modeling

What Makes a Great Model? Things to Look for as a Photographer

When casting a model, several factors are at play. Some cast models based on how they look, others cast them based on who they know. But, what is a good model? Are there traits that good models share? Here are some that I have noticed.

Photographer Speaks Out About ‘The Dark Side of Modeling’

After the recent allegations of harassment and assault against celebrity photographer Marcus Hyde, fashion photographer Jessica Kobeissi decided to use her platform on YouTube to speak out against what she's calling "the dark side of modeling" and share some of the horrifying stories she's heard from models she works with.

6 Tips for Photographers from a Vogue Model

I’ve been working as a model for over four years now, which I love, but there’s plenty of room for improvement in the way that models are treated in the industry and I feel like this is a good place to start. I love collaborating with photographers on creative shoots and editorials, and mostly I find the people that I work with respectful and kind, but there’s always the one or two who aren't!

How to Pose Your Friends Like Models

If you've ever asked your friends to pose for a photo shoot before, you may have found that it can be difficult achieving high-quality poses when your subject doesn't have modeling experience. In this 5-minute video, photographer Sheldon Evans shares solid tips for how to overcome this hurdle.

How to Contact and Book a Model for a Photo Shoot

Whether you've been shooting for five minutes or five years, there will likely come a time when you'll have to book a shoot with another person. Maybe it will be a friend or coworker and maybe it will be a full-time professional model.

The Modeling Industry: What Photographers Need to Know

I think it's fair to say that most photographers will, at some point in their career, have to work with models at least once—whether you're a still life shooter that photographs models' hands holding a fork full of food a couple of times a year or an e-commerce shooter that works with models every single day.

Working with Models: A Beginner’s Guide

Running a shoot from start to finish can be pretty demanding—working with creative staff, managing your camera, adjusting settings, directing, and ensuring that everything is going smoothly. It can be pretty daunting with the prospect of trying to handle all of this right?

Models, Beware the Warning Signs of Creepy ‘Photographers’

For the second time in as many months somebody has tried to use my images to lie to models about their photography. Because of this deception, it's certainly no giant leap to accuse these individuals of ill intent, especially if they are actively lying to models in their first messages of contact.

Stock in Trade, or: Why It’s Important to Read Photo Modeling Contracts

As photographers in the United States, we hold the majority of power when it comes to our images. We automatically own the copyright to all photos we take, we are the ones who register our photos with the U.S. Copyright office, and we are the ones who license our images to clients, publications, and even the models in the photos.

That copyright, in addition to the model releases we obtain from our photographic subjects, allows us to have a substantial amount of control over what we can do with those photos. This can sometimes create a moral ambiguity as to how we decide to publish those photos, blurring the lines between what is right and what is ethical.

Convict’s Viral ‘Sexy’ Mugshot Scores Him a $30,000 Modeling Contract

It pays to have a mugshot photographer who knows their lighting. Jeremy Meeks, the 30-year-old alleged criminal whose 'sexy' mugshot took the Internet by storm sparking Twitter movements and Facebook Pages dedicated to his beautiful bone structure, has apparently signed a $30K modeling contract with Blaze Models in LA.

We Are Unlike You is a Modeling Agency that Looks for Characters, Not Models

When the term model is thrown around, there's a fairly typical image that probably comes to mind for most people. In the male department, six-pack abs or a clean-cut look might fit the bill. And the female department more often than not involves the descriptors tall and slender.

Modeling agency We Are Unlike You isn't interested in any of that. Like the UGLY MODELS agency we shared with you a little over a year ago, they are more interested in representing unique "characters."

Dear Model: Posing Tips for How to Look Your Best in Photographs

Dear (new’ish) Model,

My name is Other Model. I have spent the last couple of years finding out a few things that I wish I’d known from the start. Please don’t think I’m patronising as I mean this only in goodwill, as there is absolutely no gain for me by sharing these cheats. Not all of my points will be valid for you as posing varies in each genre. Just take what you can and ignore the rest. If only one suggestion helps your future career then my time has been well spent…

Exploring the World of Color Theory with a 3D Modeling Program

From time to time I post plots of color gamuts like the one above. Each time, I get emails asking how I make them, leading me to assume that the world's thirst for color nerdiness is going unquenched. I'm setting out to fix that in this post.

Olympian Becomes First Woman to Sign an Exclusively-Male Modeling Contract

Artist, swimmer and former Olympian Casey Legler is in the process of adding another line to her resume: male model. As a model for Ford Models, Legler is making headlines over the fact that she models only men's clothing for the agency. In fact, to her knowledge, she is the first woman to ever sign an exclusively-male modeling contract.

Viral Photos of a 72-Year-Old Grandfather Modeling Women’s Clothing

Product photos for clothing lines typically feature generic, attractive models, since the point of the images is to make the clothes accessible and desirable to consumers. Yuekou, an online clothing store in China, has found great success by using a different approach: its photos for teen girl outfits feature a 72-year-old man.