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
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