Model Portfolio Checklist:

A Clear, unmanipulated head shot is at the heart 

of a good portfolio

A model’s portfolio is her most important asset, and should be compiled and constantly updated to present the owner as a competent, wholly professional and very employable commodity - a totally respected member of the model photography community.

Model Portfolios have constantly evolved over the years into a very streamlined and universally accepted formula, and every model, whether female or male, should do their utmost to comply with the well accepted conventions of the standard “book”.

Portfolios today can also exist as files on CD’s or DVD, or as pages on a website, but the traditional printed portfolio contained within a presentation folder is still the most valuable and useful possession a model of any experience level can possess.

It might be useful to note carefully, because seemingly many models, and far too many photographers who claim to provide model portfolio photoshoots, seem to misunderstand this important point: the collections of pictures appearing on Model Facebook pages, or on profiles on model social media sites, such as Modelmayhem, and Starnow, are NOT portfolios in the true sense which Industry Professionals expect. They are in fact simply collections of disparate pictures.

• A good portfolio should be highly focused, presenting the best of the best.
• It should consist of a minimum of eight images, and a maximum of twenty.
• It is not unknown for people in the industry to refuse to look at portfolios of more than 20 pictures.
• It should also provide the viewer with a strong idea of what the model is good at, and the direction she wishes to take in the future.
• It is not a collection of pics to illustrate her past history as a model.

What a Model’s Portfolio Should contain:

Not good photography, but Excellent photography, with excellent lighting, showing superb makeup skills, perfectly exposed and properly processed images, with accurate attention to detail.

Preferably colour images, however if black and white images are included, they should show an excellent tonal range and proper post processing. B and W should not be artsy farstsy crap, which might make the photographer look “creative”, but should first and foremost be about the model.

Colour and B and W versions of the same images should NOT be included.

Having stressed the importance of excellent photographs the whole portfolio is about the model, not the photographer.


Images to include without fail:

A good figure shot is essential

• One professionally shot image of the model’s face without makeup.
• At least one if not several headshots, the full head showing hair and with nothing lopped off by careless cropping out of frame.
• A bust shot, from between the bust and the waist upwards to the top of the head
• A three quarter figure shot, from thigh upwards to the top of the head
• These pics should be frequently updated, as the model, changes or grows older, changes hairstyles, gets teeth straightened, or other evident tweaks.
• Several pictures showing a variety of poses and clothing styles ...from casual to formal, and including beachwear. Bikinis, one piece swimsuits, shorts and blouses, jeans, slacks, dresses, skirts for girls and the equivalent styles for men.

Makeup for all portfolio shoots should be light and designed to enhance rather than disguise, and either professionally or skilfully applied specifically for photography: social or formal evening makeup does not photograph well.

Further pictures should show the type or genre of modeling you wish to concentrate on: for example a fashion model would have images of fashionable clothes complete with suitable accessories, a catalogue or advertising model would be shown presenting or demonstrating products, an aspiring television host would be photographed in a suitable set with broadcast legal clothing colours, etc


As Career Develops:

A model who has been successful enough to get paid work , should where possible include tear sheets from paid jobs she has completed and which have been published. Tear sheets should no longer be torn from magazines or wherever they appear, but high quality photographic copies of the pages should be made for inclusion in your portfolio, and any photographer who provided you with great folio pics, also has the expertise to do these quality copies for you.

If you are lucky, you may also be able to obtain outtake pictures from the campaign shoot to use in your folio, but do not ever expect to be able to use, or even get copies of the actual images used in the campaign, especially before the campaign is entirely completed.

Be aware though that amateur publications, photographs entered or taken as part of competitions
( such as swimsuit, or wet tee shirt comps and similar) are not suitable for use in your portfolio.

Neither are photographs which appear in vanity or exploitation online magazines, due to the very low level of acceptance, the non existent payments to models or any contributors, and the extremely poor overall quality of these “magazines”, they are not recognised by industry professionals as published work.

Remember if it is not PAID work, and it has not been published through normal channels, it is not really worth including in your portfolio. Be guided by photographers and artists when compiling their own portfolios: if it has to be explained it doesn't work.


Should NOT Contain:

• Nudity: Topless, full, or even “implied”
• Lingerie or sheer: although becoming acceptable in some quarters, the majority of industry professionals still frown on this kind of work in a normal working portfolio
• Zombies, sugar skulls, disaster victims or any similar “theme shoot” material where your identity is disguised or obliterated by makeup...your portfolio face should be a “blank canvas” to be considered for its suitability for a job, not a "work of art" advertisement for some “creative” makeup girl.
• Theme shoots may or may not be fun, but they are strictly amateur...consider just how many times in a publication or an advertisement you see a girl dressed as an ice-cream sundae pushing washing powder, or a horribly disfigured zombie as a featured cover girl?
• Any picture which isn’t quite up to the mark, but was included to make up the numbers.( Go out , do another shoot, and get a better picture)
• Bad photography, either or both technically or creatively, and posing which looks posed or forced.
• Photo-shopped images: no images should use photoshop tricks, screens, filters, over-saturation, HDR, or any of the multitude of “artistic”plugins. Photoshop correction should be limited to correcting tonal range, colour, and sharpness, and eliminating distracting background elements: skin blemishes, moles, freckles, operation scars should not be removed and figure altering manipulation is especially taboo.

If your photographer/s isist that any of these are "necessary" or "great for your folio". it is time for you to walk out and find a professioonal photographer who actually knows what s/he is doing, and has actually not only seen , but also photographed model portfolios in the past.

You would be surprised just how many have not!


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