Article stats: Views: 8535 Votes: 7 Average: 4.86 Added: 2004-02-27 Updated: 2006-12-18 | |
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Your portfolio is only as good as your weakest shot! If you look great in a couple of shots, but lousy in one or two; the art director is most likely going to remember the bad ones.
Variety, variety, variety!!!
The more "looks" you have in your book, the better your chances for getting work! Can you look 18 yrs. old, and also 28? Can you look great as a businessperson and a rollerblader? Every GOOD look you can come up with for your book improves your marketability.
You will get the types of work you show in your portfolio! If you have nothing but swimwear and lingerie in your portfolio, then those are the types of work you are going to get offers for 99% of the time.
Multiple Books
If you want to market yourself in several areas of the business, have separate books for each of those market-segments. A lifestyle agency is not going to be able to get you work (or even want to deal with you) if you have all lingerie in your book.
Keep that as a second (or third) book, and have a book that specifically targets the work you are going after.
DON'T let just one photographer shoot your entire portfolio: Different photographers will look at you in different ways, and again; the key to a good portfolio is VARIETY!!
ALWAYS get a stylist to do your makeup/hair! Find several that you trust to make you look great, and start a relationship with them. and as with photographers, make sure you use a number of different ones for the images you show in your book; Good Make Up Artists are essential to a successful book! - This is the #1 error most beginning models and photogs make! yes, it usually costs money; but it is WORTH the investment.
Presentation is important
Yes, you can sometimes get away with using color copies. HOWEVER, I'm a lot more impressed by a model who has made the investment in herself to have actual PRINTS, or at very least HIGH QUALITY Ink Jet Prints. Put them in a nice presentation binder or portfolio. If you have a "box" type portfolio, make sure your prints are laminated or mounted on boards. This is your resume; you wouldn't hand in a work resume typed on toilet paper; why would you do the equivalent with your VISUAL resume??
Tearsheets are great, but they show you have worked in a professional setting, and have had the trust of someone else's money for a shoot. BUT, Laminate them! I can't tell you how many folded up pieces of magazine I have seen come across my desk as 'tears'..
Getting your tears for cheap!
If you are in Vogue, Maxim, Nylon, etc., and you want a bunch of copies of the publication, buy a few when it hits the stands so you have some to show immediately if you are proud out them. THEN, wait 'til the end of the month (when the magazines are about to be taken off the shelf) at your local bookseller or magazine store, and explain to them why you need a bunch of copies of the publication. Most publications only require the bookseller to send back the cover of the magazine as proof that they did not sell that copy of it then they throw the rest of the magazine away. If you are nice, and professional about it and offer to buy a couple of copie...
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