Using the Bright sun as a light source

Tricky outdoor lighting

A new Monthly feature just pointing to some common errors that can occur

One of the main questions we are asked is how to recoup the costs involved in a shoot. There is the cost of hiring a professional model, the studio rental costs, film and your time and then one of the most horrendous, processing costs. (Want to know more about hiring a studio, read Home Studio this month Ed)

So how can you make money? Well when you have been in the game for awhile it comes down to contacts. Finding out who is looking for what, in what style etc. Agencies are the most obvious bet because those in the know are not going to be too keen to let on their secrets and contacts. The agencies generally supply pictures to calendar makers, poster printers, greetings cards, hot car style magazines. Now there is the new breed of lads magazines. The more established ones obviously do the majority of their work in house, but some of the smaller titles I know buy in work, and if they like you, commission work.

At the other end of the scale are men's magazines. Full nude work. Now this doesn't pay terribly well unless you are a regular contributor, so a first submission should be something a little unusual. Selling work this way requires good ideas, there is nothing new, but try and come up with something that lifts your shoot from the others. Also look at the magazines and decide what magazine the model you used best suits.

Finally there is the Internet. A million sites selling sexy pictures and you have the ability to take them. Surely you can make some money here!

OK let's look first at what you are going to do. You are hiring a model and let's suppose you have managed to lie, cheat and canoodle yourself a fantastic location. A dream house beautifully furnished! Now don't look at the shoot as a single opportunity, think what the model you are using is capable of. Firstly think agency cheesecake. Next think glamour calendar, then move your mind on to men's magazine. Yes all with the same model on the same shoot.


Picture 1	Picture 2	Picture 3

The pictures above are wonderful examples of pretty girl in nice surrounding. I can think of lots of weekly magazines that would happily use pics 1 & 2. Agencies love this sort of work. Picture 3 would be acceptable on a calendar in nearly any workplace. Yet what you will be paid if you do sell them will only be recouped in the long term.


Picture 4	Picture 5	Picture 6

Now pictures 4 to 6 show how the same model can be used for men's magazine style work. Obviously the pictures do go even further, but it does show what you can do with one model. Your model should come prepared with several outfits and a selection of accessories. You must think of each shoot you do as several opportunities of income, not just one.

Now I mentioned the Internet as a source of income earlier. There are many, many companies that act like agencies in providing pictures to the web sites that want them. Personal experience has shown that most produce massive amounts of work to differing degrees of quality. It is very hard to sell work to them because their systems and supplies are and have been well established. I am not saying you shouldn't try, but it is a long and arduous process and fine if you have time.

For every single sexual bent there is at least one hundred web sites dedicated to it. Some of these small pay for sites might have only 400 to 500 members paying $20.00 per month each. As you can see 500 X $20.00 is $10,000 per month revenue. These sites also have to keep their content fresh and new to keep their membership. It means hours of surfing and some real surprises, but keep plugging away. Submit a very small selection of your work to the webmaster, (ensure all your pictures are stamped Sample only) keep the file sizes small. Remember the webmaster will not be impressed if he finds 2 or 3 meg of images slowly downloading to his e-mail client. I suggest three samples about 20k each with a letter explaining you provide pictures. The samples should obliviously be on topic for the website you are contacting.

You will send lots of e-mails and will probably receive very, very few replies. Keep going though because when you do hit pay dirt then you will find you may well get commissioned for specific work. Maybe even have the pleasure of working with an art director. :-)

Your customers are not going to come and find you. Like with any business, no matter how good you are you have to punt around, and work to find work. Next month I will explain in greater depth how your submission should look and how best to approach in the first instance.

The three outside images on this page are to show you the size, quality of a submission and all are 20K or under. Click to see them at full submission size and the bottom one has a sample logo attached.

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