Models' fees

Unfocussed Mike said

Retouchguy said

this is the result of less than 8 months old technology, you say you can spot it a mile away i say nonsense. in a year - two years i will say impossible 

It's not less than eight months old technology. It's years of effort that led to it. And possibly a million dollars spent training it just on the compute time. And the VC money is being burned through.

The question is, what do you expect to actually happen in two years? Do you think high end fashion houses will use AI models? High end magazines? How will they get the AI models to wear the real physical clothes that were templated and then physically assembled by the designer and their team? 

Fashion is based around editorial as much as it is marketing images, surely. Yeah, AI models are going to be indistinguishable, sure.  But the couture houses will still want actual real famous people to wear the clothes. Or they won't sell.

And they are hardly likely to distribute their designs in an easy digital form for random publications to wrap around their own AI models: there's little enough protection against design theft in the fashion industry as it is.

The point is they have already started doing just that, Fashion and beauty campaigns are already being published using aI generated models and content, and that software has only been available to public for 8 months, i realize AI has been around longer but that particular service started 8 months ago, there are as ive shown model agenciew offering AI models already running and offer spectacular realistic models, yes maybe on pixal depth look you may see it AI but in a year /two years no way you will

Edited by Retouchguy

Lenswonder said

FiL it's a reference to the date of shoot being valentine's Day.

The proposed shoot date is in January.

FiL maybe you have a different duo in pm but on the casting section I can see a duo for 27 Feb.

Michael_990 - Well ok then, Michael, I can forgive you.

But I now see that someone else is talking about AI. Probably about 5 different subjects in this 1 thread. No wonder I get so confused in these here forums.

HotFridgePhotos said

Michael_990 - Well ok then, Michael, I can forgive you.

But I now see that someone else is talking about AI. Probably about 5 different subjects in this 1 thread. No wonder I get so confused in these here forums.

It is about models and has been since start of convo and it follows the thread  

Retouchguy - Then it is totally my fault, so please forgive me, as I thought the OP was asking about the wages that the models get paid these days. I am off to SpecSavers now, to get a polishing cloth for my glasses.

HotFridgePhotos said

Retouchguy - Then it is totally my fault, so please forgive me, as I thought the OP was asking about the wages that the models get paid these days. I am off to SpecSavers now, to get a polishing cloth for my glasses.

Nope youre correct and in that subject model agencies offering AI models for rent was brought up, which is technically models and fees also, conversations will bring multiple threads along the same narrative that's a conversation, its still in the spirit of the ops question 

Lenswonder said

FiL maybe you have a different duo in pm but on the casting section I can see a duo for 27 Feb.

The approach wasn't via this site and the dates are different, so it's unlikely to be the same models I suspect.

Plus, models who are accustomed to approaching photographers direct tend not to place castings for TF.

Lenswonder said

I do wonder if other photographers who have done trios are loaded or have been approached for tfp.

I have shot trios for day rates getting paid myself, I have paid models (that is. client paid), I have shot TFP.
Depends on what is in the picture, who wants/needs the pictures, what are they used for.

Can anyone remember what this thread was actually about? :-(

Gothic Image said

Can anyone remember what this thread was actually about? :-(

model rates, everyone is talking about model rates

Gothic Image said

Can anyone remember what this thread was actually about? :-(

I can't remember anything further back than those ears on page 12!

FiL said

Gothic Image said

Can anyone remember what this thread was actually about? :-(

I can't remember anything further back than those ears on page 12!

The comment about model agency you mean :-) think everyone have ears :-D you hurt its feelings 

Edited by Retouchguy

I have also noticed many more castings asking for collaboration. A quick look just now at local castings and only one in ten is paid.  Times are hard the cost of coffee has gone up and models also have to eat. I cannot eat on collaboration. I have kept my fees  the same as they were five years ago. I don't know what else I can do. Agency and commercial work has thankfully kept up with inflation and this is my main income. Hobby photographer work hasn't. I am not blaming the photographers, they can't give what they don't have and if they love shooting but can't afford the model fee then I am sure they will find new starting models to collaborate with. Covid and then the finacial crisis have had huge effects on this in industry and I feel for those photographers who enjoy it being finacially squeezed.  

Thanks for all the interesting comments - particularly the insightful comments from models such as MarynaSedin78 , Holly Alexander and Infinity Valerie .

One thing I've learnt is that the pick-up in the economy that I described in my opening post is probably more localised than I realised - ie more localised to my circle of acquitances and more localised geographically to London and the South East.  I guess we all live in our own bubbles and social media just tends to reinforce pre-conceived views.

I'm still puzzled though: why does the price elasticity of demand for models seem to be so high?  In other words, it seems to me that small increases in models' fees (even if they simply reflect the 20% CPIH inflation over the last 3 years and a modest "promotional" increase) can reduce demand for their services to a greater extent than one would expect.  Other leisure activities seem to be less affected by price increases - the best restaurants in London are still packed, the gym is still full (particularly in January!) and there's still a waiting list for membership of the local golf club.

Every model is unique, so the economic theory is that unique goods and services are price inelastic.  In other words, if I like a particular model, I'll hire them at any cost.  That also applies to goods and services that are relatively cheap (and I still maintain that hiring a professional service at under £100 an hour is cheap).  The classic example from the old economics text books is that you could double the price of boxes of matches and smokers would still buy them, because the cost would still be immaterial compared to a smoker's overall wealth.