Today’s Post by Joe Farace
She broke my heart. I didn’t like that much. But that was the price. In this world, you get what you pay for. —Kurt Vonnegut
In a series of posts that I once wrote about finding glamour models, I suggested one of the ways I found models in the past was through the use of modeling websites. This approach worked great for me for a long time and I found many wonderful models on this site. But no more.
One of the many paradigm shifts from COVID was these these sites have evolved into something other than what they were originally designed for, or at least how I saw them. Instead of a meeting place for photographers and models to find each other and work together to create great images for each other’s portfolios, my current experience with that these sites have become into a marketplace of models mainly interested in the money they can make instead of the quality of the images. And who can blame them. As Seinfeld once famously said, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” In the strange economy that we find ourselves in these days, I understand you have to do what you gotta do to make a buck.
While these changes perhaps are caused by the kind of seemingly pandemic-related paradigm shifts that we all have experienced in many aspects of our lives, it may also be geographical. You may have better luck finding models depending on where you live in this country. The late glamour photographer, Dave Hall, once told me he thought finding glamour models in Colorado was more difficult than in other states but maybe that has to do with money too.
That is not to say you can’t find models on these kinds of sites. You can if you’re willing to pay and more often than not big time. I’ve written before about model rates in New York City—$60.45 an hour. For beginning models in New York, the average model salary is $35. per hour. But even inexperienced Internet models who have portfolios that are filled with nothing but selfies are asking $100/hour. In an interesting cultural phenomenon, lately many of these model’s selfies are made with them sitting in their car. What’s up with that? But other, more experienced models charge similar rates, so there’s that.
But what about photographers such as me, who don’t have the bucks to hire these models. Well, it turns out, my friend, you and I are out of luck. So if you have the money—I don’t—you can find models on these sites and I wish you all the best.
And that goes for the fees these sites charge photographers too because I’m tired of giving these companies my money… for nothing, as the song goes. That’s why I changed my paid, premium membership to the basic free account just in case a model I previously photographed wants to contact me or a new model decides she likes my work. (I’m still waiting for that latter thing to happen, but a boy can dream, can’t he?) In the meantime, I have been updating the on-line portfolio with some new photographs that I’ve created for this blog along with my wildly unsuccessful boutique boudoir photography operation. You know, just in case… In the past I had a Models Wanted page of my website but my current site did not until one was recently added. I decided if you don’t ask a question, you wont get any answer. If this approach works I’ll get back to you about it. And there is always the classic business card approach. I always take my business card holder with me whenever I go out and even created some new cards from Moo. So I’ll keep trying…
How I made this shot: One of the very best models that I ever found through a modeling website was Pam Simpson. She is beautiful, versatile and open to creative suggestions, so when I asked if I could wrap her up in wet cheesecloth (from Home Depot) and photograph her, she was enthusiastic about it. Not only that, Pam created such amazing poses that of the 81 images we made together of her wrapped up in soggy cheesecloth there are no—count’em—bad photographs. Every time I look at these images I find one more that I like even better.
I shot this series of image with my standard Paul C Buff studio monolights but for whatever reason I accidentally underexposed the images somewhat and when shot with the Micro Four-thirds Panasonic Lumix GH4 and Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 (at 40mm) lens her skin color went pinky magenta. I used my technique for correcting underexposed color to fix the exposure problem and try as hard as I might, I could never get her skin tones correct. So I did what I always do under these circumstances as outlined in my post: Controlling Image Color by Going Monochrome: I converted the RAW file to monochrome with Silver Efex, which I think adds to the drama of the image.
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My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography with new copies available from Amazon for $34.95, as I write this. Used copies are starting at the hard-to-beat price price around nine bucks and the Kindle version is $19.99 for those who prefer a digital format.