What Photos Do You Need In A Modelling Portfolio?
Start with what the portfolio needs to show
There is no single list of photographs that every modelling portfolio must contain.
What you need depends on where you are starting, the kind of work you are interested in and whether an agency, casting or client has given you specific requirements.
But a useful portfolio usually needs to answer a few simple questions.
What do you look like?
How do you photograph?
How do you move and hold yourself?
And can you show enough range without becoming unrecognisable from one photograph to the next?
The portfolio needs to show you, not everything you can become.
Start with a clear portrait
You need at least one photograph in which your face can be seen clearly.
It does not need elaborate styling.
Hair, makeup, clothing and lighting should not make it difficult to see your features.
Simple does not mean ordinary.
A strong, direct portrait can do a great deal of work.
Include a full-length photograph
A full-length photograph shows more than your height and proportions.
It shows posture, line and how you hold yourself.
Clothing should allow your shape to be seen rather than hiding it beneath layers or oversized garments.
The photograph itself can remain very simple.
There is nowhere to hide in a simple photograph.
Show expression
Not every photograph should have the same face.
A useful portfolio can show how expression changes you — direct, quiet, open, serious, smiling or somewhere between them.
This does not mean performing a different character in every frame.
Small changes can be enough.
The aim is to show that your face can do more than one thing naturally.
Show how you move
Some people photograph very differently once they begin to move.
A portfolio can benefit from photographs that show how you use your body rather than only how you stand still.
That may come through a shift of weight, a turn, the line of an arm or something more fluid.
You do not need to arrive knowing how to do this.
I direct movement throughout the session.
Add something stronger when it earns its place
Once the simpler photographs are covered, there may be room for something with stronger styling, expression, shape or mood.
This is not compulsory.
And it should not be added simply because a portfolio is supposed to look varied.
A stronger photograph is useful when it shows something that the other photographs do not.
Different is only useful when it adds something.
Do you need smiling photographs?
Perhaps.
A natural smiling portrait can be useful for someone pursuing work where warmth and approachability matter.
For someone else, it may add very little.
There is no reason to include one simply to tick a box.
The same principle applies throughout the portfolio: the photograph should have a reason to be there.
Do you need black-and-white photographs?
Not specifically.
A strong portrait may work beautifully in black and white, but a modelling portfolio does not need a black-and-white photograph simply for the sake of having one.
Colour and black and white are ways of presenting a photograph.
They are not portfolio categories.
Do you need location photographs?
Not necessarily.
A studio portfolio can show face, shape, expression, movement and range without changing location.
If the kind of work you are pursuing would benefit from photographs made elsewhere, they can be added when there is a reason for them.
The setting should never become more important than the person being photographed.
How many photographs do you need?
There is no useful universal number.
Someone making a first portfolio may need only a small group of photographs.
Someone who has been working for several years may have considerably more — but that does not mean all of them need to remain in the portfolio.
Look for repetition.
If three photographs do essentially the same job, you may only need the strongest one.
A portfolio can grow without becoming better.
Editing is part of building it.
Check what is being asked for
If you are approaching an agency, responding to a casting or submitting photographs for a particular job, check what they ask for.
They may have specific requirements for photographs, measurements, clothing, presentation or file format.
Follow those requirements rather than trying to make one portfolio fit every purpose.
Your portfolio is there to help someone see you clearly.
It does not need to prove everything at once.
Read 7 modelling portfolio tips →
View model & performer photography →
Ready when you are
Model & performer experience →
JOHANNESBURG PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER
One Moment. One Portrait. Forever
© 2005–2026 Bridget Corke Photography
Blairgowrie · Johannesburg · South Africa
International Master's in Portrait Photography
One of only two in Africa.