Jason Christopher, LA Commercial & Fashion Photographer Bio

When a fashion model calls me asking to shoot for her model portfolio what does that involve ?  I get this question often and I love to answer my fellow photographer comrades.

ASK QUESTIONS – GAIN INSIGHT – GIVE ANSWERS

The first thing I ask the model is if she is new and has no photos at all or is she a working model and just needs to update her portfolio.  If she tells me that she is  just starting out, doesn’t  have an agency yet and needs to start a portfolio, then I ask her how tall she is, what color hair , measurements etc.   That will lead to her emailing me a couple of snapshots of herself so I can get an idea of what type of modeling she should get into.  If she is 5′ 6″ – 5′ 7″ then I know she is not going in to high fashion.  If she has a beautiful body and great hair and is physically fit then what I would do is:

1. Shoot a beauty shot that emphasizes her beautiful hair and skin.

2. Shoot her in a swimsuit. It can be in studio or on a beach or even the desert.

3. Have her bring a running outfit or a tennis outfit.  Maybe she does yoga.  A fitness shot is important.

4. Shoot  a commercial fashion / Hollister/ Abercrombie type shot.  Commercial fashion is big in Los Angeles and actually it’s big everywhere.  You can’t go wrong with this look.

5. Lingerie is popular and pays good money for a model.   If she doesn’t want to do lingerie then I would change it to something in the look of a catalog “Gap” looking shot.  So that is five different shots.  I shoot in studio and outdoors at a couple different locations that suit the shot.

This is a nice variety of images that show the model in enough situations for the agent to get an idea of where the agency can place her and which castings to send out on.

Now some might not have a home studio and can only shoot outdoors.  That’s ok.  I just shoot both because I have a home studio.  The more variety you can offer the better.  I know what agencies want to see because I have been doing this so long and have seen hundreds and hundreds of model portfolios.

MAKE UP ARTIST

I ALWAYS include a make up/ hair artist and keep the make up simple, not over the top.  Remember that the model is a product to the agency and the agency is selling the product.   When I hold a casting I wanna see what the model looks like and I don’t want to see photos that the photographer has retouched so much that she looks fake.  Do not over do the retouching guys.  Save that for your advertising clients and editorials.

PRINT SIZE

The standard print size for a model portfolio is 9″x12″  Some agencies do use smaller books but the majority use 9″ x 12″ prints.

CLOTHING

As far as clothing is concerned I have the girl bring her own clothes.  I email her examples of the look we will be going for so she can plan.  Always have her bring twice the amount of outfits.  So five looks she should bring ten outfits.  That way I have choices and I can mix and match if need be.

LIGHTING

You DON’T  want to use flat boring lighting, but you also don’t want to light too dramatically either.  Remember as you are going through the day that she is going to try to get an agent and the agent wants to see what she looks like.

Now I want to remind you that this photo HAS NOT been retouched yet and the model did have slight acne, but with the combination of a great make up artist and soft beauty lighting, this image will only need slight retouching.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to light your work so it doesn’t have to go through hours of retouching.  It only creates a bigger budget for the client no matter how small or large the client is.

To sum up, when you get the call to shoot a model portfolio you want to:

1. Ask questions – gain insight – give answers

2. Shoot five different looks.

3. Shoot in studio (if you can) and shoot on location

4. Include a make up/ hair artist

5. Use clean flattering lighting.

Talk to your model during the whole shoot.  Direct the model especially if she is new and never shot before.  You need to help her feel confident and sexy.  You are the one person she is counting on to make her shots great and that those shots get her an agent !

Now get out there and shoot shoot shoot !  Ask me anything you would like and share with everyone ! 

So this is the lighting diagram I promised to show you for this image of our model laying back on the log.

Photo that demonstrates lighting for photo shoot on the beach

This is a lighting diagram of my lighting

So as I said in a previous post I was right under the soft box and sometimes I was standing with my legs really wide to capture her at the perfect angle.  The soft box was roughly 8 feet up on a C-stand and tilted up so I didn’t blow out the log and also to throw some light on the beach sand in the background.

So as you can see a one light set up is all that was needed.  Pretty friggin easy.

My recent fashion swimsuit photography shoot at the beach was amazing.  I happened to get my hands on some behind the scenes photos taken with a cheap point and shoot but they give you the idea.   Now when I say we had a 100 foot RV I didn’t measure it but as you can see it was damn long !  We had the art directors, model, make up and hair artists, crew etc. all fit in quite nicely.  When shooting on location where you know it will be uncomfortable for the models, your crew and everyone you really need to rent an RV.   A well fed and warm crew is a happy crew !  In one of the photos you see me standing there with a stand in while the model stayed warm in the RV.   Unfortunately no one took any photos of me shooting        LOL  the story of my life.

RV used for our night photo shoot

Art Directors for the photo shoot

fashion model getting her make up applied

When planning a photo shoot the art director and photographer will make a story board of each scene to be shot.  In this story board you see a photo of the location, the swimsuits that the model will wear and the accessories such as jewelry.  Everything is planned out days before the photo shoot so everyone knows exactly what is going to happen.  You end up with a photo shoot that runs smooth with hopefully very little problems.

storyboard for night swimwear photo shoot

Then when it comes time to set up the lighting you need to have a stand in.  A stand in is very helpful because you can get your light set up pretty close to perfect while the model is getting her make up changed and changing clothes.

Stand in used for setting up the lighting

Just remember the more prepared you are the smoother your photo shoot will go.  The end result is a very pleased client that will call you back for another photo shoot.  If you like this post and think other photographers or anyone else associated with the photography business would find this helpful please click on the share buttons

This is another photo from our late night fashion swimsuit shoot.  This time I only used the one 4′x6′ soft box in a horizontal position about 5 feet from the model.  But this time I tilted it up so that the log wouldn’t be so bright and what that also did was throw some light on the background sand.  I could have used a black cutter set under the box to block out some of the light but I didn’t have one lol.  My camera settings were ISO 200 , 1/80th @ f/10.  I used my Canon 28-70mm 2.8 L series lens and shot it at 30mm.  This means I was very close to the model and zoomed out wide.  I did this because I wanted to include more of the scene.  Remember, the longer the lens you use the more narrow your field of view is.  Of course the opposite is true with a wide lens.  Oh and I was sitting under the soft box.  I’ll make a diagram and post that.