A Models Day Off..

While most models run from show to show (especially during fashion week) and most who are not supermodel status have multiple fittings, casting calls and are running around with iPhones in hand; most have some common practices when not on the runway or at a photo shoot.

Models Are Still In Style.

The key behind being a successful model is a very simple concept – marketing. Even when models or supermodels are not scheduled, their appearance and reputation is everything whether they have been in a national publication or in a local fashion show. This means not leaving the house in your sweats or without combing your hair. There are simple fashion tips most can take advantage of, as most models always look fashionable even if they are not on the runway or at a photoshoot.

Model Off-Duty Hair.

There are several ways to get model off-duty hair, but the following are insider industry secrets and not common day-to-day knowledge. These secrets are for getting perfectly imperfect fabulous model looking hair. First, a less than a perfect blowout is key – slightly messy is very sexy; which also translates into romantic and beautiful. Try an air dry. Most models want to avoid curling irons and hair dryers on their day off, so they opt for an air dry while using a subtle styling. Last, if you want model off-duty hair, you want to invest in great shampoos and conditioners. Most women have to deal with hair abuse on a minor level, if they colour their hair the bar raises a notch and when it comes to models they have to deal with their hair being abused on a daily basis.

Models On Vacation.

Models are expert travellers. Many models start off with honey and water for breakfast; but the most important tip that they share is lots of water and lots of sleep. Taking care of your skin is also a number one priority and this isn’t just sunscreen, but a healthy morning and evening skin regime. In fact, most models avoid the sun period during the summer months.

Models Day off Around The Town.

Most models would say sleep here is priority number one, and not hitting the bar scene the second they are off duty. While they still stick to a structured exercise routine and a healthy diet, their off-duty activities include what most people do. This includes visiting family if they are local, heading out to parks, movies, hitting up a spa for a relaxing massage among anything else most would consider a relaxing day-off activity xxx

Makeup Tips for Headshots

I recently posted a blog which was general tips on how to achieve a good headshot during this I covered clothing, lighting and briefly mentioned makeup. Well since then I’ve had a few lovely young ladies ask me about the make up for a headshot. Fearing that they might look too fake/overdone which unfortunately can happen.

I’d like to point out now that I am not a makeup artist! And I really don’t know too much about makeup apart from my years of getting expensive makeup on the cheap (all thanks to my lovely mother for her staff discount at boots!) and from being on sets and photoshoots. So here is my (non-professional) advice.

Natural Look, not ‘Light’ makeup

For headshots, you want natural look makeup. ‘Light’ makeup is good as long as it is natural and evenly applied. If you apply foundation makeup too lightly, the application tends to be uneven, and you can see a mottled pattern in the picture. To avoid this, use enough amount of foundation with attention to make it uniform. Also, don’t be afraid to use a lot of setting powder, compared to when you are going to, say, a workplace or a party. What you need is good coverage combined with natural look finish.

Always good start is a clean and healthy skin, well moisturized. Use primer where appropriate.

Colour of foundation

Match the colour of foundation to the natural colour of your skin in neck/chest area. Some people (especially with fair skin) often choose a colour darker than the skin tone, and that is fine for social events. However, in photography, always match your foundation colour to the rest of your skin. If you prefer to alter the skin tone in your photograph, the whole skin colour can be adjusted to warmer to make it look most attractive during editing.

The best type of foundation is liquid type. For headshots, oil-free (water or alcohol based) or those that contain just right amount of oil is best. In particular, oil-free matte finish foundation is most common for beauty headshots, but it is a bit difficult to apply as they dry quickly, and it also makes caky look if applied too thickly. Avoid ‘sheer look’ as they have a bit too much oil to give excessive shine in the pictures, but sometimes oil based or silicon based foundation is used with a lot of powder. Powder or compact foundation doesn’t quite give the right level of coverage for photoshoots.

Lips

The colour of the lips should be one notch darker than the best look in person. The lips should be shifted in the direction of darker red. Also, lip gloss is often effective in making the lips fuller.

Eyes

Wax your eyebrows a couple of days in advance. Trying to reshape the brows through retouching process is possible, but costs more time and money than getting them waxed in real life. Fill in your brows, especially if you are not going for a retouching option. Make sure your brows are clear and dark enough when viewed in soft natural window light.

Mascara is also appropriate for headshots. Darker colour works better for mascara, so black is usually the best choice, even if you normally use brown. You can wear false lashes for most types of work other than the actor’s headshot. In photographs, the lashes do not look as long and drastic as you see in the mirror.

For natural look headshots like actress audition or corporate bio, there is no need to use heavy eye makeup at all. But if you are going for more styled photographs, the eye accents should be one notch heavier or vibrant.

Keep this in mind: the photographic lighting biases your face colour to the lighter side, and eyes are where you get the most attention.

Blush

Use blush in one small notch darker than the best look in person. However, please make sure to make a few well diffused applications in small quantities. The first time should be applied and spread in a wide circle, and the second and third in progressively smaller areas. This is to make sure that the edges of the blush are gradual and not abrupt. You can always add more, but once you apply too much in one application, it is hard to blur the edge or remove some.

Powder

Don’t be afraid to use a lot more powder than usual. A lot of setting or finishing powder is routinely used in fashion and beauty photography to reduce shimmer and make the skin look matte. You will realize that a professional makeup artist will keep applying powder every 10–20 minutes of the shoot to prevent shiny skin. You should bring yours and apply extra powder regularly.

For party makeup, shimmer can look great, but in photography, use matte finish.

Hair (also for men)

You may want to use hair spray, gel, and other products to tame frizz and make your hair look healthy. Make sure to avoid products that give a matte look. These are fine for some situations, but not for a photo shoot. Matte finished hair will look dull and lifeless in pictures. Instead, use hair products that enhance shine

Now casting directors can see the best version of you xxx

Building a Modelling Portfolio

An actor friend of mine recently asked for advice on how to break into the modelling industry. After getting over myself, I gave him a brief explanation, as much as I could on messenger without it looking overwhelming.

Now I’ve had some time to think about it, I’ve got some more to say. The main question he asked was ‘how do you get the work?’

I think my answer to that disappointed him, I’ve built up a good reputations and mainly work on recommendations as well as being with a couple of agencies.

But before you even think of agencies you need a strong portfolio.

If you think about it in the same way as applying for a regular job, you need some basic knowledge and experience.

A portfolio is exactly that.

Showing that you know what you’re doing. You know what lighting works best for you, what angles are good, how to work with the camera.

Unfortunately in order to build up a portfolio it usually means doing a lot of shoots for free. It is known as TFP (time for print), neither you or the photographer or MUA is getting any money from this. It is purely for portfolio basis.

You will be doing these shoots for sometime until you have a decent sized portfolio. I still do them every so often just as a refresher.

The point of a portfolio is to show how good are you are at modelling. Make sure it shows your personality, how diverse you are. Unless you’re going into a specific area of modelling e.g fitness model, hair model you need to show that you’re a chameleon.

To organise and book these shoots there are quiet a few legitimate modelling casting websites. I won’t go into that now (that’ll be a whole separate blog) Besides what works for one person might not work for another, as long as you do your research you’ll know which is right for you.

You can also use the power of social media, mainly facebook. There are plenty of modelling groups on facebook that’ll be based in your area, your country, even some that post international shoots if you happen to be holidaying somewhere nice and sunny with good scenery why not take advantage

Once you have a portfolio in place be sure to have two copies. One that is an online copy on a website or facebook page with a wide range of pictures. The other should be a hard copy, a physical portfolio with a dozen of your best pictures that you can take to castings with you.

That’s all I’ve done. So good luck and I’ll see you out there! xxx

Preparing for a Photo Shoot

As I have a photoshoot tomorrow I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to post about this topic. I can imagine a lot of people looking at the title of this blog and thinking ‘What do you mean you just turn up don’t you?’ That is far from the truth, from a models perspective there is a lot more work that goes into ‘just turning up’. I feel like part of your job as a model is to do as much as possible to help out the photographer and MUA (Make up artist), because they have enough to set up and prepare so you should contribute as much as possible. It’s all about team work after all.

For instance to help the make-up artist, you should have clean, clear and smooth skin. This will make the MUA’s job a lot easier if they have a smooth surface to work on. In order to do this I always exfoliate, cleanse, tone and moisturise the morning of the photo shoot, like I said it just helps the MUA too start off with a smooth surface, I like to think of it as the MUA is a painter and you are the blank canvas awaiting the paint.

I’ll stick to the topic of helping the MUA out, because it all runs along the same lines, I mentioned smooth skin earlier you also want to make sure your hair is good condition, don’t style your hair or have any products in your hair (unless requested). Same principle as the skin it’s having a good base too work off, but be careful of having your hair too soft as your hair may not be able to hold certain styles, if you love your conditioner or hair masks (I am slightly obsessed) then try to ease off them a few days before having soft hair actually makes it harder to style and requires more products to make the hair stay in place.

This next tip helps out the MUA and photographer and it’s something that tends to go the back of your mind when organise yourself and that is your nails, especially your fingernails, think about it if your using your hands to frame your face and your nails have chipped nail varnish on, it’s going to look tacky, the least you can do is make your nails look clean and presentable (only paint them if you have spoken to the MUA and photographer first to ensure which colours to use or to just add a clear coat for some shine)

Something I like to do when I’m doing a lingerie shoot or showing more skin then usual is to shave, exfoliate and tan (talk to the MUA and photographer about tanning first, it may not be the look there going for) by doing this it just helps me feel more comfortable when I have to do sultry poses, the last thing you want is for the photographer to tell you to stand in a certain position or expose abit of skin and you don’t want to because you haven’t shaved or your skin feels bumpy, it makes you look like your just being hard work if you say no because of that.

The last one and probably the most important is to make sure you get a full 8 hours sleep! If you are doing modelling on the side because you have a full time job chances are your shoots will full on the weekend and you want to go out the night before or just down to the pub for a couple, just don’t risk it. Even if you can manage on little sleep and your one of those freaks who doesn’t get bags under their eyes it’s still easy to tell if you’re tired and it shows on the camera. It shows in your eyes and even in your complexation. What I tend to do is the night before a shoot I use as an excuse for a pamper night, relax, get a couple of the girls round if you like to ensure that you look as naturally beautiful as possible, now that won’t be too hard now will it? xxx

Two Photo shoots. One day.

First Photo shoot

I was very excited for my first photo shoot of the day, it was with a photographer named Tom who I’ve worked with before. Our previous shoot together was a general fashion/beauty shoot, Tom was amazing I on the other hand was not…I was still very new to the modelling world, I was inexperienced and awkward but Tom made me feel so comfortable and relaxed. Once we had a date set for this shoot I was anxious to show Tom how much I have progressed since I last worked with him.

This shoot was half location, half studio, we started at the location as the sun was shining and we both agreed we could get some really nice shots with the natural light. The location was a beautiful house which was built in the 1800’s with stables and gorgeous land surrounding it.

We immediately got stuck in and I remembered exactly why I enjoyed working with him. He is the type of photographer who likes to play with the surroundings, who praises you when your eyes are fixed in the right position and when your poses are strong.

For some of this shoot I was in lingerie and doing some implied shots (where you know the model is nude but you don't see anything), it’s playing with mystery, wanting what you can’t have. I have never done a shoot like this before, and like most girls I have body confidence issues combine that with being in underwear in front of a total stranger can be pretty intimidating. I agreed to do this with Tom because I knew him, I knew what a talented photographer he was and I had seen some of his previous work that featured models in lingerie and they were incredible. He did not let me down! I felt so comfortable and relaxed I couldn’t of ask for anyone better, the end result really showed how hard we worked and there may be even more photo's to come.

Second Photo shoot of the day

My second photo shoot for the day included two photographers and 3 models (myself included) I haven’t done many shoots with other models or multiple photographers but when I have the pictures have always turned out spectacular, so I was interested to see what would happen, as I had never worked with anyone from this shoot before. 

It focused around 2 things the sunset (so we had very limited time to get the right shot) and a 1975 Cadillac Eldorado. It was stunning! I don’t know much about cars, in fact I don’t know anything about cars but I know what Cadillac’s are, and the fact that they are an important part of car history (especially in America).

Because of the limited time we had we had to work very quickly to get the shots that we wanted. The photographers knew exactly what shots they wanted/what looks they wanted us to achieve and the other models worked hard and were very focused throughout the shoot. Personally this shoot felt rushed, I completely understood we had a specific time frame to get the right pictures but on a typical photo shoot I’ve found that there’s several shots in one pose then change slightly by moving your hand here or chin up or head still but look left, but I was literally 2 or 3 clicks then rotate, click rotate, click now move over there, now swap photographer, it all happened too fast for me.

But I can’t dispute this method as the pictures have turned out amazing! And I had all of the edited pictures by Monday night and considering we did the shot on the Saturday night that is the quickest I’ve ever got the prints from a photo shoot and they did not compromise with the quality!

These two photo shoots were completely different, with the theme’s, the methods of working and way the photo’s are edited, but that’s one of the ways you can achieve a diverse portfolio xxx