Lower Cost Stock

Shooting photos with a live model can be fun and rewarding adding numerous images to your stock files that will reap income for many years. Keeping in mind that time is money, some advance planning will help make the most of the shoot.

Start by outlining what you want to shoot, where you want to shoot it, whether you want a male or female model or several people and what you want them to wear. Set a tight time frame including travel time between locations so that you get the maximum number of shots within your alloted time.

If a client is footing the bill for the shoot, go to a respected modeling agency to hire a subject. They will send dozens of photos of models by mail or email from which to choose. Some agencies even will allow you to interview the model if it is a big shoot that pays well. This helps when you need a certain look or personality.

Budget may be a restraint particularly if you are footing the bill yourself or if shooting for a client with limited funds. I have had good success hiring amateurs. It's a fun experience for people who normally don't get to do things like this. Often they are willing to work for free but plan to pay them something just to compensate them for their time and keep things on a professional level. I use friends or acquaintences often as they are comfortable working with me and I understand their personalities.

Advise the model on what to wear. Make sure it is appropriate to the location where you will be shooting. A sweat shirt most likely would not be suitable for a wedding scene nor an evening gown at the beach. Ask them to bring several changes of clothing so that your photos have different looks. Plan for some private place where the model can change clothes. If the model does not have the clothing you need consider borrowing, buying or renting what you need if your budget permits.

Have the model sign a model release before the shoot begins. Be sure the release covers all immediate needs as well as potential future editorial and commercial uses.

Remember you are in charge of the shoot so be certain that the model does exactly what you intend. Professional models should have no problem with this but amateurs often need more direction. Try not to waste time so that you get the maximum number of shots your time will allow. Follow your script or outline but be open to an interesting pose or setting that might suddenly present itself. Often these turn out to be the best photos.

In posing your model, keep in mind that the eye is drawn to brightest or most colorful point in the photo. If your photo is intended to emphasize the model, the background likely should have less focus, less bright color or less light. If the background is more important than the model, then the reverse is true. (photo)

In posing the model, having them look directly into the camera makes a direct connection with the eventual reader. But pose some pictures with the model looking above the camera as if thinking or looking down as in sadness. Try many poses as you can sort them out later. (photo)

Watch backgrounds as there may be something that can be distracting or just an ugly element. (photo) Trees or plants can find a way of growing out of a person's head. By moving the model or the camera position, the intrusion can be avoided.

Be aware of the model's time. If your contract calls for four hours, use all the time but don't go five minutes over. If at the end of the scheduled shoot, more time is needed ask the model if he or she can stay longer and offer to pay for the overtime. If the model can't stay, consider scheduling a second shoot.

Plan to have fun with the shoot. You and the model will both enjoy it.

As part of a bigger project, I've begun building a stock photo website where I make photos of a certain size (800x600) available free of charge. My site is aimed mainly at people building websites who only need the small size photos I'm willing to offer (these sizes are fairly large in web terms, but would be considered quite small in print). I envisioned this site when I was looking for some free photos for my own website. I found plenty of free photos out there but they were of even lower quality than my own pictures – and I thought to myself, if I can do better, why don't I?

So, I began to build up a collection of photos, now consciously taking pictures of things I thought might be found useful, studying Photoshop more rigorously (thanks Richard Harrington), and considering technological platforms for publishing a site. The first platforms I studied turned out to be too expensive for the beginnings of this project, so I used a freelancer to modify WordPress, a platform with which I was already familiar, to publish the first couple of thousand pictures, to see if sufficient traffic could be attracted to make a better business case to proceed with a more robust business.

As I placed and categorized pictures, I realized that what I was lacking most was a collection of photos of people which would actually be usable. From having heard my friend Bob Strawn speak, and from some reading on photo licensing I'd done preparatory to building the first implementation of my stock photo site, I knew that for a photo of a person to be used commercially, the photo would need a model release. I had some few pictures of my family that I could reasonably release, but nothing else. So it occurred to me to hire a model.

I knew the site Model Mayhem, and it occurred to me to go there but I found I would need to be a member to use it and to join as a member, you need photos of a model. So instead I turned to craigslist. I decided that in order to get a reasonably good model and to get a strong release, I would need to pay. I settled on a modest budget and advertised my request – I wanted to do an outdoor shoot near some of the most recognizable Washington sights: Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Viet Nam War Memorial.

I had in mind that I wanted a woman, who would wear red or blue, but advertised more generically, expressing a preference for women but saying I would also consider men. Am I ever glad I did! Some women applied and I'm sure I would have had a good professional experience with almost any of them, but the men who applied had, on average, a much better body of sample work and in the end I chose one of the male applicants. I also made sure he knew the photos are to be used for stock. I considered it likely that some models might not want that kind of use and had other applicants if this was going to be a problem. The main point of the communications though, was to figure out what he should wear. I was hoping for a nice warm autumn day like we had been having but by the day before it was sure to be much colder, so we opted for a jacket and tie so he wouldn't be too cold.

After coming to terms with my chosen model, we exchanged some emails and I made sure he knew this would be my first shoot using a professional model – if he was going to be willing to give me hints I wanted him to be prepped for it. I needed to be prepped, too. That strong release needed to be signed. I used a sample model release and adjusted it for my needs, and made a separate cash receipt for the end of the shoot – model releases, at least the sample ones I read, reference “good and valuable consideration” – I’m not sure if my lawyer would say I was right, but I figured if I had the release, and separately, a receipt for a cash payment for a modeling engagement, the two documents together would pretty much protect me.

Because I felt my friend Bob Strawn would be able to make a fair piece of content out of my project, I gave him a call and asked if he would join us. I had in mind that a good article that could come out of this experience would be something along the lines of how to work with a model for the first time. Since Bob has been am independent professional photographer for more than 20 years, he has actually worked with models. I hoped I might get a little free advice, too.

I charged up the battery for my Nikon D80, got extra batteries for the point and shoot Nikon Coolpix L5 and packed my camera bag. I printed my release and receipt, set aside the money I'd agreed to pay my model and set my alarm clock. I'd agreed to meet him at 7AM.

I arrived on the Mall in Washington where I'd agreed to meet my model a little early. The sun was rising and while I was waiting, I thought I'd take some sunrise photos. I got one really good shot while waiting so that was definitely worth it. I saw someone looking more or less like the sample photos and went to meet my model. For most of my shoot I used my cursed 35mm lens. I say cursed because I already knew it was sometimes quirky. It was only after the shoot that I figured out just what its problem is. But however, I did manage to get some pretty fair shots in. I had agreed to meet Bob Strawn on the Washington Monument grounds, so we went there and shot photos for about 45 minutes. The wind was blowing fairly strongly, so the ring of flags around the monument made for a good backdrop as did the monument itself. I shot the model in foreground facing up the mall to the Capitol and down the mall to the Lincoln Memorial.

When Bob arrived, he said he thought some good things to show for an article might be some do's and don'ts so he had us pose in front of some construction material (sure enough, I have photos of my model in front of construction junk that I took before Bob gave me that advice). He went through a few more such pictures and then followed us as we went on to the other places we could get to. The WWII Memorial, the tidal basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background, the Lincoln Memorial and the Viet Nam War Memorial. We finally went to the Einstein statue in front of the National Science Foundation building, one of my favorite statues.

I did get some of the shots I wanted. Coordinating with another photographer put a hitch in my plans and I realized that I hadn't done some of the shots I wanted. We also never did any clothes changes as I had planned. I think for my second time I may bring a written plan. Just like grocery shopping, I can no longer rely on memory alone but a list makes things better. It didn't go badly though. My model was also an actor and the shots I got at the Viet Nam War memorial were better than what I was imagining, those shots alone made the whole shoot worthwhile. I also had some of the model photos with which to apply to Model Mayhem.