Eliza C  new portfolio wrote:
I smoke often eat badly and party.
I don't have acne.

Usually acne afflicts younger models and I know young models who do all the right things and still get the problem. I have even worked with young models fron agencies this can affect. Because confidence is everything in modelling nobody in professional circumstances draw attention to it and make up artists use concealer.

Photographers have to be aware we sometimes get spots and it isn't because of lifestyle it's to do with hormones. I get them occasionally with monthlies even when I've been looking after myself.

This kind of attitude we have to be perfect all the time I wonder if it causes girls to flake after an acne outbreak reading such posts as this.

+1,000

If a model were arranging a shoot with the OP and did some research on MM I could easily imagine her cancelling last-minute because she got a pimple. Doesn't matter if she doesn't have "permanent acne"; the opinions expressed would be enough to scare away anyone with less-than-perfect skin, not to mention plenty of models with perfect skin who don't want to work with the kind of person who would author the original post.

Chris Santucci wrote:

In my world, people who make and live by excuses don't get hired.

Correct!

When advised to get un-retouched pictures in advance you have given the repeated excuse of "too busy organising" to have checked the model looks like her pics.

If you throw enough shite about, some will eventually stick.

Let the child actor in the short video below demonstrate how models may be viewing this thread!

http://youtu.be/v4jFqDGXjtk

Natalia_Taffarel wrote:
Btw... I read some of the answers...

Why are people defending a skin problem?

If you're a model, your body, your hair, your skin is an important part of your service.

I don't blame the model showing up, but the photographer using and paying her.

If you're shooting portraiture or beauty you can't have acne.

One or two pimples, could work, but the OP doesn't sound like one or two pimples.

It wasn't his objection to models with acne that provoked the responses, it was his inability to accept responsibility for his faulty casting and then turning around and placing the blame on the models. He also decided to make a moral issue out of it by speculating that smoking, partying, and eating crappy food were the main culprits of acne, a theory which others on this thread tried to make clear to him wasn't the case. To no avail, of course.

Kelleth wrote:
While I agree that models are expected to have great skin (and I myself am quite fortunate in that department), understand that acne is not necessarily indicative of someone "not taking care of themself". Sometimes it is a genetic or hormonal issue. It even happens sometimes to people with great skincare routines, who drink a ton of water, eat immaculately, and get a lot of sleep. Also, modelling itself is the perfect environment for causing acne. You are constantly having new products applied to your face and camera makeup is extremely heavy compared to makeup you might wear out in daily life.

It's perfectly reasonable to ask for recent (or even same day) unretouched no makeup digitals to prevent booking someone with bad skin.

I have seen unexpected breakouts happen, right in front of my eyes, because of the perfume in the hotel soap.   You just roll with it and do the retouching, imo. 

Plenty of  models have bad complexions, it is all about the makeup and post processing.  Brad Pitt comes to mind as someone who has bad acne scars.

FredSugar wrote:
I have seen unexpected breakouts happen, right in front of my eyes, because of the perfume in the hotel soap.   You just roll with it and do the retouching, imo.

And if you want to shoot outdoors there are all sorts of unexpected flaws you will probably have to deal with at some point. Shit happens

JadeDRed wrote:

And if you want to shoot outdoors there are all sorts of unexpected flaws you will probably have to deal with at some point. Shit happens

I couldn't model my legs for six months after several hundred mosquito bites in Greenland. The scars eventually went. I've had them on my face during a shoot too.

Also of course have others have said the constant trowelling on an removal of heavy make up can leave it's toll on sensitive skin.

I have also seen models have allergic reactions to make up.

Chris Santucci wrote:

I've never ever heard of asking a model for "unretouched, makeup-free photos" prior to a booking. When would such a thing take place? A week before? A day before? If a model markets themselves as a model, then one should assume that they don't have permanent acne, right? See where I'm going with this?

Somehow this statement doesn't make sense to me (bolded). Mainly because you seem to have a good amount of experience as a commercial photographer. Asking an agency for current, unretouched makeup free photos (polaroids or these days 'digitals') of models that are being considered for a casting has been standard practice for as long as I've been shooting commercially (30 yrs).

Mac Intosh wrote:
Somehow this statement doesn't make sense to me (bolded). Mainly because you seem to have a good amount of experience as a commercial photographer. Asking an agency for current, unretouched makeup free photos (polaroids or these days 'digitals') of models that are being considered for a casting has been standard practice for as long as I've been shooting commercially (30 yrs).

Yes it's normal in all kinds of castings to provide Polaroids without make up. Even life modelling and acting jobs ask for current polaroids. Not for spots as such - more for how you may look naturally, complexion, what current hairstyle you have, bone structure etc. But if the acne was severe as the op said it could have been avoided.

Natalia_Taffarel wrote:
Btw... I read some of the answers...

Why are people defending a skin problem?

If you have to ask that question, you either didn't actually read the answers or you don't speak English.

Danielle Reid wrote:
I think acne on the ass is worse. Try spending 2 hours clearing bumps from the humps.

God that is hilarious !!! And you are so right.

Eliza C  new portfolio wrote:

I couldn't model my legs for six months after several hundred mosquito bites in Greenland. The scars eventually went. I've had them on my face during a shoot too.

Also of course have others have said the constant trowelling on an removal of heavy make up can leave it's toll on sensitive skin.

I have also seen models have allergic reactions to make up.

Those are tough mosquitoes.  I didn't think that they were around in cold weather.  I had several hundred mosquito bites myself last July when I was in the woods of northern Michigan.   

Springfield Fotografiya wrote:
On a more constructive note, dermatologist recommended soaps include CeraVe, Cetaphil, and Dove.

WebMD recommends eating plenty of fruits and vegetables for good skin health, especially those with beta-carotene and vitamins C, E, and A.  Lycopene is also beneficial so it's recommended to add some tomatoes to stir-fried vegetables.  Omega-3's are also helpful so it's good to include foods like salmon, sardines, eggs, and walnuts.

Like others have said, acne and other skin problems are not always due to diet or lifestyle choices.  But I think all photographers and models are in favor of healthy skin so adding more of foods like those mentioned above to a diet and wearing sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 every day are good ideas according to WebMD.

no dermatologist recommends soap of any kind. Soap free cleansers only, cetaphil is often recommended, dove would never be, the chemicals needed to form a bar of soap would be aggravating to acne. If a dermatologist is recommending a lye based soap that is blended  with moisturizer (Dove) to an acne patient, find another dermatologist.

I took a quick look atweb md and found little dietary advice perhaps I didn't read the same section. It went into great detail about proven effective things like retinoids and BPO, most legitimate researchers will state that no dietary correlation between acne has ever been proven or demonstrated. While the advice you have given may be great from a general health standpoint, but little correlation to acne, although many try to make a correlation to sell books.

Having had acne my entire life and finally finding control with prescription retinoids, I can attest that I can be acne free for literally months and have a flare up at a moments notice, even at my age.

Chris Santucci wrote:
If you promote and market yourself as a model and you are getting *paid*, then you treat it as a profession and act accordingly. Otherwise, you're wasting people's time and you need to stop modeling.

Everything here is dead WRONG in regards to MM
You seem to completely misunderstand how things work here

Natalia_Taffarel wrote:
Btw... I read some of the answers...

Why are people defending a skin problem?

I think what you may be perceiving as "defending a skin problem" is actually:

a) Acknowledging that virtually everyone, even professional models, has skin problems,

b) Acknowledging that the causes of those skin problems are neither necessarily known nor controllable,

c) Stating that the purpose of the casting process is to find models who fit your specific requirements, and

d) Recommending that one take control of the casting process, rather than assuming that specific requirements are met by all models.

Strength Studios wrote:
no dermatologist recommends soap of any kind. Soap free cleansers only, cetaphil is often recommended, dove would never be, the chemicals needed to form a bar of soap would be aggravating to acne. If a dermatologist is recommending a lye based soap that is blended  with moisturizer (Dove) to an acne patient, find another dermatologist.

I took a quick look atweb md and found little dietary advice perhaps I didn't read the same section. It went into great detail about proven effective things like retinoids and BPO, most legitimate researchers will state that no dietary correlation between acne has ever been proven or demonstrated. While the advice you have given may be great from a general health standpoint, but little correlation to acne, although many try to make a correlation to sell books.

Having had acne my entire life and finally finding control with prescription retinoids, I can attest that I can be acne free for literally months and have a flare up at a moments notice, even at my age.

To clarify, I was referring to healthy skin in general and not acne in particular.  There had been discussion of the desirability of healthy skin as well as the specific problem of acne.  I don't know much of anything about acne so I didn't comment on it, but I appreciate your helpful information.  Here's the page I was referring to:

http://www.webmd.com/beauty/face/skin-nutrition

Chris Santucci wrote:
As a photographer, I maintain myself, my eyes..., so is it too much to ask that a model maintain themselves also? Eat healthy, drink enough water, curtail smoking, get enough sleep, etc?

Well, maybe you should start doing self portraits. Or learn some practical ways to vet models.

Or you can keep placing the onus of responsibility on them.

Your choice.

Chris Santucci wrote:
Is it too much to expect that a model (even a semi-pro or amateur model) take care of themselves? OK, so you're in your early 20's and you like to party, and smoke, and eat garbage, fine. But it's a little, dare I say - unprofessional to say the least if you expect to show up and work with bumps all over your face.

I'm in the middle of having to retouch acne on a few dozen images of a model I paid good money to and I'm not talking about a blemish, I'm talking about acne. And from what I can tell, this acne is more than likely a result of the above named causes (and this isn't worthy of a debate here.)

And this isn't the first time in the recent past I've had to deal with acne.

As a photographer, I maintain myself, my eyes, and my gear, so is it too much to ask that a model maintain themselves also? Eat healthy, drink enough water, curtail smoking, get enough sleep, etc?

I can't possibly be expecting too much here in that regard, right?

I agree with you!

In the past, I've had models arrive at my shoots with acne problems. When I looked at their, and photographers', portfolios there was no way of knowing. I decided to place a stipulation addressing this matter on my profile. Since then, I've had to turn away some models due to facial skin complexion issues.

I don't retouch any of my images. As such, the images I take, and post, of models is how they actually appeared when I took the shot. Other photographers don't have to second guess how they look. Some photographers have thanked me for that : )

bmiSTUDIO wrote:
My response is, then perhaps that person is in the wrong business. Too often models expect post production to correct all of the flaws. That's not what modeling is about in my opinion. If I want to be a pro soccer player, but I don't possess all of the attributes that can make me successful, then I have to accept the fact that I need to look for another career.

+1 love this comment. I understand that people do have genetic disadvantages to acne, but ppl also have genetic disadvantages like not having a particular body size or height that makes them unable to perform in certain modeling fields. Photoshop should be used to enhance the models existing feature, not diminish or remove them; a model shouldn't expect endless work to be done to fix their face/body/etc.

Kelleth wrote:
While I agree that models are expected to have great skin (and I myself am quite fortunate in that department), understand that acne is not necessarily indicative of someone "not taking care of themself". Sometimes it is a genetic or hormonal issue. It even happens sometimes to people with great skincare routines, who drink a ton of water, eat immaculately, and get a lot of sleep. Also, modelling itself is the perfect environment for causing acne. You are constantly having new products applied to your face and camera makeup is extremely heavy compared to makeup you might wear out in daily life.

It's perfectly reasonable to ask for recent (or even same day) unretouched no makeup digitals to prevent booking someone with bad skin.

This.

RacerXPhoto wrote:
OP has unrealistic expectations
Poor casting skills
Flawed hiring practices
You only have yourself to blame here

Another this.

T Smalls Photography wrote:
That's why people hire makeup artists.  Also, I don't think you can tell the causes of acne by looking at a person.

But if you saw it and she wasn't what you expected or wanted, you should have canceled.  Especially since you paid her.

This

angel   emily wrote:


This story blew up awhile ago -- teen model with acne and her MUA skills. 

P.S.  This is what I think of when I think of "acne", not one or two pimples.

Sweet Jesus.......

Skills is right....