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The wise girl’s guide to modeling

If you search for books on modeling you will find very little, and certainly almost none written by active models, so seeing that gap in the market, I decided to write “The wise girl’s guide to modelling” based on my own recent experiences. Every day, hundreds of wannabe models put up profiles on modeling sites. Most have been encouraged by friends and family who’ve often said “You should be a model,” and most think that the work will flood in. But it’s not that easy. In the first few days, they are besieged with offers of work in exchange for images, and often persuaded that this is the only way they are going to build up a portfolio, and thus get paid work, but within a couple of months, most have given up. The paid work just doesn’t materialize because what the new model doesn’t realize is that modeling is about much more than just having a pretty face and a shapely figure. It requires a set of intrinsic skills which need to be acquired and practiced, and the freelance model also needs to learn how to market herself.

Fawna Latrisch
Model: Fawna Latrisch

My book is already a best-seller, and is highly rated on both the UK and US Amazon sites. I’m nineteen, have been modeling for two years, and am very successful. I do over three hundred paid shoots a year and have traveled to shoots all over Europe (I’m based in the UK).

It aims to cover all the main issues facing a new model, including: What kind of modeling should a new model do, choosing a modeling website, what to put in a profile and how to manage it, TFP/TFCD/Collaboration, how to arrange and prepare for a shoot, how to conduct oneself at a shoot, how to pose, shooting at home and away, chaperones, types of photographers, what to do after a shoot, applying to agencies, and constructing a personal website.

Much to my surprise, the book is proving even more popular with photographers than with models, and most of the feedback on the Amazon site has been written by experienced photographers who have found the book useful.

I’ve just signed a contract with a publisher to bring out a bigger version next year, so I’m hoping that both models and photographers who read the book will write to me with suggestions for additional content.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be providing excerpts from my book. Here’s the first part.

What do you put in your profile?

Don’t lie about your stats: Each website has its own lay-out for uploading your profile which enables you to put in basic information like your age and measurements. It’s VITAL that you don’t lie about your measurements because if you turn up to a shoot and the  photographer was expecting you to be 5’6” and size 6, but you’re 5’2” and size 12, he will  rightly show you the door. Mention any tattoos and piercings – some photographers hate them, but they are fine for things like alternative and fetish shoots. Also declare any large scars or birth marks you might have. Telling the truth at the outset might lose you some work, but concealing the truth certainly will. Mention also the levels (topless, art nude, etc.) you are comfortable doing.

Check your spelling and grammar

There is also usually space for you to say a little more about yourself. Take your time with this. Put yourself in the position of someone reading it, and try to see how you come across. Make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes – you don’t want to appear thick or uneducated. If you’re not quite sure what to say, look at some other profiles. On mine, I stress that I am professional in attitude – punctual, efficient, hard-working, etc., and that I try to give good value for money. This is what someone who is going to pay you money wants to know. They won’t book you if they think you are sloppy and disorganized.

Quote your rates

You might wish to mention your rates, and whether you give discounts for half or whole days – most models do – so decide what you want to charge for each level. Again, look around to see what others are charging. You can see my rates if you go to my website: www.fawnalatrisch.co.uk. Mention, also, whether you would expect to get traveling expenses for away shoots.

Take some truthful photos

Most important of all is to upload some good photos, because no one will look at a profile which doesn’t have them. To start with, it doesn’t matter how technically good the photos are – with the help of a friend and a decent camera, or even using a mirror for a self-portrait, but make sure they show your face clearly from front and side views, and also several different views of your figure.

Keep the camera low

If a friend is taking your photos, tell them to take full length photos from waist height or lower because this shows your body in proper proportion. (If a tall friend takes a photo of you looking downwards, it will make you look very short!) It’s good to have a headshot or two, and a full length in a bikini or lingerie, even if you only want to shoot fashion, because a photographer wants to see your true body shape before booking. It can also help to establish which styles of clothing suit your body shape. Once you’ve had a few shoots, you can start to add better photos. If you do any “collaboration” or “TF” shoots, the photographers should give you a selection of fully-finished photos. Even for paid shoots, most photographers are happy to hand over a few, but make sure you give credit to the photographer when you upload the photos onto your profile.

What happens after you put a profile on a modeling website?             

Don’t just sit back: Within minutes of putting up your first profile, you will almost certainly get a lot of messages… to start with. But they soon die away unless you are serious about wanting to model, and have a business-like manner. It’s no good just expecting the work to come to you – it won’t. Being a model involves a LOT of hard work. Looking good is just a starting point – you also need good computer skills, to be well-organized, literate, hard-working, punctual, full of energy, and ambitious. If you don’t have those qualities, then you might as well give up before you start, because modeling is fiercely competitive. Only a tiny fraction of new models who arrive on the websites are still doing it six months down the line.

How to manage your profile                

Be pro-active: You really need to check your profile every single day, maybe even many times a day if possible. Photographers will soon lose interest in you if you don’t reply promptly. You need to be proactive. All the sites have several means of communication, other than messages. These include friendship requests, photo comments, listings, tagging, and followings, and you usually get notification by email when someone has communicated in this way. I ALWAYS respond to these, even though they are not direct forms of communication. If someone comments on one of my photos, lists it, asks me to be a friend, or adds me to a list of profiles they are “following,” I write immediately to the photographers, thanking them for their interest, and asking if they would like to book a shoot. It’s called marketing yourself. It’s not exactly cold-calling, because they made the initial move, but it’s the way to generate business. More often than not, they will reply, saying they’d like to book you, or will book you when they have the cash, or are next in your area. It’s how I get most of my work.

Finding work

Another way of getting people interested is to post casting calls, travel and availability notices. These are ads, telling people you are available on a certain date or time, and saying what you are offering, and for how much. These ads arrive in the email boxes of photographers who may not have noticed you before, so they draw attention to your profile.

If you’ve enjoyed this excerpt, please do buy the whole book. It’s only £2.05/$3.00, about the price of a coffee, and is tax deductible!

Fawna Latrisch

Fawna is a UK based professional model. She has been published internationally and worked in many countries, including Portugal, Spain, France, Isle of Man, Thailand, Mauritius and Madagascar. Fawna studied fashion and makeup and is now pursuing a photography degree. Her first book, "The wise girl's guide to modelling," is on sale now. www.fawnalatrisch.co.uk.

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31 Responses to “The wise girl’s guide to modeling”

  1. April 06, 2013 at 2:30 pm, STEFAN said:

    One correction for you though on pictures .. “tell them to take full length photos from waist height or lower because this shows your body in proper proportion. ” … that’s partly incorrect, you will end up with a stretched body in the other direction if you shoot too low. Shoot with a 50mm lens and shoot from the waist for full length. You get the same problem shooting too low as you do shooting high, small head and long legs. But many use this trick to reverse the problem of a big head and short legs lol … cheers. You’ll learn that in your ‘photography’ class.

    Reply

    • May 31, 2013 at 3:19 am, Guest said:

      STEFAN well I’m sure you have a disproportionally big head don’t you. Distortion on the legs to make them look longer is flattering and not a problem.

      Reply

  2. March 26, 2013 at 2:49 am, ankita said:

    So many books on the subjects are available.Try Monica Mayhem’s book for instance.

    Reply

  3. March 25, 2013 at 11:46 am, Known Universe said:

    Just a clarification on one of the things you wrote in your e-Book, Fawna — you mention PurplePort as an up-and-coming website for models, photogs, etc., but it should be noted that it’s UK-centric; I tried using its search function just as a test to see whether it listed anyone within 500 miles of the Calgary, Alberta, Canada area, and the results list came up totally empty.

    Looks like a nice site, though, and there’s certainly a lot of quality work displayed there; I have no idea whether the site founders have any plans to take PP across the pond, so to speak. If so, there’ll be a lot of competition from MM, One Model Place, etc.

    Reply

  4. March 24, 2013 at 8:51 pm, Allysha Coleman said:

    Great job! Congradulations on your success…. And thank you that was very helpful!!!

    Reply

  5. March 24, 2013 at 8:40 pm, kinda blurry said:

    Good tips. A couple more profile suggestions from a photogs point of view.

    Don’t tick ‘Very Experienced’ if your portfolio is full of bad selfies. You won’t fool anyone. Be modest about your experience. Let your portfolio tell the story and if it’s a paid shoot you may be asked to detail that experience and back it up.

    Don’t tick ‘No Nudes’ and then completely fill your portfolio with nudes or racy implied-nudes. You’re only going to attract invitations from people you may rather didn’t call. You may be proud of those pics, but perhaps sprinkle just a few suggestive shots amongst the wider selection to show your versatility, unless you really want to go down that path.

    Reply

    • March 25, 2013 at 12:04 am, Guest said:

      I only tell the truth. Over 300 paid shoots a year is very experienced. I don’t tick ‘no nudes’.

      Reply

  6. March 24, 2013 at 6:34 pm, chris said:

    Wise girls guide ‘ bs ‘about your age, the op is 21 on Purestorm site.

    Reply

    • March 25, 2013 at 12:06 am, Guest said:

      I am 19. PS has it wrong.

      Reply

      • March 25, 2013 at 3:34 pm, Guest said:

        I can’t account for people who publish my photos. Stop mischief-making!

        Reply

  7. March 23, 2013 at 11:56 am, Kiki said:

    Thank you so much for this. It has helped a lot. I have picked up on some of the same things as you have.

    I am glad I am not the only one who see modeling as more than a pretty face and nice body.

    Reply

  8. March 23, 2013 at 3:24 am, Steve said:

    Over 300 paid shoots a year! Wow, thats amazing, when do you get time to put on your makeup? 🙂

    Reply

    • March 24, 2013 at 10:28 am, Guest said:

      334 last year. It sounds a lot but there are 365 days in the year, and I often do two shoots in a day, so there’s room for many more. This week I’m on tour in North West England, and doing ten in five days. Make-up and dressing takes an hour before each shoot

      Reply

    • March 25, 2013 at 10:47 am, Impressed said:

      I would expect a lot of variety in the portfolio, but I guess that kind of schedule requires you go to sleep wearing your makeup. Thank goodness for “repeat” customers shooting private work!

      Reply

  9. March 22, 2013 at 9:12 am, Keith Manly said:

    I look forward to the next book: “The Wise Guy Guide to Modeling,” particularily how to combime a Hit with a “shoot.”

    Reply

  10. March 22, 2013 at 7:09 am, DarianCade said:

    I’m nineteen as well but I’ve only been modeling now for a month or so. I’ll have to look in to this book, eh?

    Reply

  11. March 21, 2013 at 11:22 am, Advertising agent said:

    Self-promoting much? Nevertheless, although everything listed is plain commonsense in the world on non-agency modeling, it does not hurt to have people repeat it.

    Reply

    • March 21, 2013 at 5:43 pm, Known Universe said:

      Where I come from, it’s called “tie-in marketing,” and it’s smart. She’s making a living doing what she loves, and she’s good at it. I don’t know of too many 19-year-olds who can say that, actually. More power to her.

      Reply

      • March 26, 2013 at 12:37 pm, known universe said:

        Regardless of whether most of her work involves showing her naughty bits, kudos for using this feature to market your book!

        Reply

      • March 26, 2013 at 12:41 pm, Wiseguy said:

        regardless of whether she is using this to market her book. Kudos for making money by showing your naughty bits. Most girls would benefit from knowing that going that route is wise 😀

        Reply

  12. March 21, 2013 at 11:09 am, Stephen Woo said:

    Fawna, I am a experienced photographer in US but new on MM. I’m very impressed with your excerpt. You may be 19, but you write and share your wisdom like 91 🙂 There is a Chinese saying about, when complementing someone’s wisdom and experience, “you have eaten more salt than I have eaten rice.” Usually it’s meant to convey years of experience and knowledge. I think every model and every photographer should get your book! You are very wise indeed. Congrats on a successful career so far, I wish you the best. If you are ever at US San Francisco area, you know that you can count on a shoot with me 🙂

    Reply

    • May 13, 2013 at 1:06 pm, Jalwa Khan said:

      sir i want to become a model. please help me please

      Reply

  13. March 21, 2013 at 2:04 am, Dougie said:

    Fawna… well done you! Good Luck with the book. We do still need to get that shoot booked lol Dx

    Reply

  14. March 20, 2013 at 11:32 pm, $18263862 said:

    Great article, Fawna ! And good luck with your book !

    Reply

  15. March 20, 2013 at 2:26 pm, robeo said:

    Lot’s of photographer bashing in the book.

    Reply

    • March 20, 2013 at 7:12 pm, Known Universe said:

      I didn’t think so — photogs that needed bashing got it, others not. It doesn’t help matters that most of the photogs are male and most of the models are female — the gender differences tend to amplify the complaints that each group has about the other. Nevertheless, Fawna pointed out that a particularly egregious exchange she had was with a *female* photog. There’s no shortage of boors in the world, unfortunately…

      Reply

    • March 21, 2013 at 4:42 am, Guest said:

      I am also a photographer and studying a degree in it so I don’t think that statement is valid.

      Reply

      • March 21, 2013 at 11:13 pm, modelbabe said:

        a degree in what?

        Reply

        • March 22, 2013 at 1:56 am, Fawna said:

          A degree in Contemporary Photography.
          Maybe I ought to clarify my remark because the person who accused me of photographer-bashing here, has given me an unfavourable review on Amazon, calling me unprofessional and inexperienced for ranting about photographers. He hasn’t read the book carefully enough. I actually say that 99% of photographers I have worked with are charming, professional, delightful people. What I then go on to describe are the scammers, fakes and sex pests who masquerade as photographers, and give the profession a bad name. We should all be joining forces to get rid of these people.

          Reply

          • April 05, 2013 at 9:26 pm, guest said:

            Did you also mention the scamming, faking models?

          • May 13, 2013 at 1:07 pm, Jalwa Khan said:

            sir but your best to help me. i will obey your complete orders. i will become a great model for u. if u help me please

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