Mod­el­ing Portfolios

Every model needs a port­fo­lio. With­out a good port­fo­lio, it is very dif­fi­cult for a model to get pay­ing jobs. A port­fo­lio con­sists of pic­tures of you in dif­fer­ent set­tings and loca­tions. This show­cases the vari­ety of work for which you are available.

A great port­fo­lio can take some time. Noth­ing hap­pens overnight. You will need to build your port­fo­lio by select­ing your best pho­tos from shoots with sev­eral dif­fer­ent pho­tog­ra­phers. Your port­fo­lio needs to con­sist of a wide vari­ety of pho­tos. A good port­fo­lio should con­tain any­where form 10 to 30 pho­tos. You will need a head shot with no make-up. This will show­case the nat­ural you, and is some­thing the client can look at as a blank can­vas. Also you will need an incred­i­ble body shot in a swim­suit, lin­gerie or form fit­ting cloth­ing to show­case your body. These two pho­tos are prob­a­bly the most impor­tant in your port­fo­lio because every client needs to view these types of pho­tos before com­ing to a decision.

The images in your port­fo­lio also need to show­case a vari­ety of styles. You may want to show ver­sa­til­ity by tak­ing some out­side pho­tos with a bright, com­mer­cial, cute look. Then take a pic­ture inside with a black back­ground with darker make-up giv­ing the more mys­te­ri­ous kind of image. Also hav­ing dif­fer­ent make-up and wardrobe in every pic­ture shows the dif­fer­ent looks you can cre­ate. Cre­at­ing the vari­ety is the key to an incred­i­ble portfolio.

Stephanie Seymour’s Model Portfolio

To find the right pho­tog­ra­phers, research on the web and ask around. Once you find one that seems suit­able ask about the kind of work he spe­cial­izes in because you may just want to use one pho­tog­ra­pher for glam­our pho­tog­ra­phy and another for a more com­mer­cial look. In decid­ing upon using the pho­tog­ra­pher don’t for­get to ask basic ques­tions about wardrobe, hair and make-up. Also ask if he/she edits the pho­tos, as this may play a big role in the final out­come of the pic­ture. Always ask to see sev­eral sam­ples of their work.

The pric­ing in a pho­tog­ra­pher should be rea­son­able. The pho­tog­ra­pher shouldn’t be ridicu­lously priced, nei­ther should he be cheap. The more money you spend on a pho­tog­ra­pher usu­ally reas­sures you that you will get what you pay for, but make sure to ask if you will be able to re-shoot with­out charge if you are unhappy with the final images.

Once you have obtained all your pho­tos, you should put them in a model port­fo­lio book. Yes, a print port­fo­lio is still very impor­tant for mod­els, even in this day of web port­fo­lios. Make sure to choose a qual­ity, professional-looking port­fo­lio book, in at least an 8x10 size. It is often advis­able to cre­ate two print port­fo­lios, as often a booker will keep your port­fo­lio for sev­eral days and you don’t want to be with­out one if you get a call from another poten­tial employer. Also, if you do both glam­our and com­mer­cial work, con­sider keep­ing those print port­fo­lios sep­a­rate, as a poten­tial com­mer­cial booker may be put off by sug­ges­tive glam­our images.