{"id":13845,"date":"2010-06-01T18:11:31","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T15:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/model.world\/directory\/?p=13845"},"modified":"2025-03-15T16:52:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T13:52:51","slug":"pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Get Pictures?<\/strong>
\nWhether for fun, experience or to update a portfolio or comp\u00a0card, print models need to shoot often. Pictures are the soul of a\u00a0model\u2019s professional life. Booking and shooting jobs is a good\u00a0way to get pictures, but every print model needs to shoot \u201ctests\u201d\u00a0as well to add variety to their photos.<\/p>\n

Your Portfolio<\/strong>
\nWhat is a Portfolio?
\nA model\u2019s portfolio is a book containing clear plastic sleeves\u00a0that a model can slip her pictures into and out of. Originals
\npictures are best, but everyone understands that they can get\u00a0damaged or lost as a book is carried or sent around, so good
\nquality laser copies are acceptable.\u00a0You may have only one or several different types of\u00a0portfolios. A model may have a \u201cfashion book,\u201d a \u201ccommercial\u00a0book,\u201d and a \u201cglamour book,\u201d for instance, to show off different\u00a0aspects of her abilities to different types of clients.\u00a0The portfolio will be updated regularly to show your current\u00a0look, as new pictures become available, and will include new\u00a0tearsheets when you have them. A model will also include or take\u00a0out pictures to \u201cfine tune\u201d it for a particular go-see.<\/p>\n

Format<\/strong>
\nFor beginning models a portfolio need have only ten pages\u00a0(enough for 20 pictures) and it\u2019s accepted that it may not be full.\u00a0Only as you get excellent pictures and good tearsheets will the\u00a0pages all be filled and you think about getting a bigger book.\u00a0For the last decade or so in all major and most secondary and\u00a0smaller markets the standard size for portfolio pictures has been\u00a09\u201dx12\u201d. Lately some smaller sizes have been coming into use;\u00a0your agency may approve a 6\u201dx9\u201d or even 5\u201dx7\u201d portfolio.\u00a0Sometimes these smaller sizes are produced as \u201cwalk-around\u201d\u00a0versions to be used by the model at go-sees, while larger versions\u00a0are maintained by the agency to send to clients. In some small\u00a0market cities 8×10 is used for portfolios. Check with agencies in\u00a0your area to find out the standard size expected.<\/p>\n

Do You Need a Portfolio?<\/strong>
\nYou may not. It depends on the category of modeling you\u00a0do. History is full of models who spend hundreds or thousands of
\ndollars \u201cbuilding a portfolio\u201d because they thought that\u2019s what a\u00a0model needed to do. They end up with something expensive,\u00a0time-consuming and useless because they didn\u2019t know what they\u00a0needed. Sadly, modeling school students frequently fall into this\u00a0category. Their school has them pay for shoots because . . . well,\u00a0because \u201cthat\u2019s what models do\u201d, and it\u2019s how schools make\u00a0money. So the student ends up with a book full of bad or\u00a0inappropriate \u201cmodeling pictures.\u201d
\nA portfolio should be put together only after getting\u00a0professional advice or doing a lot of research. For many models a
\nportfolio is not even necessary, especially at the beginning of their\u00a0careers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Aspiring Agency Fashion Models<\/span>
\n<\/em>For an unsigned fashion model most agencies will tell you\u00a0not to put a portfolio together. They see all too many portfolios
\nbrought in by models who have spent lots of money buying\u00a0pictures. Typically the pictures make the model less attractive to\u00a0them, not more. Virtually any pictures she has done prior to being\u00a0signed by an agency will be thrown out. The first thing she should\u00a0try is to get an agency with nothing more than snapshots. Only if\u00a0she has diligently tried and failed with snapshots should she\u00a0consider putting together a portfolio to take to the agencies. In\u00a0that unhappy event, models should put together a book as\u00a0described in the \u201cself marketing fashion models\u201d section.<\/p>\n

Commercial Print Models<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>
\nHere’s a truth that applies to the New York City commercial\u00a0print market and a lot of other cities: Commercial print models
\ndon’t need portfolios at all! They can get by with only composite\u00a0cards. Yes, portfolios are nice to have, but at 90+% of go-sees in\u00a0NYC the commercial model is never asked for her book. A\u00a0portfolio isn’t necessary to attract the attention of a commercial\u00a0agency (it might help, but it isn’t necessary). There is no reason\u00a0for a commercial model to have a portfolio done before she gets\u00a0an agent. It isn\u2019t that commercial print models don\u2019t have books\u00a0\u2013 they usually do. But they are built over years and largely\u00a0consist of high-quality tearsheets from work the model has done.
\nSpend money to get a portfolio only if your agency says you need\u00a0one.<\/p>\n

Other Types of Models<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>
\nPromotional models do not need portfolios, just 8\u201dx10\u201d\u00a0headshots. Art and Glamour models should have them, and the
\nshots should be of the type the model wants to do. Both \u201ceditorial\u00a0fashion\u201d and \u201ccommercial\u201d shots could be out of place in a\u00a0glamour or art model\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

Children<\/em><\/span>
\nUnless a very good booking agency in your area tells you\u00a0otherwise, children do not need a portfolio. It\u2019s an unnecessary\u00a0expense, and will be outdated quickly anyway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Get Pictures? Whether for fun, experience or to update a portfolio or comp\u00a0card, print models need to shoot often. Pictures are the soul of a\u00a0model\u2019s professional life. Booking and shooting jobs is a good\u00a0way to get pictures, but every print model needs to shoot \u201ctests\u201d\u00a0as well to add variety to their photos. Your Portfolio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":13846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166],"tags":[2233,2232,2236,2231,923,2235,2234],"class_list":["post-13845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guide","tag-aspiring-agency-fashion-models","tag-commercial-print-models","tag-do-you-need-a-portfolio","tag-other-types-of-models","tag-pictures","tag-why-get-pictures","tag-your-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13845"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13850,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions\/13850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}