I've put this Blog together because questions about testing and trade shooting come up all the time from models just getting into the business. It should help answer many of those questions. It actually serves two purposes. It explains why and how I approach testing and trade shoots, and it covers some of the general accepted practices for testing and doing trade shoots. Hopefully, it will provide a little more insight into how to use them to your advantage.
It can also serve as a guide to models in their professional development. It's a work in progress, and I don't have too much time to work on it. But as it grows, I'll include tips on preparing for shoots, working with photographers, being safe in different types of shooting environments, creating and building a portfolio, developing promotional and marketing material, looking for agencies, and working at the professional level.
Test shooting has a long tradition in photography.
In fact, it's been around almost as long as photography itself. Some of the earliest nudes shot by photographers in the 1830's and 40's were trade shoots. (Even then, photographers asked models to take their clothes off so that they could experiment with photography. More seriously, many of those early model photographs were actually taken by artists who wanted to paint models without having them pose for extended periods of time. Initially, photography wasn't so much looked at as a medium it its own right, but rather as a way to facilitate painting. They could generally get models to pose for them for free for photographic sittings, which were very unique at the time, and might only take two or three hours to get that one shot, but not as easily to pose for an actual artist sitting, which might take days and days.)
Working with models got a boost in the 1890s with the development of roll film. All of a sudden, with the advent of the Kodak box camera, everybody could take pictures, and seemingly everybody did. Photography just exploded around the turn of the century. That's when a lot of those warm-toned art model shots were taken.
It really came into its own in the 1930s and 1940's, with the development of "miniuature" cameras (basically 35 mm cameras). It became possible to generate extremely high quality images at very affordable prices. Many of those photographers did their own processing and printing. It was real easy with 35 mm, so there was another expansion of photography, and much of that involved models posing for photographers simply for the fun of being photographed.
That's also when the concept of test shooting really came into its own. Photographers started taking pictures of models for different commercial clients and agencies they were working with.
Digital technology changed the whole process of trade shooting. Doing trade shoots in the days of film was expensive. Buying and processing a roll of 36 exposure E-6 transparency (slide) film cost me about $15. Each time I worked with a model I would shoot six or eight rolls of film, which cost me anywhere from $90 to $120.
Until about eight or ten years ago, high quality digital equipment was too expensive for most people to afford. That too has changed. Now, virtually everybody can afford a good digital camera, and virtually everybody who has one considers themselves a professional photographer. And, since there are no film or processing fees involved, they can shoot as much as they want.
But quantity generally doesn't equal quality. I know some hobbyist photographers who'll shoot models and give them 1000, 1500, even 2000 unedited digital images from a shoot. There may be some nice shots in there, but, in most cases, they'll never be seen. Most models have no idea what to do with that many images. They generally don't know how to select, crop an optimize images, so the images languish on the DVD without ever being used for anything.
Unfortunately, digital technology has, to a certain degree, diluted the quality of the trade shoots. Some photographers are still coming up with excellent work. It doesn't matter in their case if they're shooting film or digital. But the results from way too many trade shoots that photographers do now-a-days are marginal.
(Just as an aside, a lot of professional photographers will provide models with a selection of edited and unedited shots, but they're careful to only provide quality work. Generally, if a photographer provides a massive number of images without any editing or optimization, that's a good sign that he or she is a hobbyist. By doing that, they're saying I like taking pictures, but I'm not all that concerned about the results.)
For Photographers
Still, test and trade shoots remain important. They're used by serious photographers to work on personal projects, experiments with new techniques, try out new equipment, scout interesting locations and, of course, work with new models. They provide the time to work out specific technical, creative and lighting challenges that they might encounter on a commercial or professional assignment, but wouldn't have the time to work out then. They make it possible to take the time to work with and develop models that wouldn't be practical when clients are paying hourly or day rates.
Photographers also us trade shoots to work on personal projects. Many photographers have favorite models that they will work with on an ongoing basis, maybe for a gallery print exhibition or an art book. And some photographers use trade shoots to build their stock image library.
I've been doing trade shoots for more than 40 years now... (yes I'm that old). As mentioned, trade shoots were expensive in the days of film, so I was very selective about who I did trade shoots with, early on.
The introduction and growth of digital photography in the mid 1990's (It actually goes way back before that, to the 1960's in fact, but that's when it started becoming feasible and affordable enough for photographers to actually get into it). Digital cameras, memory cards. computers, scanners and all the other equipment required for serious digital imaging were still very expensive (for example, in the early 1990's, my first 500 MB hard drive cost me $2400, 32 MB of memory on the 386 computer I was using at the time set me back $3200, and my first digital camera, which captured images in black and white at 640 x 480, cost me $1200 in the early 1990's, and I got a good deal on it.
But once those investments had been made, it was possible to shoot as much as I wanted to. So my test shooting increased significatnly. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with an extremely wide range of models.
Because of time constraints, I don't do anywhere near as many trade as I used to, but I will do them with I want to work with new equipment, have some ideas for personal projects or need to add to my stock image library.
For Models
Doing test and trade shoots is also important for models very effective way to build their portfolio, or "book". They make it possible to develop their modeling technique; try new hair, make-up and wardrobe styles, work in different environments than what they’re used to; expand their comfort zones; and work with photographers that they probably couldn't afford to hire.
The more of an opportunity a model has to work in front of a camera, the better she will get. While trade shooting can be time consuming, and, with today's gas prices, expensive, its still a very effective way to not only get the pictures needed for a portfolio, but also develop professionally as a model.
It's also an initial guage as to how successful a model will be. There are just an endlress number of photographers out there who want to take pictures of pretty girls, so just about any model should be able to find someone to do trade shoots. If a model is having difficulty finding photographers to work with her, she's probably going to have even more diffuculty finding clients to hire her on a professional basis.
That's not always the case, since models do develop, become better at their craft and change their appearance. I've see models who had a very difficult time getting started do very well eventually. But in most cases, if you can't get a good photographer to shoot with you, you're going to have problems landing gigs unless there are some significant changes. Some models will hire photographers to shoot (and coach) them. That's a possibility. Remember though, a photographer that's trying to make a sale isn't going to be quite up front about a model's potential.
The question a model needs to ask herself when considering doing a trade shoot is "What's the quality of the images that will result from a trade shoot." It's important to concentrate on shooting with photographers who's work will really benefit you. What a model doesn't want to do is to work with photographers who's work is not up to par, is tacky or classless. Some models who are thinking of working with less than competent photographers rationalize it by saying, "At least I'll get some experience working in front of a camera."
But, working with a photographer who's images aren't going to turn out is not only a waste of time, it can actual hurt a modeling career. It's not like in the days of film, when the photographs taken by a marginal photographer wouldn't be seen by anybody, or, at most, only by people looking at his portfolio. In the digital world, those poor quality images might be placed all over the Web, and they could be floating around for a long time to come, for everyone, including potential clients, to see.
Ideally, if you really want to develop a strong portfolio while at the same time grow as a model, find a photographer that you're really comfortable working together, someone who's not only good at taking pictures but also at bringing the best out of a model, and then do a series of trade shoots. You'll see that each time you work together, the images will be better and better.
Shooting Policy
Almost all photographers and all models do some trade shooting. Even most photographers and most models who have a "No Trade" policy will generally still shoot trades if they really like the work, have a specific concept they want to work on or have a certain look that they want to develop. They just don't want to be flooded with offers for shoots that really aren't going to be beneficial to them.
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