Modelling... portfolio costs and etc.

[KevC]

My friend is interested in modelling. I suggested doing some TFP/CD for her but she wants a 'pro' (geez, what kinda friend is that). Anyway, I suspect professionals are very expensive. Could somebody give me a breakdown of how much it will cost to hire a pro to shoot her? Some nice glamour/fashion shoots to start her portfolio.

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

It all depends.
For my shoots I normally charge € 75,00 including makeup artist but this is ridicilous cheap.
However my shots are I think good enough for a portfolio.

So there can be some good deals arround.

Greetings,
Frank

[Mike Panic]

depends on location, use of photos, rights and releases. you can imagine that there is a broader spectrum of payments in nyc and la then there is in say, nebraska.

for 2-3 looks, and a CD w/ 6-8 shots on it giving her the rights to reproduce up to say 1000 more 8x10's only for promotional use - id prob charge $250, but im somewhat low. that doesnt include makeup or hair

[Mike Panic]

btw - her best bet in finding a legit photographer is prob going to be http://www.onemodelplace.com

[charlesu]

Like Mike said, check out OMP. But beware that there are many "posers" there. Guys that claim to be pros but can only take a good pic by accident. I've seen their CDs. Holy cow. 1000 shots and maybe 5 useful. As I say, even a blind squirrel can find a nut in a snowstorm once in a while.

Also, have her check some references.

Deoending on her look, the kind of work she wants she can expect to pay anything from nothing (TFCD) to several hundred US$. It also depends on how many looks she wants, whether she brings her own stylist or if the photog supplies one, etc.

[Longwatcher]

The advice I give to models is for the first 6 months, get as many TFCD sessions in that they can snag with good (but not necessarily "professional") photographers. They should try to get at least 6 different photographers. The reason is so they have several different styles to provide samples for their portfolio for. Even if they only get one good shot from each photographer they gain experience and make their portfolio look much better by having different looks.

Each photographer will tend to have their own style and from my observations a lot of professional photographers while producing great work tend to have the same classical style which doesn't add a lot, getting a few semi-pro or good amateur will produce some different results. This is not to say that professionals will all produce the same, but it is a trend I have noticed with about 50% of the ones that list in phone books. I suspect it is a combination of education and need to meet customer expectations of their once a decade or so portrait shot. For modeling you want variety as you want advertisers to notice you from the pack and that takes something different.

And as mentioned OMP is a good starting point to look for photographers.

Just my opinion,