Types of Trade Shoots

There are different types of trade shoots.

Different photographers use different terms for the non-paying shoots that they do. You'll hear trade, test, tfp, tfcd, and portfolio shoots. They're used interchangeably, but they aren't all the same.


Trade Shoot

The broad category is trade shoots. (The term is sometimes confused with shooting for trade publications that cover fashion, which is a type of editorial work, or shooting for the trade, which is a type of commercial work, shooting for designers and manufacturers.)

Trade shoots are basically just that. A model and a photography trade their time for the other's. There are various types.


TFP

The most common term used is "tfp", which used to stand for "time for prints", but now, with most images being delivered digitally, it generally means "time for photos". Another term that's increasingly being used is "tfcd" for "time for CD".

While many photographers use the terms "test shooting" and "tfp" interchangeably, they have somewhat different connotations.  Many photographers use the term "test shoot" because it does have a better connotation than a "tfp" shoot, even though what they're suggesting is just getting out to shoot. They're not really testing for anything. They're simply taking pictures. The results have little bearing on anything else.


Test Shoots

One reason that test shoots do have a better connotation is that that's a term used by agencies for the shoots they line up for models. (That, in itself, presents problems that unscrupulous operators use to fleece models... but more on that later.)

Test shoots generally do have consequences. There are general test shoots, which basically just mean that a photographer wants to shoot with a model to see if he wants to use them for an upcoming project or assignment. Or he may want to show a potential client a series of photographs similar to the type of assignment he’s going after. In that case, he’s “testing” to see if he can actually do that type of work, rather than testing the model.

Agency tests are even more important. They're used to determine what models they want to sign, and they're used by clients to determine which models they might want to hire. They're much more elaborate than simply taking a model to a local park and putting her against a tree to get a few shots. Real test shoots are generally "team" concepts. In other words, they almost always have a make-up artist and frequently a hair style and wardrobe coordinator on set.

While I do occasionally hire models that I've shot on a trade basis before, one reason that I generally don't usually use the term "test shoot" is because I don't want to give the impression that the main reason we're going to be working together is to see if I'll hire her. The main reason I do test shoots is to see if the model is somebody that I want to work with on projects or for generating images for my stock library, which might involve additional trade shoots to both work on my concept and help a model develop her portfolio, or it might involve hiring the model for a specific concept that I'm working on.


Project Shoots

Another type of trade shoot is the project shoot. These could be short term or long term projects, but they generally involve working on a specific concept with one or more models over multiple shooting sessions. It might be something as simple as shooting a poster series or a calendar, or it might be something as involved as producing a complete gallery show or coffee table book.

For project shoots, there generally has to be a real creative, collaborative, connection between the model and photographer, more so than with any other type of trade shoot. If a model is interested in really building her portfolio, these types of shoots work very well. Another advantage is that there’s a greater possibility of actually getting prints from them, particularly if these are art projects.


Stock

Increasingly, photographers are doing trade shoots to add to their stock image collections. Almost everybody with a cell phone camera is trying to sell, or at least distribute, their pictures online, which has driven stock prices down to bare bones. That has fostered the development of a category called microstock. Unfortunately, rather than paying the traditional 50 percent on payments of $125 to $250 per image, on line sites that market microstock provide around 20 to 25 percent of a few dollars per image to the photographers who take the pictures. That means budgets for microstock are very low. So increasingly, photographers are turning to trade shoots to generate stock.



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