We can only accept quality photos
It is in everyone’s interests for VisABLE to insist upon a high standard of pictures. We expect to negotiate on your behalf for our clients to pay you substantial fees when they book you. When they are paying a lot of money for you, clients have every right to expect to see good quality pictures of the artists and models we represent. We want to have the best possible images of you on the VisABLE website and they have to look very professional. It’s well known that when clients browse artist photos, they are swayed by the quality of the shots.
Your primary photo
When we put you forward to clients, the first they see of you is a thumbnail (see below) of your primary photo so it needs to be a clear, well-proportioned headshot, on a simple background (clients click on your photo to view your VisABLE Profile):
Please note: clients prefer to see you in colour so AVOID BLACK & WHITE PHOTOS if possible please.
Photo size
All photos must be 546 pixels wide by 684 pixels high*. This is the actual size of photo we require:
* We ask you to provide exact size photos so they look well-proportioned, ‘un-distorted’ and ‘un-clipped’ on the gallery and on your VisABLE Profile.. please see below for help and advice to help you achieve correctly-sized photos.
Your physical disability
The physical characteristics of your disability should be readily apparent in at least one photo if possible – this is important for clients that have a specific requirement in this respect, for their particular booking..
Additional photos (up to 6)
We recommend you provide the maximum 6 photos to give you the best chance of getting the work.. these could be of you performing:
In action:
Or you can do your own (but no ‘selfies’ please!) – if you are in a position to be able to use a professional photographer, they will certainly have the required skills, however you can achieve reasonable quality pictures if you are prepared to spend time and carefully plan a session with a friend, someone with a good eye for composition, who can take crisp, properly focused colour snaps on a good mobile phone or tablet, or of course, a digital camera. These are some of our current artists:
Photo advice
Your surroundings – ensure the background behind you is completely empty of anything not relevant to the shot. The small amount of background that is visible behind you should be in keeping with your scene, as they do in an advertisement or film scene.
Your appearance – wear well-fitting clothing in solid blocks of bright colour ideally (avoid dark clothes). Ensure your hair is well styled and with the right feel for the setting, for example tousled is fine in a bathrobe having breakfast. Casual but tidy is good for a supermarket trip or immaculate in a suit for a corporate look.
Your expression – you will need to use a range of expressions to act out a scenario portraying a particular character (such as a customer or a hotel guest) rather than the holiday snap smile we all usually do, so that they look more like advertising shots – clients want all kind of different characters, so offer a range of looks and facial expressions.
Photo size
Profile photos need to be exactly 546px wide by 684px high.
To do your own photo resizing, follow the instructions below. If you don’t have image resizing software on your computer, you can use free online tools – see below (‘Resizing your photos).
Before you can edit photos, they need to be saved on your computer. Open a photo and change either the pixel width or height (maintain aspect ratio or the photo will become distorted). Your photo should then have only one dimension that is too great.. you will now need to use your ‘crop’ tool to ‘snip’ a bit off. If the photo is too short or narrow after you’ve changed one dimension, you will need to go back to the original size and redo it, changing the pixel size of the other dimension (i.e. if you changed the width first, you must change the height next time).
Please note, you can sometimes increase a dimension, but only of your photo is just slightly too small. Try to avoid increasing a dimension of a photo too much – it can make the photo grainy and less clear.
RESIZING PHOTOS USING ONLINE TOOLS
If you have no photo editing software installed on your computer there are online photo-editing tools available to use free… we’ve looked at ipiccy.com which seems quite easy to use and we’ve put some directions below for you for resizing photos:
1. Click ‘Start editing!’ button.
2. Click ‘Upload photo’ and show a path to the photo you wish to edit.
3. Click on the photo and click ‘Open’ – the photo should be displayed onscreen.
4. Click the ‘Resize image’ button on the left menu – this will display the size of the photo in pixels (px).
5. Change the width to 546px. The height will change automatically to keep the photo proportional (constrain proportions), otherwise the photo would become distorted. Provided the height is greater than 684px, click the ‘Apply’ button.. if the height is now less than 684px, please skip directions 6-10 (go to direction #11).
6. Your photo has been changed to the correct width, so you now have to crop (cut off) some off the height – click on the ‘Crop picture’ button in the left menu.
7. Using your mouse, select the whole area of the photo. A transparent box will appear – stretch this to cover the full photo area.
8. In the ‘Crop picture’ box in the left menu you’ll see 2 number input boxes under the heading ‘Actual size’ … the left box will be 546 (the width), so you now need to change the measurement in the right box (the height) to 684. The transparent box now shows the 546px x 684px area of the photo – move the transparent box up/down to suit and click the ‘Apply’ button.
9. You now need to save the image onto your computer – click the ‘Save’ icon at the top/middle of your page to display the ‘file save’ dialogue box. Give your photo a name (make it relevant and descriptive). Leave the default quality setting at 85%, and the image file format JPG. Now click the ‘Save to my computer’ button – this will open the ‘Save as’ dialogue box. Show a path to where you wish to save your photo (click on a folder to open it, click on further folders until you find the one you wish to save your photo in). Click the ‘Save’ button.
10. Click the ‘Close photo’ button… you can now edit further photos by clicking the ‘Upload photo’ button to start.
11. Click on the blue arrow at the top of the page to start again. Change the height to 684px. The width will change automatically to keep the photo proportional (constrain proportions), otherwise the photo would become distorted. Provided the width is greater than 546px, click the ‘Apply’ button.
12. Your photo has been changed to the correct height, so you now have to crop (cut off) some off the width – click on the ‘Crop picture’ button in the left menu.
13. Using your mouse, select the whole area of the photo. A transparent box will appear – stretch this to cover the full photo area.
14. In the ‘Crop picture’ box in the left menu you’ll see 2 number input boxes under the heading ‘Actual size’ … the right box will be 684 (the height), so you now need to change the measurement in the left box (the width) to 546. The transparent box now shows the 546px x 684px area of the photo – move the transparent box left/right to suit and click the ‘Apply’ button.
15. You now need to save the image onto your computer – click the ‘Save’ icon at the top/middle of your page to display the ‘file save’ dialogue box. Give your photo a name (make it relevant and descriptive). Leave the default quality setting at 85%, and the image file format JPG. Now click the ‘Save to my computer’ button – this will open the ‘Save as’ dialogue box. Show a path to where you wish to save your photo (click on a folder to open it, click on further folders until you find the one you wish to save your photo in). Click the ‘Save’ button.
16. Click the ‘Close photo’ button… you can now edit further photos by clicking the ‘Upload photo’ button to start.
You may not be able to get the required area of the photo at first, so you may need to practice a bit. You may find it better to crop some photos before you resize them and crop further afterwards. There are many other image adjustment tools on ipiccy.com to help enhance a photo, including exposure levels, shadows, colours and an automatic ‘Fix’ tool.
Uploading your photos
You upload photos at the bottom of your ‘Edit your Profile’ page (see diagram below)… you need to be logged in to visablepeople.com to do it. When you need to update (replace) your photo, follow exactly the same procedure…
Please note – all photos have to be approved so you won’t see them on your Profile straight away. We’ll look at them as soon as we can.