How do you find models for your portraits? How did you get started in building your portfolio? These are two questions I get asked a lot. As a photographer my primary focus is portraits. At this point, I’m doing several portrait shoots a week and people are consistently reaching out to me to take their photos. But it wasn’t always this way. In this article, I’ll teach you the top three ways I built my portrait portfolio.
Everyone has to start somewhere. I didn’t have any experience shooting portraits when I decided I wanted to build a portfolio. I had no roadmap or guidelines on how to get started or where to find models.
So I started reaching out to friends and setting up portrait shoots with them.
Portrait of Hayley Liebenow (Instagram: @hayliebenow)
1. Reach Out to Friends, Family and Acquaintances
This is the easiest, most effective way to build up a body of portrait work from scratch. Shooting with friends, family and acquaintances relieves the pressure to deliver world-class photos. People who know you will be more patient and know that you are learning. And unless you’re a total jerkface, they’ll be happy to help you out.