Product Description

Drawing on his own experience as a professional model and fashion photographer, as well as interviews with agents and modelling consultants, Billy Pegram provides all the information photographers need to know about the modelling industry. These techniques provide the tools to begin shooting successful portfolios for women, men, and even children.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299280 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

The name of this book is wrong.
This book should really be called Professional Model Portfolios: A Step-by-step Guide for MODELS. I still really don't know what to make of it.

I was expecting information about how who to put together a model portfolio from start to finish from a photographic perspective. For example I don't need instructions on how to take measurements of a model (I kid you not.)

Sure it contains a limited amount of information useful for photographers but a model will find it much more relevant. There is a whole chapter dedicated to answering questions frequently asked by models. How about answering my questions - i.e. the photographers!

This is certainly not a step by step guide for photographers and was a dissapointing purchase.

FAQs for models
Like the previous reviewer I fail to see where the photographer part comes in apart from the model discussion part and the worked examples.

It is far more for models or agents than photographers. I acknowledge that there seems to be an ethos of photographers also 'managing' models in the US, as per the options on probably the most famous Model site. It just seemed the book was mainly that sort of information and not much use regarding how and what to shoot.

Now I know that a Head and shoulder shot, a full length shot form the basis of a portfolio but what I had been hoping for was guidance on what styles of headshot might prove advantageous to a model in certain situations, and therefore what type of head shots to do for a model.

Great workflow resource
This is not so much a book about photographic technique, (although there are lighting set ups included) rather the photographic workflow of handling a model and building a portfolio. Let's face it, if you can't already handle a camera, this book is too far down the road for you.

One of the most common questions facing any photographer with a good reputation is that of people who approach them with the wish, "I want to be a model!"

Rather than floundering in the seas of never having done this before, this book will give someone new to the model portfolio business the ability to handle the whole process from start to finish.

Let's face it; portrait shooting is well covered in many other books, but what isn't covered is the knowledge of what agencies are looking for and it focusses on what many photographers fail to consider ... the product ... in this case, the potential model.

From my point of view, this holistic book will enable a shooter to be able to take a potential model and get them a head start in the whole process ... ie. a portfolio that is worth shooting.

There are those who will argue that how the model looks, behaves, is dressed, made up, etc. is not the remit of the photographer ... personally I fall in the other catagory that believes that the photographer should have a major hand in the creation of the whole artwork.

Being able to understand the whole business of a portfolio, how it will be used, what agents look for, the key points to focus on and avoid in a portfolio shoot, is crucial for making a good job in the market.