How to gain experience as a new photographer
We’ve all been there, at the very start of our career. We’ve photographerd all of our friends, siblings, all the flowers in the garden – and now you feel ready to take it a step further but you’re not confident enough to acutally put your work out there besides Instagram.
Well I’m here to tell you that no matter what you think, your work is already good enough to be shown to the world. So now that we’ve made that clear, let’s get into ways how to gain experience!
Number one is probably the most intermitating for any new photographer. It’s to reach out to modeling agencies. Modeling agencies always have a section with New Faces, those are models that are probably just as new as you are. Those models need to build a portfolio and gain experience just like you, so what you can do is ask the agency if they do Testshoots.
Testshoots are basically free shoots for the photographer and the model, where they both learn and build their portfolio. Here’s how you’re gonna go about that: Make sure that you email the Agency at an official email adress. Be polite in your email and explain to the Agency that you’re looking to do Testshoots with some of their New Faces. Make sure that you attach your portfolio, send them a link to your website or send them a link to your Instagram page.
If you have any specific models in mind, tell the Agency that you’re especially interested in working with those models. And keep in mind, the worst things that can happen ist that they don’t reply to you – but that’s not a problem because you can always move on to the next agency!
Number two is a little less official and less scary – it’s to start model calls on your social media pages. Say who you’re looking for where, when and what the interested people need to do to apply. You won’t get professional models from this, but people who just love being in front of the camera a great for starters too! Don’t feel pressured to take on any person that is interested though, if you don’t like the look of a person and they don’t fit into your vision you can always tell them that in a nice way.
Make sure that when you’re shooting, you and the model are always tagging each other in posts or stories. This will have your work be exposed to more people and giving credit simply is mandatory :)