Modeling
Are you interested in posing for me? Great! I'm also always willing to expand my portfolio with new faces and ideas, but before proceeding I'd like you to spend some time reading this page. Please consider that I'm going to be spending a lot of time not only during the photoshoot, but also during the post-processing of the pictures; so I do appreciate if you spend some minutes reading this. It might be boring, but it might also save both of us from little surprises that could make our working together not as pleasant as I'd like it to be.
I want some free photos!
First of all, even though taking photos is something that I love to do, it doesn't mean that taking photos of people for free is all what I want to do. I have to fit other activities in my time too, so unfortunately I cannot promise you that I will accept all requests. I've come to the compromise that I'll have 1 or 2 free photo sessions per month. If you happen to receive a negative reply when requesting a free photoshoot from me, please don't be upset — I'm probably just too busy, and you can retry later or ask for a paid session. The pricing is as low as you can get, mostly because my portfolio is still in development: 30€ for the photo session itself (regardless of how long it lasts) plus 20€ for every 5 photos you want to be edited. These prices are indicative, we can of course discuss about that.Do I need to be a professional model, or a beautiful girl?
No and no. You don't need to be a professional, or beautiful, or even a girl. Just send me some recent pictures of yours when e-mailing me (or a link to your portfolio, if you have one), so that I can see how you look like and I'll decide whether I find you to be an interesting subject for my photos. Again, please don't be upset if I don't take your request; it doesn't mean that I think that you are not beautiful enough or that there's something bad about you. It's just my own feeling, that you might not fit in my portfolio, so I wouldn't invest many hours for pure altruism.Having experience in modeling can help, but I'm actually getting a lot of pleasure in seeing people who are initially totally uncomfortable in front of the camera getting more and more confident over time. So don't be afraid of asking for a photo session, even if you think that it's something that you cannot do: it's a wrong thought, everyone can. Tension goes naturally away.
I want some photos, but I have no ideas...
That's fine. If you have an idea, I will be extremely delighted to do my best to attain the picture you have in mind: I always love to face new challenges, it's every photographer's dream to meet a model with very clear ideas about the photos she wants. But that's relatively rare, and I'm quite used to coming up with ideas when models don't have a specific one: no worries, it's perfectly normal and fine! But this is the exact situation where a meeting before the shoot comes most useful, so it helps a lot if you can find time for that too.One suggestion I usually give to my models looking for ideas is to have a look at flickr: you can search for keywords or browse through the pool of pictures of some fashion related groups. Try out this, for instance. The content of the groups change all the time, so if you want me to see one picture from there you should send me the exact link.
How does the session work?
I like to meet the model once before the photoshoot. We can just chat for a few minutes over a coffee in a bar, talking about ideas for the shoot. This meetings serve two main purposes: the first, to make you more familiar with me, and reduce the tension that you might have when being photographed by a stranger; the second, it allows me to have a look at you, your expressions and moods, which will help me in setting up the session that would fit you best.The session can be in the studio, or in some other location you suggest. The studio is part of my living room, so it's quite comfortable for me. I like also having sessions outdoors and it could even be possible to take photos at your own place, if you keep in mind that I won't be able to take all my lighting equipment with me and therefore a good environment lighting might be needed.
During the shooting, you are welcome to give me advices, but please not orders. I also have my ideas about the photoshoot, and if they are different from yours it doesn't mean that they are necessarily wrong. I usually lead the session, but I can understand the model's feelings and adjust to them. The best results are obtained when both of us feel comfortable with the work, so let's be cooperative and understand each other. None of us is a mannequin.
Can I take someone with me?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: you are welcome to come with a friend, but it's usually a very bad idea to come with your lover (be it husband/wife, or just boyfriend/girlfriend). I suggest you to come with that friend of yours with whom you feel at ease and you don't feel pressured by his/her judgment. Jealous friends are going to scare your creativity away, and usually lead to very boring photos.Underage models should always be accompanied by some adult: a responsible friend or, better, a parent.
Release
When I don't forget about it, I ask my models to sign this model release form before starting the photo session. It basically says that you authorize me to publish the pictures, and that I authorize you to put them in your own portfolio; I happen to use this form only because it's the only one I found readily available in both English and Finnish languages, but I'm in no way forcing you to accept it as it is. We can talk about it before the shoot, and you can suggest me other variants. It's only a legal protection for the both of us, and can be changed when we both agree.When do I get the pictures?
As soon as I'm done with them. Please don't underestimate the amount of post-processing work involved. It would be just very unprofessional of me if I did gave you hundreds of pictures straight from the camera, it will simply harm our reputation. So, I work like this: I take some time to go through all of them, remove the duplicates and the bad ones. Then I put the pictures that I find to be potentially good, or at least not too bad, online (in a secret section of my website); these can still be a lot. I will give you the link to the gallery and ask you to list me about 10-20 of them that you like the most, and I will start working on them. By "working" I mean correcting the lighting, removing annoying objects in the scene, do some small improvements here and there to render the picture more pleasant. You are also free to suggest me some changes, for instance if there's a pictures you'd like to see in black and white, or in some other colours. I will do that spontaneously myself, on those pictures where I think it might improve the looks. Unless you explicitly ask me to, I won't edit your face or body.The timing goes like this: after one or two days I give you the raw list of images for you to choose from, and after about one week you will get the final retouched images. If you are in a hurry or wish to have more control over the retouching phase, you can ask me to send you the first 2-3 retouched images as soon as I'm done with them, so you can have a say about the remaining work.
After I'm done, you can either download the photos (full sized) from a private section of my website, or we can meet and I'll give you a CD with them, or you can come here with a memory card or USB storage device and I'll copy them on the fly.
If you are publishing the pictures on the web, I gently ask you to add a copyright notice with my name or my website address.