Today’s Post by Blue Moon Staff
“The secret to modeling is not being perfect. What one needs is a face that people can identify in a second. You have to be given what’s needed by nature, and what’s needed is to bring something new.” ―
One question that I’m repeatedly asked during glamour photography workshops is: Are Modeling Websites worth the time and money? The answer is yes and a no.
Yes, they are. If you are willing to pay the models and sites.
That is not to say you can’t find glamour models on these sites; you can if you’re willing to pay—bigly. Even inexperienced models that have portfolios filled with cell phone selfies are asking for a payment of $100/hour. Other, more experienced models charge similar and higher hourly rates, so there’s that. If you have the money—and I don’t—you may be able to find models on these sites.
And that goes for the fees that these sites charge too but I got tired of giving these companies my money for nothing. That’s why I changed my paid, premium VIP membership to the basic free account and update some of the images from time to time, just in case…
No they’re not. There’s no value for the time and effort.
My real world experience with these sites over the past several years is that they have turned into a marketplace of models more interested in the quantity of money they can make than the quality of the images they get from a photographer.
In the economy that we find ourselves in these days, you have to do what you gotta do to make a buck, so I understand at least somewhat.
Based on my recent unsuccessful experience trying to find Colorado-based models for a client, even with the client offering a $200/hour rate, we were unable to find a sufficient number of models for the project. For my personal projects, I’ve been researching local models as I write this post, and sending e-mails asking if they would be interested in a TF shoot. In the pat months, I have sent out thirteen emails asking if any of these models would be interested in shooting together and as of today, I have received no responses.
How I made this shot:
Although she is on that same modeling website that I’ve complained about, I didn’t find famous Internet model Maria Cedar there. Even though Maria lives 520 miles away in Utah, I found her and made contact through a combination of mutual acquaintances and her social media presence.
I photographed Maria in the living room of my home during our third shoot together using only available light. The camera used was an entry-level Olympus E-M10 Mark I with the fabulous Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens and an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/2.3 and ISO 400 with an exposure compensation of plus one-third stop. The image was retouched using Imagenomic Portraiture and tweaked in Color Efex using the Glamour Glow filter.
