Lori Yin wrote:
Is it normal for an agency to request that you submit CDs of full-sized images of every single shoot you do to them, which would include all the bad, unusable shots on the CD?  I am talking with a potential agency and they are requesting this.  Why would they need full-size images when they will already have web images along with headshots/compcards?  And why would they want say, 100 images of the same look?  I have never heard of this before.

I would be wary. Do you think  they are a legitimate agency, i.e. licensed and have a physical office doing business as agency? If not I would think twice about sending your images to them. They are probably collectors. Better yet, tell them to send you cashiers check in exchange for the cd you worked so hard to get.

Question: what kind of images will you be including in this cd? swimsuit and lingerie poses?

Lori Yin wrote:
Is it normal for an agency to request that you submit CDs of full-sized images of every single shoot you do to them, which would include all the bad, unusable shots on the CD?  I am talking with a potential agency and they are requesting this.  Why would they need full-size images when they will already have web images along with headshots/compcards?  And why would they want say, 100 images of the same look?  I have never heard of this before.

It doesn't sound fishy to me. It sounds down right wrong.

You didn't say how the agency became interested in you. Did you approach them first or did they solicit you? That is just my curiosity, since you didn't say who the agency was so that I could have an inkling of what they are up to.

When an agency is recruiting they do not really need a ton of fancy, glossy whoop-tee-doo images to make a judgement from. Six half-decent poloroids are more than sufficient. You are too young to remember the days when agency recruiters all walked around with Poloroid cameras. (Today's equivalent would be a pocket cam or cell phone image...which, understandably, photographers hate seeing but heck, photographer's are not agencies. Photographers need you to buy their services or have you provide them with top quality images.) You would be surprised how many super models started with just a few scrappy images...including the lady for whom the phrase "super model" was first coined. An old Poloroid got here her first proffesional shoot...with a leading French magazine to boot.

If you are knocking on the agenicy's doors, a few proffessional images would do two things: Tell them you are serious enough to put on your best face and two, might get you noticed among the clutter of other girls just as promising as you are.

No agency needs more than six to a dozen images of a model at most. Especially a new recruit. Who can afford the file cabinet space or disk space? No client is going to wade through a hundred images to make a decision either.

A serious agency, once deciding that you have a look that might satisfy at least a few of the range of clients they target, has a test shoot done to their standards, usually by a photographer they trust or reccomend. A test shoot also should not cost you anything. It is their dime, their risk. Which is another reason why serious agencies are so choosy about whom they sign.

An agency is supposed to promote you. They are supposed to live or die based upon whether or not they can find gigs for their models. The more money you make, the more money they make. A cooprative venture. Never should you pay an agency to make them interested in you. Nor should you give them something for free.

One hundred images on a CD? That is just crazy talk. Watch yourself!

MichaelHaynes wrote:
...It doesn't sound fishy to me. It sounds down right wrong.

Hmm.  I don't know.  It doesn't sound like a bad idea to me for an agency to try and get an idea of the ratio of good shots vs bad that a model can produce.  The base line would have to be that they know the capability of the photographer though.

Even though it may not be typical, it is a valid way for someone to evaluate the performance of a model.  You cannot tell how cooperative and photogenic a new model is just by looking at their best shots.  Some models look great in every frame, while others only look good at specific angles.  As a catalog client for instance, I would want to cast models that look good at the widest variety of angles because you don't know which shots are going to be the best for the clothing.  The agency may also want to see the variety of posses the model offers the photog durring the shoot.

A lot of businesses are revamping their quality assurance objectives and comming up with new proceedures every day.  Could be a sign of new trends as agencies try to differentiate themselves from one another as well as from independent "internet" models.

I can see it now; Agency A says:"Our models look good from 30% more angles then Agency B, and 40% better than the average internet model" LOL.

Diana Moffitt wrote:
normal.  a cd or a digital sheet of all the pics.  your booker picks the selects (if there are any).

an agency with a casting call on omp?  now that's unusual!

Yes,   And also what doug said.

The reasoning is that the booker/agency wants to see how you move and it is there JOB to make sure the best shots are chosen for you.

It is their job to make sure you are presented well.   Many photographer have their own way of seeing images and a great image for a photographer is not necessarily a great image for a model.

Also many models, especially new ones do not know who to pick the best shots.  Or how they are going to be marketed.

Just look at how many models here think fashion is the best way to go when they would be far better off going the commercial photography route.

This is actually very logical and often done by a land based agency when dealing with new photographers or models.

There is logic but I would be somewhat dubious of any internet based agency especially one that is searching for models through the internet.

Ask the photographer for they have to okay this process with the agency anyway.   If this was arranged by the agency then fine but if not then the permission of the photographer is wise if not needed.

Dax wrote:
I dont mind it.

I usually give the agency a unretouched cd/dvd with all images, for them to pick the ones they like. I do delete some like, the ones where the model has her eyes closed.. or random misfires.. etc..  besides that, the agency gets everything... it doesnt bother me.

i personally have brought CDs of images to my local agancies so the images could be used by the angency to promote a model that has worked with me..a land based agency is a different story..

but your saying that you would allow this model to send all your high resolution images to someone online that she doesnt know or hasn't met? this is how images wind up as hooker cards in las vegas...

Lori Yin wrote:
For those of you who said it is reasonable I understand your point, but do you know why they would request full sized images, keeping in mind they are also requesting hard copies or compcards? And it is really necessary for them to obtain all the pictures from every single shoot that I've done and that I am going to do?  To me that sounds a bit excessive, I would think updating images every couple months is plenty enough...

I think your thinking is good thinking cause you have thought in the most thoughtful way that you can think and thus we have good logical thoughts with all this thinking.

The story that you are getting does seem to be stinking.

Jay Dezelic wrote:

Hmm.  I don't know.  It doesn't sound like a bad idea to me for an agency to try and get an idea of the ratio of good shots vs bad that a model can produce.  The base line would have to be that they know the capability of the photographer though.

Even though it may not be typical, it is a valid way for someone to evaluate the performance of a model.  You cannot tell how cooperative and photogenic a new model is just by looking at their best shots.  Some models look great in every frame, while others only look good at specific angles.  As a catalog client for instance, I would want to cast models that look good at the widest variety of angles because you don't know which shots are going to be the best for the clothing.  The agency may also want to see the variety of posses the model offers the photog durring the shoot.

A lot of businesses are revamping their quality assurance objectives and comming up with new proceedures every day.  Could be a sign of new trends as agencies try to differentiate themselves from one another as well as from independent "internet" models.

I can see it now; Agency A says:"Our models look good from 30% more angles then Agency B, and 40% better than the average internet model" LOL.

Hmmm...I know.

I worked with an advertising agency for a ton of years. Senior Account Executive here. I interacted daily with Model and Talent Agencies. Trust what I am saying about old, trusted, reliable and productive agencies. Recruiting/accepting models is not the same as placing models with paying gigs. Your intro is not cause for hundreds of CD images.

The guy who talked about the contact sheets is right. But this occurs for shoots that they book you for, hardly for recruiting purposes. If they are seriously interested in you, rather than play the ludicrous 30% - 40% game suggested by this poster, they do what is called test shoots. Sometimes this test shoot is repeated per casting call.

There are a lot of brand new agencies out there, spurred on by this new fangled internet thing and the new ease of accessability. However, very few of them have much experience in the field and many are making up their own rules. Many are fishing.

How many people here are giving advice based on true, real world years of successful experience? Or are they just advising you from their gut? Also it is a misnomer to assume you have to "look good" to be placed by an agency. Their are hundreds of different types of looks that are required for and by clients. Depending on who your agency has on its client list, there are many, many things they are looking for in new models.

Always check an agency's clientelle list. Quite a few established and successful agencies will have Advertising Agencies among their list of clients because advertising agencies probably use talent agencies more than any other end user, ie: magazines, commercial busineses, video companies, etc.

When we hired a model through a talent agency, after the shoot, the photographer, whom we buy the images from, provided us with the series of images which we, not the model, then provided a sampling of to the talent agency. Your job is to look outstandingly like what we need. We handled all the paper work and incidentals.

Lori Yin wrote:
Well they put out a casting call on OMP saying they were looking for new models, and I applied just to get some more information about them and see what it was all about.  They actually want me to burn an extra CD and send it to them every time I have a shoot with any photographer doing any type of pictures, be it swimwear, glamour, lingerie, etc. and they want full-sized pictures as well as web-sized images, which was a big part of what caught my attention because they would be able to print images then.  They already want hard copies too so I dont know what that is for.  Of course they told me my they would not use my pics for anything but promoting me, but how do I really know that?  It doesn't state that anywhere in the contract either. I just started talking to them so I havent gotten a chance to research them but they are just starting up.  BTW, I'm not a veteran on the boards, so am I allowed to name them or what or will somebody lock the post??

You said the magic words, "a casting call on OMP", run far and run fast! Legitimate agencies don't do casting calls, esp not on OMP!

Lori Yin wrote:
Well they put out a casting call on OMP......

Say no more.

They are not a real agency. Period.

Want to get in touch with a real agency? Walk in the doors on a go-see.

Lori Yin wrote:
Is it normal for an agency to request that you submit CDs of full-sized images of every single shoot you do to them, which would include all the bad, unusable shots on the CD?  I am talking with a potential agency and they are requesting this.  Why would they need full-size images when they will already have web images along with headshots/compcards?  And why would they want say, 100 images of the same look?  I have never heard of this before.

Well, for a start, as a model, you can't expect to receive pictures from every shoot you do, so how can your 'agency'?

Secondly, the photographer, or client, or whatever, would hold the copyright to the pictures, and the agency should ask the photographer, not the model.

And thirdly, it just seems wrong.

Eric Muss-Barnes wrote:
Say no more.

They are not a real agency. Period.

Want to get in touch with a real agency? Walk in the doors on a go-see.

Trust me Ive worked with major agencies for 20 years and they dont put out casting calls on OMP.

Terrace wrote:
it sounds like they just want to review your strengths and weaknesses by looking at all the images.  The agancy doesnt want to hire out models who can get one or 2 good shots out of a shoot. They want to see what you are doing in the shots that are turning out poorly, all for constructive critisism. Ideally, you should be able to go into a shoot and come out with all good images. Now, yes, that is damn near impossible but modeling is a job. They want to know what you productivity rate is. If you are 10% good shots and 90% not so good, they need to know, so that they dont embarrass themselves as a company sending out a model that cant..well, model.

I am sure your stuff is great, just be open to constructive coaching and feedback from the agency when they ask to see all the images. ~terrace

I want to live in your world! In my experience only one or two shots per photoshoot are used per ad campaign. A shoot can last all day trying to get the'perfect' shot speced in layout. 10% usable? That's shooting for the moon!

Yeah, but in web page modelling, GWC modelling and glamour modelling, I understand the standards are much lower and uber quality doesn't much matter when publishing cheapo series of 50 to 60 images for sale to horny guys.

I'll stick to ad campaigns. That's where the real money is.

Doug Swinskey wrote:

Dax wrote:
I dont mind it.
but your saying that you would allow this model to send all your high resolution images to someone online that she doesnt know or hasn't met? this is how images wind up as hooker cards in las vegas...

I was going by the opening post.. I didnt read where she mentioned omp and when I think Agency, I dont think omp.. I think fully licensed agencies. =\