Agency digitals vs a model test: which do you need?
These get confused constantly, including by people who have been signed for years. They are not two tiers of the same thing. They are two different products with two different audiences.
Digitals are evidence
Agency digitals (also called polaroids, though nobody has used an actual Polaroid for two decades) are a plain, honest record of what you currently look like.
Clean even light. Hair back or down but not styled. No make-up. Simple, well-fitting clothes that show your shape. Front, both profiles, full length, and a smiling frame.
The purpose is verification. A client who has seen your book wants to know what you look like today, without styling, without a good hair day, without clever lighting. That is the entire job.
Digitals should be updated whenever you change: new haircut, new colour, significant change in shape, a few months gone by. If your agency has a preferred cadence, work to that; otherwise the trigger is change, not the calendar.
Ours: £175, 45 minutes, ten unretouched digitals.
A test is an argument
A model test is creative work. Looks, lighting, styling, movement, mood. Its purpose is persuasion: to show a booker what you can do, what you look like when someone has thought about it, and whether you can take direction.
A good test answers the question: what would I get if I hired this person? A bad test answers: does this model own nice clothes?
Ours: from £350 for ninety minutes and up to three looks, up to £650 for a full portfolio session with six looks and digitals included.
So which do you book?
Book digitals if: your agency has asked for updated digitals or polaroids. That is a specific request for a specific thing and a creative test will not satisfy it.
Book a test if: you want more castings, your book looks the same as it did eighteen months ago, or you are approaching agencies for the first time and need something to show.
Book a full portfolio session if: you need both, which is common: six looks plus digitals in one four-hour session works out considerably cheaper than booking the two separately.
The mistake to avoid
Do not turn up to a digitals session with a suitcase and a styling idea. And do not book a 90-minute test when what your booker actually wanted was a clean set of digitals by Friday.
If you are not certain what has been asked of you, forward us the email. We have read a lot of them and we will tell you which one it is.
One more thing about tests
The best tests come from models who arrive with a point of view. Not a rigid plan, just some sense of who you want to look like in these pictures, and what is missing from your current book.
If your book is all soft and pretty, we should probably make something with an edge. If it is all edge, the thing that will get you work is something warm. Come with that thought and the session gets much better.
