Body Part Modelling
Body part modelling is a special category that belongs in both fashion and commercial modelling. This is the use of just part of the body in a photograph. Often standard models that look great in full-length shots or headshots don’t look so good close up. Their hands or feet may look horrible. This is where the body parts model comes in. We will set up a shoot using the standard model’s face but the body part model’s hands and it looks like it is just one person. Usually body part models will specialize in just one part of the body like hands, feet, legs, ears, or neck.
Hand models are one type of body part model that I have had more call for. With hand models we look for long slender graceful hand and fingers. We also look for smooth (no wrinkles, hair or large pours), clear (no blemishes or irregular colour) skin, and very good nails. The ability to pose the hand in a relaxed graceful fashion is very important.
Body parts model follow a similar path as regular models with finding modelling agencies, building portfolios and having comp cards. They simply pursue a very special niche market.
Commercial Modelling
Commercial modelling is sort of the catch-all for everything that isn’t fashion and isn’t glamour. It is vast and diverse. The physical requirements can vary greatly. The ‘look’ can be mother, business executive, scientist, glamorous beauty, etc. The pay can be good but not to the level of the top fashion model and commercial models tend to find work less often. But it can be an area one can work part-time on in their life. Again, the purpose is to sell something – a product, service, or idea.
Commercial Product Modelling
Generally, we are generating a photo to sell a product and the model is used to show how the product is used. Also, the model may be used to convey an image of a product. An example would be a model dressed like a doctor holding a blood pressure device. This gives an image of medical authority being behind the product. There is also the old technique of selling a product by putting someone attractive by it. Although it may not be politically correct to do this, it still is done and it works. People stop to look at a pretty face, not at another computer box. The physical requirements and look for commercial product modelling can vary a great deal. It all depends on the image or story you are trying to tell. This is where character models are used.
Commercial Lifestyle Modelling
Models are used in photos showing a period of life or doing something in life. The photo might be an older couple walking on the beach and the photo is used in the advertising materials for a new retirement resort. Or a photo of a young couple playing in a park with their children and the photo is used in an ad for a life insurance company. The models are used to act out some concept or idea of life. The physical requirements, age, size, etc. can vary greatly. But most often they use the “beautiful people” in these photos rather than real folks off the street.
Commercial Corporate Modelling
Corporate modelling is like Lifestyle but it always has a business theme. Again physical requirements can vary greatly, but usually attractive people are used – although sometimes character models are used.
Product Demo
In smaller markets, this seems to be a favourite area to start models. Models stand in front of, or in a store or mall, and hand out free samples of something. The idea is they want someone attractive that people will be drawn to and will work for just a few hours or a few days. When you are young and starting out this pays better than any regular job and it can really build your confidence around people.
Trade Show Modelling
Once again attractive people are attention getters. When a trade show comes to town some exhibitors may hire models to hand out literature at their booths. One of the classics examples of this is the auto show. Again, it gives some income when you are starting out and gets you in front of the public.
Sport/Athletically Proficient/Fitness
This is kind of lumping a lot together but this has been a growing area in modelling. With sport attire companies like Nike and the increasing number of personal sports, fitness and outdoor magazines the need for models that look like they actually know what they are doing has grown. The idea is to look good and actually be proficient at the activity being photographed.
Hobby Modelling
This is modelling for the fun of it, to help out a cause or a place to get started. Some folks may never make a living at modelling but enjoy being in front of the camera or being on the runway. It also ties in with an organization that might put on a fashion show as a fundraiser. There have also been cases where someone may start modelling just for fun and this may someday lead to a career.
Alternative Modelling
This term has been coined for the whole gothic/punk modelling. This is a very specialized niche.
Extras Modelling
This is where you just need someone to put in a photo. When doing an outdoor tourist bureau type photos you often find you need someone hiking a trail or standing at an overlook, this is where you need a warm body to help animate the photo. This type of modelling does not pay much and may even be done on spec, but if you like doing outdoors or tourist activities it is a chance to make money while having fun. This type of modelling can be open to all ages and sizes.
Glamour Modelling
Glamour modelling is modelling for photos with a sexual theme. This might be a simple soft or hard type photos. They can include bikini, sexy outfits and lingerie modelling. On the soft level, photos can be used for calendars, posters, and other pin-up girl products. You can’t pick up a car magazine without seeing a babe by the car or truck. As one moves to greater states of undress, you move to the adult entertainment industry with high-end men’s magazines like Playboy and then on down to the low-end back-alley magazines. But it is the Internet that dominates this field and is now loaded with all levels of sexual model photos. Glamour modelling and its triple X component is a very big industry. Top glamour models can make as much as top fashion models. But what is different from other types of modelling is all grade levels in glamour modelling can make good money and it is common for an established model to make over 50,000 pounds a year. There are no height or size requirements as in fashion modelling. Where fashion modelling wants you to look like a beanstalk, glamour modelling wants you to have curves like a young Pamela Anderson. Where fashion may want a ‘special beauty look’, glamour modelling wants traditional drop-dead gorgeous; where fashion really only happens in New York, glamour can happen anywhere and does.
You have to be over 18 to do glamour modelling even soft. With the way the laws are today, a photographer runs a real risk doing any kind of sexy photo with someone under 18. With news story reporting mothers are being thrown in jail for photographing their own children taking a bath and putting the photo in a family album, I think the risk is too great and the return too small to do any glamour work with someone under 18. But this field is wide open once one is of legal age. Unlike fashion modelling where your career is over by the time you are 30 with glamour, your career could be just getting started. There is even a demand for good looking grandmothers in their 50’s and 60’s.
