Starting a portfolio
Your business is you. To get booking
you have to take care of your ‘shop front’ show yourself off to your best
ability. Your portfolio is one of you biggest marketing tools and this is often
the first impression people will receive of you as a model. Therefore you need
your portfolio to be stand out and look its best.
A few tips on having a good
portfolio.
·
Your
portfolio needs to be concise with relevant specifics.
·
The
client will look at your port and what to be able to find out easily, where you
are? Do you travel? Do your charge or are you happy doing TF? What
levels/genres do you work to? Are you reliable? How hard do you work? And of
course have you got the look they are wanting.
·
Be
honest about your appearance, height, weight, measurements etc. If you have any
scars, tattoos, piercings, implants etc. This does not mean you will not get
work but it does mean clients will understand what they are going to be working
with before the day of the shoot.
·
What
levels/genres do you cover? Have images that show this. So if you work to
topless then have some topless images in your portfolio. If you say you do
beauty modelling then again you need a beauty image in your portfolio to show
this.
·
Understand
your strengths and weaknesses. Work your strengths and show them off. For e.g.
if you have an amazing body, get some great figure shots. Beautiful face, get
some great beauty shots.
·
Have
a mixture of headshots, full body, ¾ shots.
·
Show
how versatile you can be. Get some different ‘looks’ in your portfolio. Working
with some good make-up artists, hairstylist and with some unusual clothes can
help with this. Also look through magazines and at other models work to get
ideas on different poses and facial expressions so you are not looking the same
in all your images.
·
Work
with some good photographers. This may mean you have to pay for their time, but
his will give you a boost to your portfolio if you choose wisely. (More on
paying a photographer on another blog).
·
You
can also get some model tuition. This can help you with styling, facial
expressions, posing and more. (more on this in another blog).
·
You
don’t need lots of the ‘same’ images. Meaning you don’t need ten headshots.
Quality is better than quantity. One or two amazing headshots is better than
ten average ones.
·
Remember
to update your port. As you get new images be critical, which can be hard when
you get new images and want to show them off. Do they add something new or
better to your portfolio? If so do you need to remove an image that now is not
that good? As a model you should always be improving, therefore so should your
images and your port.
·
Why
should a client choose you over anyone else? You need to be able to show why a
photographer would book you rather than another model, even a cheaper model. Show
off that you are versatile, you work hard, professional, reliable, self-aware
model with great images.
These are my thoughts and ideas, they may not work for all of you but they can be a good place to start :) If you have any questions please feel free to message me and I will try my best to help in anyway I can.
Thanks
Miss B x
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