Building a Portfolio

If you opt for freelancing, you will need to start building your portfolio. Avoid hiring a photographer who will charge you anywhere from several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. There are many photographers, professional and amateurs, experienced and beginning, that will provide you a compact disk with images from a photo shoot in exchange for your time. This is called TFP/TFCD and it stands for Time For Print/Time For CD. Some photographers refer to this ad “Testing”. Test with several different photographers, because you will need a diversity of styles. It is recommended, that a model has at least two head shots, with natural lighting and minimal makeup; at least one full body shot standing up, wearing fit clothes or swimsuit showing your full body. The rest of images in your portfolio can vary, or geared toward the type of modeling you are most interested in doing.

Although these days most responses to casting calls require a submission of digital images, make sure that you receive high-resolutions images from the shoot along with web size images. You can then order prints using the high resolutions images. Website images may be used on your website or web page. Here is a sample of a web-based portfolio grouped into categories such as Head Shots, Fashion and Swimsuit