My Sunday Series on Outdoor Portraits remains remains on hiatus as I consider changing this day’s theme to Available Light Portraiture, which is what today’s post, featuring the appropriately named Joy, is somewhat about.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Modeling really helps me find my confidence and break out of my shell. — Jordyn Woods
After posting any glamour or boudoir photography posts on this blog, one of the most common emails I get from readers is: “Where do you find your models?” Over the years I’ve written several posts about this subject—use the Search function to find them. In one post, when writing about the current state of finding glamour models on-line, I may have seemed a bit negative. So I decided to add some optimism to the process with a few simple tips for finding models that may work in today’s environment.
Finding glamour models Today
Let’s start with this basic understanding of the process: Finding glamour models is as easy or difficult as you want to make it. If you work at it methodically and consistently, you may discover that really good models will find you. That has happened to me more than once. Maybe it can happen to you too. Here are a few tips that might help you getting started to find models…
- Tip Number 1: Let everybody know and maybe even a few people you don’t that you’re looking for models. It helps if you have a specific project in mind and have some examples of the concept to show people.
- Tip Number 2: As part of your model search, show your portfolio/website on your phone or tablet to everybody you know. I sold my book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography that way to a publisher by showing her images on an iPad at a trade show. Show your images to friends, show it to other photographers and show it to the barista at Starbucks. If people know you’re looking for models, they may be able and want to refer new or aspiring models to you.
- Tip Number 3: Another source of glamour models is referrals from other models you’ve photographed. At the end of every shoot, I give each model I photograph several of my business cards and ask her to hand them to any friends who might be interested in modeling. Some photographers give referral fees to models for anyone they refer and I’ve tried this particular method but you might give it a try, On the other hand, “tell a friend” has worked several times. For example…
How I made this portrait: Joy was a friend of the amazing Pam Simpson and she had seen and liked many of my photographs of Pam, so she called and asked to shoot with me. This portrait is from our second and last session photo together before she moved 200 miles away. Pam also introduced me to Danielle, who I got to photograph several times before she moved to New Mexico. So referrals from other models, you can call it dumb luck if you wish. has worked for me several times during recent years.
I photographed Joy in the breakfast nook of my current home using the daylight coming from double sliding patio doors on her right and another window behind her. A Rotolight Anova LED light was placed at camera left for fill. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Olympus M. 45mm f/1.8 lens with an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/2.2 and ISO 400. The image was color corrected with PictoColor’s iCorrect Portrait, lightly retouched and tweaked using the Glamour Glow filter that’s part of Color Efex. And yes, she was a joy to photograph.
Note for my Patreon Subscribers. After looking at all of the images that I made in this series with Joy, I realized I could produce a Bonus post for one of my uncensored Password Protected posts using images of Joy. If you are interested in seeing some of the other images from this session in that kind of a post, click CONTACT and let me know. If you are not currently a Patreon subscriber—it’s surprisingly inexpensive—details on how to sign up can be found here.