Why I Still Do Free Model Test Shoots

It might seem a bit weird that a professional photographer will spend a few hours photographing models for free. I’m sure most professionals don’t really offer their professional services for free that often – lawyers doing a bit of free litigation on a Sunday afternoon isn’t that common. So what is in it for a photographer like me to do this?

Still The Spirited Amateur Photographer At Heart…

Firstly, and this is probably a little bit different to most professions, I would suggest most photographers get into photography initially as a hobby and it becomes a passion which becomes all-consuming and eventually if you’ve got the entrepreneurial spirit or drive you can convert that into a business.

But the thing is that initial drive and passion never really leaves you. So the chance to have a photoshoot with a model who often becomes a muse or a friend is something you used to do as a hobby anyway. So why not continue that? It’s not like it’s hard work if you’ve got someone who’s good at what they’re doing in front of you. It’s actually quite good fun and it usually ends up being a chat and a catch up with someone you get on with really well and you put the world to rights and whilst you’re doing it you get some awesome photos at the same time.

My Commercial Work Doesn’t Often Use A Model

Secondly, most of the commercial work you do is dictated by the client’s situation, location and needs rather than what you would ideally want to do. So for instance if I was shooting a team of accountants we would go to their office, we would photograph them in situ and at their desks and in meeting rooms and all that sort of stuff which is great for them but if you wanted to do a photo shoot of somebody in the middle of the Dales or in a scrapyard or in a demolished building you ain’t ever going to get a commercial job doing that unless you’ve got some crazy clients. So shooting for free with a model allows you to do that as well. You can both come up with great ideas and then make them happen together. It’s a great collaboration.

Test Shoot or Collaboration?

Thirdly, collaboration. Often when you’ve been photographing commercially for a long time you’re so absorbed in the commercial world and shooting with a certain look which helps businesses look amazing. You need to have a change and collaborating with makeup artists, hair stylists and new faces means that you can get ideas from these third parties. This means that I just rock up at a location with my kit and the model will have some ideas of what they want to do and show me the locations and together we can make something pretty magical from that. It gives me creative freedom to create and test new lighting setups and create great images in a collaborative way.

 Set Up A Test For New Kit

Fourthly, often testing new kit. So imagine you’ve got a brand new camera or a brand new light or a brand new softbox or some new drone tech or anything like that. And before unleashing it upon actual fee paying clients you decide that you want to test it out on someone. What better than getting your friend, your muse, your model along and trying it out. Use it, see how it works, learn its foibles, learn its strengths and weaknesses, learn where you need to stand, learn how it works and how it doesn’t work.

A good example of that would be recently when I photographed Nicola we used my new ring flash which I think worked ok but for my look and the look I usually get with Nicola which is quite edgy it was ok but I preferred the original look of having an angled light rather than a direct light. I think it just worked better but it was well worth trying. So with Nic it was more about rather than just a straight headshot she had some cool outfits on so we were doing more full body shots with a wider lens.

So from that I learnt that you can do full body shots with a ring flash but the ring flash is probably better for portraits the sort of thing you got in the 1990s that kind of look. So I might give it a go for the next headshot session I use it for.

Other things, gelled flash where you have different colour, cellophane over the top of the flash so the light coming out of it will be red or blue or green or whatever colour you want. I learnt all about that back in the day, I learnt that if you have the flash on a really high power the light that comes out tends to look white weirdly whereas if it’s a bit of a lower power it will be quite a dense colour of the gel.

So although as a professional photographer you tend to charge your normal rates to everybody, getting amused and meeting up now and then to create some stuff together is a brilliant way to spend time creatively, learn new stuff, catch up with old friends, have a bit of fun and create something which is a little bit different to what you normally do in your commercial life.

The only caveat I have really is that the model is great to get on with and good at what they do. The last thing you want really is somebody who needs a lot of direction to do things because if that’s the case you are spending time coaching them rather than learning your craft. So the idea is to find someone who is at a similar level of modelling as you are to photography. If you can do that it’s a win-win all round and I strongly recommend that professional photographers do this on a certainly annual basis if not more regularly than that.