Quick answer
Digitals show current appearance, model tests explore presentation range, and a comp card brings photographs and details into a short overview. One does not replace another when a recipient explicitly requests a particular set.
Digitals: show how you look now
Digitals answer questions about current facial features, profile and proportions. Keep presentation calm, lighting readable and styling unobtrusive. Check views and clothing in the agency’s form: Elite publishes its own requirements, which are not universal market rules.
Send real originals when unedited photographs are requested. AI relighting, background replacement and appearance changes are editing. Do not label such versions as unedited digitals.
Tests: explore presentation and add work
A test shoot works with expression, movement, light and styling. Its purpose is to add a specific direction to a book. Agree the brief, payment, image count, selection, timing, retouching and usage rights beforehand.
A styled test portrait may fit a comp card but not the digitals field in an application. The shoot’s label does not determine where to submit the image; the recipient’s requirements and what the image actually shows do.
Comp cards and books: select and organise
A comp card is a concise overview with selected images, a name, measurements and contact. A portfolio is a fuller sequence for a particular goal. Both need recognisable images, limited repetition and honest provenance.
You can already build a free Pola PNG comp card from five of your own photographs. Automatic digital processing and editorial generation have not launched. Label AI concepts separately: they do not establish a real shoot, agency contract or commercial experience.
Before sending
- Requested set understood
- Real digitals retained
- Tests selected for the goal
- Comp card contains current details
- Real work separated from AI concepts
Common questions
Can I submit a comp card instead of digitals?
Only when the recipient allows it. If the form asks for separate unedited views, prepare those files.
Do I need tests for a first application?
Follow the specific agency’s official requirements. Do not buy a shoot solely on the assumption that every submission requires one.
Primary sources
Check the original company or country requirements before submitting or travelling.