs from their referrals. Local business people who need a photgrapher will go to the store and ask them who the best photographers in town are. This is a good reason to buy your gear locally instead of mailorder. I made far more money from their referrals than I would have saved by buying from B&H. As for models, unless the client is hiring someone from a professional agency, or someone you know, then you have no way of knowing how the model will work in front of the camera. I would prefer to work up a list of models I know and work well with.

[PhotosGuy]

please feel free to add your own questions! How about some answers in advance? ;)

"Other lucrative photo genres besides weddings?"
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=191724

"You're not a pro without a studio"
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=179469

Selling - Getting paid
ASMP Pricing Strategies (American Society of Media Photographers_
http://www.asmp.org/commerce/digitalps_6.php

New! See "Day rate against space" in NUJ Freelance Fees Guide. This is oriented toward UK photographers, but the info should be of general interest to everyone.
http://media.gn.apc.org/feesguide/photo.html

NPPA: Cost of Doing Business Calculator
http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/cdb/

New York Times Ast. Photo Editor Michele McNally answers questions
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/media/asktheeditors.html
Newspaper Sports Questions!
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=145984

Well, I've gone and done it...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1746433

MODEL SHOOTS:
The Challenges of Glamour Photography
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51826
Editorial portraiture by Neil Turner
http://www.dg28.com/technique.html
Shooting Beauty Series: Beach Beauty: The Images of Andy McFarland
http://www.onemodelplace.com/newsletter_glamour_article9.cfm
How to get your wife/girlfriend to pose for glamour shots
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=139829
Does any one photograph "Normal" woman anymore?
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=139021
What Do You Say To A Naked Model? - Working with glamour models, Part II
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2911.htm
Video PhotoTips for landscape, in/outdoor high/low key portraits, wedding, glamour, aerial, couples, children, sports, nature, time-exposures (Slow loading)
http://alwaysgirls.ezthemes.com/video/index.php?Photography
Is it possible to create home studio with Speedlites? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=179832)

MODEL RELEASES
Dan Heller's Photography Business Series (w/notes on other countries at the bottom.):
http://www.danheller.com/model-release.html
The Substantive Law Behind Model Releases
http://www.simslaw.com/model/model_releases.htm
Model Release Question
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=118362
Model Release Resources and Samples
http://www.inertramblings.com/archives/000779.html
Model release for a youth sports league.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=131599
Longwatcher's Standard Model Release
http://www.longwatcher.com/model_release_standard.htm
Sample adult model release
http://www.dcphotographers.com/common/pdf/adult-model-release.pdf
Sample minor model release.
http://www.dcphotographers.com/common/pdf/minor-model-release.pdf

[bethany138]

WOW! Thanks! lol. :)

[MikeMcL]

wow. photosguy, that post must have taken you an hour or so to put together.

great reading there, much better than searching the threads individually.

[PhotosGuy]

http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/smilies/rofl.gif No. It's not like the same questions don't get asked over & over again? I keep a notepad file by subject 'cause I hate to type & no one ever uses "Search"? ;)

[bethany138]

That is exactly why I started this thread. I wanted to put all of the questions in one place. You really helped accomplish that! lol.

:)