Public Forums > Modelling > Free modelling photographs

I was browsing on Gumtree.com and I noticed that there are always photographers on there offering free images to aspiring models.

Has anyone ever taken up these offers?  They can be a good way of getting professional prints done but I would advise that anyone thinking of this makes sure she / he knows exactly the type of images the photographer wants, whether the prints will cost anything and if the photographer will be using the images and for what purposes.  As always, when something is being given away for free, its a good idea to double check everything through and make sure you are comfortable - free or not.

I've used these for a model I used to manage and have also posted to get model myself. It is a risky process though because you never know who you are meeting or what they may be like. It's probably not that likely that you'll be meeting a psychopath but I like to take the precations just incase.

I always chat with my models to get to know them and their ideas before meeting them.

Yeah I totally agree its a good idea to chat first - a bit like internet dating when you think about it!  Getting photographs, taking the time to chat normally helps and always meeting in a busy place and taking the usual precautions.  I once found a model like this its amazing how many people sent photos that were not of themselves!  And they expected me to act like there was nothing wrong!

Haha! That's ridiculous. I'm meeting a model tonight but we've been chatting for ages. She's really nice and has loads of fabulous ideas so we should be able to get some awesome shots together. Not sure where we are going to go yet but we'll work something out.

Let me know how it goes!  It sounds pretty promising - I haven't had time to find models for a while but putting an add in Gumtree always seems to draw people in.

Oh the shoot was FAB! Definitely some of the best shots I've ever taken, armed with a good camera and a great model it's all win. Now going to upload some pics here.

x

I stopped doing free portfolio shoots a while back because I always ended up running into someone who wasn't willing to live up to their end of the bargain. I did work with some really wonderful photographers who helped me get good images for my portfolio but there were many others that not only did not give me copies of my images, they never kept in contact, nor returned my emails or phone calls.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to track down photographers. And when I did, they often only gave me one or two images, and they weren't even high res, so I could not print them for my book, which is the whole reason I wanted to work with them in the first place (and they were very aware of what I needed before even shooting together).

Since then I have found much more success with simply paying for shoots in order to update my book. Money talks and I can be a bit more in control of what I want and how I need the shoot to go. I know that I put paying projects in front of non-paying ones. Of course if a photographer contacts me and likes my look and wants to do a shoot for trade, I will take them up on the offer but only if I like their work and it is something that I think would benefit my portfolio.

But as of right now, you've gotta pay to play. =)

I sort of agree Dania. It's often a lot easier to pay a photographer because, like you said, money talks. I've been a bit guilty of being a bad TFP tog because I was a bit delayed in sending a CD to my model. She has them now though and we are doing another shoot on Monday.

Yeah, it's unfortunate because there are a lot of great photogs out there that are willing to do TF* that I would love to work with but I've been burned too many times. But I do understand that photogs get busy and sometimes they are not able to meet my requests right away. Things happen and that's totally understandable. That's good that you were able to get the CD to your model eventually. I hardly think that qualifies you as a bad tfp tog! lol.

It's one thing to be a little late with the goods, but it's another thing entirely to just disappear off the face of the earth haha. Oh, well, I guess it's just one of those things that comes with the territory.

I hope you have a great shoot on Monday!

It's a shame when that happens - when I was starting out as a Photographer I did lots of model shoots for aspiring models, actors etc. and I always produced a CD for them within 48 hours - but that's me I guess! I would feel extremely bad not handing the images over sooner thats for sure.