Plain photographs with no makeup and no retouching, by which an agency sees a face and a figure as they are. They are what you send first, before any portfolio.
The minimum set
Full length facing the camera, a portrait from the shoulders, profile from both sides, full length from the side and from the back. Even light, empty background, simple clothes — jeans and a T-shirt, swimwear for height and proportion. Hair down, face clean, ears and hands visible.
Why they have to be plain
The point is precisely the absence of a look: the agency needs to see what can be made of you, and a pose or makeup closes that question off. For the same reason group shots, filters and year-old frames are useless.
This is the one case where a phone is better than a good camera: nothing gets flattered, and that is what is being asked for.
How to shoot them
Daylight from a window, a blank wall behind you, the camera at chest height and about three metres away. Someone else holds the phone — an arm’s-length selfie distorts proportion, which is exactly what is being measured.
Stand straight, arms relaxed at your sides, feet together. No smiling in the first frame and a natural smile in the second.
How often
Every few months, and immediately after a haircut, a colour change or a change in weight. Outdated digitals are worse than none: they cost the agency a wasted introduction, and that is remembered.
Examples and the usual mistakes — «Digitals Agencies Actually Want».
