Model digitals — still called polaroids in casting rooms, decades after the instant film that named them stopped being the tool — are plain, unretouched photographs of you against a blank wall in fitted clothing, no makeup, hair down, shot in daylight. A full set is eight or nine frames. Agencies ask for them before they will meet you, ask again every few months once you are signed, and send them to clients next to your book. They are the least glamorous images in your career and they decide more than any of the others.
The reason is structural. Everything else in a submission is a collaboration: a photographer chose the light, a stylist chose the clothes, a retoucher closed the pores. Digitals strip all of that away and answer the one question a portfolio cannot — what actually walks through the door on the day. A set that flatters you is worse than no set at all, because the fitting reveals the truth anyway, and by then someone has paid for a flight.
What digitals prove, and how they differ from your book and your card
Your book shows what you can do with a crew. Your comp card is the printed reminder left behind after a room has seen forty people, which is its own small discipline. Digitals show what you are this month, under light that hides nothing.
A booker reads a digital for things that a styled image conceals. Bone structure under flat, directionless light. Skin texture at its real resolution. Body proportion — shoulder line, the ratio of torso to leg, where the waist actually sits. Posture at rest, which is not the posture you hold when someone is calling instructions at you. And whether your hips read at the number you typed into the form, because that number determines the sample size a client pulls before you arrive.
None of that requires a good photograph. It requires an honest one, which is why trying to make an impression here is the mistake.
The shot list agencies expect
Most agencies publish specs, and where they do, follow theirs. Absent that, the standard set covers the face from every angle a client will see it and the body without interpretation.
- Face, straight on, neutral. Eyes to the lens, mouth closed and relaxed, hair pulled back off the face and ears so the shape of the skull reads.
- Face, straight on, smiling. A real smile with teeth. Commercial clients live in this frame.
- Profile, left. Profile, right. Two separate frames, chin level, eyes forward rather than cut toward the camera.
- Face, three-quarter turn. The angle most editorial work is shot from.
- Full length, front. Arms relaxed at your sides and slightly off the body, feet hip width, weight even on both legs.
- Full length, side. Arms hanging naturally, not pinned back to flatten the stomach.
- Full length, back. Hair up or moved aside so the shoulders and spine are visible.
- Hair down, one frame. If the earlier face shots had it tied, show its real length and texture, unstyled.
Fashion agencies usually want one full-length frame in swimwear or simple underwear, because it is the only way to see the body rather than the clothes. Parts and hand work needs a separate set of its own. Shoot several exposures of each frame and keep the sharpest, not the prettiest — those are rarely the same file.
Wardrobe, hair, and makeup: the details that get a set rejected
Clothing should be fitted, plain, and quiet. A black or white tank or T-shirt with skinny jeans, leggings, or fitted shorts works for everyone. Men typically add one shirtless torso frame. Barefoot for most frames; add heels to one full-length shot only if the agency asks.
What ends up in the reject pile:
- Anything with a logo, print, or pattern. The eye goes to the graphic instead of the collarbone.
- Loose fabric. Baggy clothes are indistinguishable from a body you are hiding, and get read as exactly that.
- Jewellery, watches, sunglasses, a hat. Remove all of it, including the ring you never take off.
- Makeup of any kind. Concealer and mascara are visible under flat light and cost you credibility for a blemish nobody cared about.
- Fake tan, lash extensions, a fresh blow-dry, coloured contacts. All of it is a temporary version of a person the client will not meet.
Skin breaks out. Shoot anyway, and do not retouch it. Agencies see hundreds of faces a week and know what a spot is; what they cannot forgive is a smoothed jaw that turns out to have a different shape in person. If you want to calibrate how little processing a credible image carries, look through a range of working model profiles and notice how plain the honest ones are.
Camera, light, and background
A phone is correct. A studio is not: studio-lit digitals read as an attempt to control something you were asked to leave uncontrolled.
Use the rear camera at its standard 1x lens. The 0.5x ultrawide bends proportion at the edges of the frame, which is precisely where your legs are. The 2x and 3x lenses compress features flatteringly, which is a lie the fitting will catch. Turn off portrait mode, beauty smoothing, filters, and flash. Some phones smooth skin by default; find that setting and disable it before you start.
Height of the lens does most of the work. For face frames the camera sits at your eye level. For full-length frames it drops to roughly your waist — shot from chest or eye height, the legs shorten and the head enlarges, and every agency has seen that distortion enough to distrust the set. Frame the whole body with a small margin above the head and the feet fully inside the edge.
Light should be soft and frontal. An overcast day outdoors, open shade, or a spot indoors facing a large window all work. Face the light. Never shoot with a window behind you, never in direct midday sun, which digs shadows into the eye sockets, and never under ceiling lights alone. The background is a plain wall in a mid tone, free of doors, switches, radiators, and mirrors. Avoid a white wall if you are very fair or blonde, since the edges of your face dissolve into it.
Stand still. Weight on both feet, shoulders down, hands unclenched, no hip cocked, no chin tucked, no posing. Neutral is not a lack of information; neutral is the information.
Sending them, and keeping them current
Export as JPG in sRGB, a few megabytes each. Do not send HEIC, which fails to open on plenty of agency machines, and do not zip anything unless you were asked to. Name files with your actual name and the frame: anna-petrova-digitals-face-front.jpg, not IMG_4471. One email or one form submission, never five.
Measurements go in the body of the message or the form field, never printed across the image: height, bust or chest, waist, hips, dress and shoe size, hair, eyes, plus your date of birth and the date the digitals were shot. The agencies reading your submission check that date first, and an undated set is read as an old one.
Reshoot every three or four months, and immediately after anything changes — a cut, a colour, a size, several months of training. A stale set that flatters you buys a trip you should not have taken. Keep the set on your phone as well as in your email: agencies often shoot fresh digitals on the spot at open calls, and a booker who asks for them at a casting expects a file you can send from the pavement outside.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really shoot digitals on a phone?
Yes, and a phone is usually the better tool: a modern rear camera in daylight resolves skin and proportion perfectly well. What matters is the lens choice, the height of the camera, flat frontal light, and a plain wall — not the price of the sensor.
Should I hire a photographer for them?
No, and paying for studio digitals is one of the clearest ways to mark yourself as new. A friend who can hold a phone steady at the right height and take six frames of each pose is exactly the right level of production. Save the budget for the book, where a photographer changes the outcome.
Am I allowed to wear any makeup at all?
None. Not tinted moisturiser, not brow gel, not the mascara you consider invisible. The entire purpose is to show an agency the face they will have to sell before anyone touches it, and light this flat reveals every layer. The same applies to retouching: send the frame with the blemish in it.
What if I am not comfortable in swimwear or underwear?
Say so, and send the full-length frames in fitted clothing instead. It is a normal request to decline, particularly early on, and a legitimate agency will not push it. Fashion bookings are decided partly on how the body reads, so a swimwear frame will eventually be asked for — and any request that arrives from a stranger with no agency behind it, or that escalates beyond swimwear, is not a modelling request at all.
How often do I need to update them?
Every three to four months as a baseline, and immediately after any visible change. Most agencies quietly discard anything older than about six months, since the point of a digital is currency rather than quality. It is a twenty-minute job against a wall you already own; there is no good reason for it to be out of date.