Today I'm passing on a great tip for publicity photos, courtesy of Kathleen Dustin, internationally-acclaimed polymer artist.
Kathleen moved to New Hampshire several years ago, and now graces the grounds of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen's Annual Fair where she sells her signature purses and jewelry.
I stopped by her booth during a break, and admired a set of "fashion pose" type posters featuring her beautiful purses. She said they were the result of a late-night brainstorm, and shared it with me.
Kathleen wanted a "model shot" of her purses--a "high fashion" shot of her purse being worn by a model. She started researching costs and resources.
To her dismay, it turned out that can get very pricey, especially if you want really professional results. This kind of shot is very different than your standard "product shot" (say, for a catalog) or "jury shot" (for applying to shows).
Even if your photographer can do them (and mine can!), there is the sticking point of the model. Modeling may look simple, but "ordinary" people don't usually know how to "strike the pose".
There is FINDING the right model. They can be few and far between in rural areas of New Hampshire. She even called other artists who uses such shots routinely, asking if she could "share" their model. But the other artists were uneasy about her model getting too well-known, as they all do the same high-end retail show circuit.
And then there's the problem of hair and make-up. If your photographer IS good at positioning people in attractive ways, I'm willing to bet they are not professional hairdressers or make-up artists.
So you add up the photographer, the cost of a professional model, and throw in the hair and make-up, and you could easily be looking at a $3,000 shoot, before a single photo is snapped--which is what was keeping Kathleen up at night.
That's when it came to her, a sultry voice in the wee hours of the morning....
"Glamour Shots, darling."
(Okay, I made up the sultry voice thing. But it DID come to her at night.)
Glamour Shots http://www.glamourshots.com/ is a national portrait studio franchise, often found in malls. They have a professional hairdresser, makeup artist and photographer on staff. A photo session includes getting your hair and makeup done.
You can bring your own clothing (they recommend bringing at least two outfits) and jewelry, or you can use any of their "glamour gowns" they keep on hand. You can bring items that hold special meaning for you, or other props. They provide a variety of backgrounds, and will do any kind of photo session--portraits, couples, group photos, children, weddings, etc.
She took her daughters to Glamour Shots at a mall in New Hampshire, where they had their hair styled and make-up done, and then had them photographed in fashion model poses carrying her purses. Then she had the images blown up to poster-size and hung them in her booth.
I was not familiar with this business franchise but I am now. And if you make wearables, jewelry and fashion accessories, you might want to check them out, too.
You can search for a studio near you by going to their website and entering your zipcode.
I searched and found one about two hours away, and booked an appointment online. I instantly got a coupon for a free session, makeup and hair styling, and a free 8x10 portrait. (They make their money on the additional photos and services you order.)
They called me back to confirm and request a deposit on the session. They then explained how to prepare for the session and what to bring.
I picked a selection of my jewelry, including a show-stopper piece. I selected a variety of tops I thought would compliment the piece. I asked my daughter to act as model. I enlisted a friend who's a graphic arts person to accompany us and we hit the road.
The cost is not cheap, but it was a lot less than $3,000. A LOT less.
When we showed up for our appointment, we talked to the make-up/hair person and the photographer, explaining what we wanted. They then selected the clothes they thought would work best.
My work is tribal and eclectic, and I wanted a strong, dramatic photo. I brought in samples of tribal make-up I'd found on the internet and an array of exotic scarves. I explained this was a PRODUCT shoot--the model (Robin) would not be looking directly at the camera, and the main focus would be her jewelry.
The staff was really excited by this challenge. They'd never done anything like this before, and they were eager to pull out all the stops. The make-up artist gave Robin "wild animal hair" (my request) and after applying the standard "glamour makeup), went back and applied delicate "tattoo marks" around her eyes and down her chin. It showed well but was still subtle.
The photographer was fantastic. She had the standard poses down pat, and quickly positioned Robin from shot to shot. She changed the backgrounds several times, and requested two costume changes, to get us the variety of colors and lighting we'd need later.
After a brief wait, we were able to view all the images on a computer and talk about each shot. They were all beautiful--Robin is photogenic!--but we were able to quickly narrow down the field to a handful of shots.
What could have been better? In hindsight, I should have brought in actual samples of high-fashion ads for the photographer. Even though we all "know" what these look like, she admitted afterwards that she does so much portraiture, it was hard NOT to focus on Robin's eyes (even though I had repeated stressed this before the actual shoot.)
Many times, too, Robin's face was lit and highlighted, but not the jewlery. As we went through the shots (about 25-30) afterwards, I pointed out that many of the shots were beautiful, but not appropriate for a product image. They could immediately see what I was talking about once I pointed it out.
Fortunately, there were so many shots, we found two that were both beautiful and appropriately focused on the jewelry.
I think the next time we go, they will "get" what we are doing more quickly. But if it's your first time with the staff, it would be wise to bring in actual samples of what you're trying to do.
Once you have your selections, there are many options available. Print images are cheaper, but cannot legally be reproduced, as Glamour Shots retains the copyrights. For advertising and posters, I went with the images burned onto a CD. This costs more, but I now have the copyright to the images.
Each image on the CD costs $100. "Glamour Touch"--they retouch the image and remove bumps, lumps and wrinkles--costs an additional $75. I highly recommend this, though, if you are using the photo for commercial purposes, especially if you're going to blow it up to poster-size. It will give the image that professional smoothness you need.
As we went through the images, I noticed that other options for retouching included "clean nose debris" and "double chin". Eeuw. The photographer said, "We can retouch whatever you want, for a price." My favorite T-shirt phrase, "In training to be tall and blonde" suddenly suggested new possibilities....
A contact sheet of the images on photo paper is $50. And of course, you still get your free 8x10 portrait.
I ended up with 2 retouched images on a CD for $350, and a third image as a photo portrait. Because all of Robin's shots came out so well, I opted for the contact sheet, too. You can see the preview image above, and I will add other images when I get the CDs (including the ones with my head shots).
I would not advise having Glamour Shots produce the poster. They priced a standard 20x30 image on a hard substrate at well over $400. It would be much, much cheaper to find a photo services (Kinkos, a graphic arts shop) to print out a large-format photo for much less money.
My friend Carol and I were so impressed that we booked appointments for ourselves. We both need "head shots"--sounds deadly, but it's simply a good image of our faces--for professional purposes. One will be used for my column in the Magazine-Formerly-Known-As-Crafts-Business-Magazine (and soon to be sold at newstands as Studio Arts Magazine).
That's where I was yesterday, and within a week or two, you will see the new, improved Luann Udell right here. My new motto: "When perfection is not enough."
Thanks and a hat tip to Kathleen Dustin!
