Digitals · Model tests · Portfolio days
model tests and portfolio days.
Clean digitals for agency submissions, and test shoots that build a book with range, in daylight or in the studio, in East London.
Packages
Four ways in, in detail.
Model test
£350
90 min · 2-3 looks · 4 retouched
The entry point. Enough time to relax and enough setups to leave with images that do different jobs.
Model test plus
£475
2 hrs · 5 looks · 7 retouched
The same session with the ceiling lifted, with room to try the setup we did not plan in advance.
Full portfolio day
from £650
4 hrs · 6 looks · 10 retouched
For people who need a book, not an update. Digitals shot the same day, so both sets read as one person.
Agency digitals
£175
45 min · 10 digitals
Polaroids, polas or digitals, whichever your agency calls them. The clean, honest set they ask for: front, both profiles, full length and a smiling frame.
Unretouched, agency-format images for models actively submitting to representation.
Add agency digitals to any test, £95. Shot in the same session, delivered to agency spec. Booked on their own they are £175.
Add-ons
What is quoted separately.
Every price above covers the session, the retouching and the delivery of the images listed. We are not VAT registered, so no VAT is added to any figure shown. Three things sit outside that, because they vary too much to fold into a price:
Licensing
All rates include usage for personal, professional and casting platforms such as Spotlight and IMDb. For commercial or press use, extended licensing is quoted separately.
Hair and make-up
An artist is available on request at an additional rate. Either that, or bring your own and do it here. Tell us in advance either way so it can be arranged around the shoot rather than in it.
Bespoke production
Fully bespoke creative direction, concept development or production-heavy sessions are quoted after a separate consultation.
Extra retouched images can be added after the shoot, once you have seen everything, which is a better way to decide than guessing beforehand.
Included as standard
- A private proof gallery
- Retouching on every finished image
- High-resolution and web-ready files
- Direction on posing, movement and expression
When you get them
Finished images land within two weeks as standard. If a casting will not wait, five working days adds 25 per cent and 48 hours adds 50 per cent. Either is agreed before the shoot rather than after it.
Editorial work published in Wonderland, GAY TIMES, VOGUE UA, HUNGER, Attitude, The Guardian and Stylist.
Questions we get
Asked before every booking.
Do I need polaroids or a model test?
Polaroids, sometimes called polas or digitals, are the plain current record an agency uses to submit you. A model test builds range for your book. If your agency asked for polaroids, book the digitals session.
How soon do I get the images?
Within two weeks as standard. Five working days adds 25 per cent and 48 hours adds 50 per cent, agreed when you book rather than after the shoot.
Is hair and make-up included?
Not in the session fee. An artist is available on request at an additional rate, or bring your own and do it here. Say which in advance so the day can be planned around it.
Can I use the images anywhere?
Every rate includes usage for personal, professional and casting platforms such as Spotlight and IMDb. Commercial or press use is quoted separately.
Where do you shoot?
Cell Studios in Clapton, East London, in daylight or under studio lighting depending on the look. We also shoot on location across London when a brief needs it.
How many images do I get?
Ten digitals from an agency session, four finished images from a model test, seven from a model test plus, and ten plus digitals from a full portfolio day. Extra retouched images can be added once you have seen the gallery.
How to book
Three steps, no deposit chasing.
Model tests and portfolio days are booked directly with the photographer. There is no agency in the middle and no booking fee.
1. Tell us what you need
Send your agency brief if you have one, or just say what is missing from your book. Include a rough week and whether you need digitals, a test, or both.
2. Get a date and a fixed price
You will hear back from the photographer, usually within one working day, with available dates and the total payable. No estimates that move later.
3. Confirm and plan the looks
The date is held once you confirm. Before the shoot we agree the looks, what you are bringing, and whether hair and make-up is being added.
Digitals from £175, model tests from £350, full portfolio days £650.
Quick overview
What a test day actually is.
Who it’s for
New faces, signed models, actors and performers building or refreshing a book.
Where
Cell Studios, East London. Daylight or studio lighting, depending on the look.
Sessions
From a 30-minute digitals slot to a four-hour full portfolio day.
Add-ons
Hair and make-up, and licensing where a client needs it.
Agencies do not want twenty versions of the same photograph. They want to see range: how you read straight to camera, in profile, in movement, in daylight and under studio light. Every package below is built around getting that range on file rather than filling a folder.
Selected work
Range, not repetition.
Packages, what each one includes and the full galleries are below.
From the journal
Before you book, read these.
Digitals or a model test?
They are two different products with two different audiences. Here is which one your agency actually asked for.
What agencies actually look for
What a booker is really assessing, and the mistakes that get a book put down.
What to bring to a model test
A practical checklist for the night before: clothes, grooming and what not to worry about.