Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography and Design
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Composite Cards, Composite Card Photography, and Comp Card Design

Tampa comp cards
Aurora PhotoArts composite cards benefit from over a decade of professional design and modeling industry experience. For the best value, our modeling portfolio photography services can lead into the creation of equally effective composite cards. You don’t have to go anywhere else for either service, although services are separately booked.
Models who already have pictures from their portfolio which they intend to use in their comp cards can also have their composite cards done through us, although we recommend that they book our composite card design services instead of going through us for printing. The reason is that, unless the photographs are created by us, the quality of the final composite card may be limited. Pictures of less than professional quality will yield less than professional quality composite cards, as the pictures can be the limiting factor.
You HAVE to invest the best quality modeling portfolio pictures before you can obtain the best quality composite card. If you put low quality ingredients in, you will not end up with a composite card which is as good as it could be. Models which take short cuts, try to get cheap comp cards, and use low quality comp cards will not be able to compete against professional models who have invested in high quality, professional composite cards.
Although Aurora PhotoArts offers composite card services with special offers in the Tampa Bay area to our modeling portfolio photography clients, we also offer comp card design services to clients anywhere in the world. Simply follow instructions, email us your picture files, stats, and information, and let us know what kind of design that you want, and we can put together a composite card file which you can get printed at any printing company. We also accept pay pal for Internet composite card design services.
On the subject of the Internet, Aurora PhotoArts pioneered the Web Comp in 2002, and these Web Comps became a hit with the models of Independent Modeling. A Web Comp is a one-sided composite card image file which can be viewed on the Internet, used on modeling web sites, and emailed. Instead of mailing Web Comps, these useful online comp cards can be instantly sent to prospective, pre-solicited modeling jobs. Web Comps were meant to augment physical, printed composite cards, and not to replace them. A physical composite card can be held, and viewed, and it demonstrates that the model has invested in their career, which helps their professional credibility, especially when the model is booking the job without going through a modeling agency. A Web Comp is convenient, and looks professional, too. Many models, who find and book work independently without going through a modeling and talent agency, follow up the initial telephone contact with a prospective modeling job by emailing them a Web Comp and a cover letter of introduction, which can be printed from their computer in their office. If interested in the model, the modeling job will let them know, and the model can then physically mail them their composite card, resume, and a cover letter relevant to the job, which would be used in the go-see. The model also often mails out their composite card for the consideration of future modeling jobs that might become available. Of course, the go-see is the actual interview where the modeling jobs considers the model, along with other models who are competing with them for the job. The model would then bring their actual portfolio book, which shows more of their range of possible looks that they can obtain as a model than their comp card does.
Just like a professional modeling web site does not replace a physical modeling portfolio, and works with it to enhance both, the Web Comp does not replace the physical, printed composite card. All have their advantages and disadvantages, as well as their appropriate, optimized specialized use. When used together, they overlap, enhancing the ability of the model to promote and market their modeling career. As a result, models who use all of these tools have the best chance of booking the modeling jobs that they want.

Designing your modeling composite card
The best composite cards show the highlights of your overall modeling portfolio, and demonstrate a range of looks. They are also printed in vibrant, rich color, and on paper stock of exceptional quality. When competing against other models for consideration of the same modeling job, you need every advantage that you can get. Since the first thing that the modeling jobs sees is your composite card, your comp IS your first impression as a model. It’s even more critical than your modeling portfolio is, because if your composite card isn’t that great, you probably will never get the chance to show your portfolio to begin with, because you’ll never be called in for a go-see.
A normal composite card is about 8 X 5 ½ inches in size, with a headshot on the front, and four additional pictures, each demonstrating a separate look, on the back. Sizes, layouts, and number of pictures used vary, of course, as do prices. On average, composite cards are about 5 X 7 inches, though.
On the front of the composite card is the name of the model. The agency contact sticker is usually placed here, too. The back of the comp card have the stats of the model, which includes height, eye color, hair color, measurements, etc.
The design of the composite card should put an emphasis on the pictures, and the composite card should not be designed so fancy and busy that it competes with the pictures, or distracts from them. Although some might say that a comp card should only contain three looks, because it is less of a chance for the modeling job to see something that they don’t like (and we actually had an agency booker tell us that when we asked why a comp card only had three looks when it could have had five), we find such advice handicapping, limiting, pessimistic, and would result in a less effective comp. Although the front of the comp card, with a commercial, catalog, or lifestyles modeling composite, should contain a headshot photograph which shows what you look like with minimal makeup so that people can see what you look like, the other four looks on the back of the card should show the maximum range of looks that you can achieve as a model, which would be the highlights of your portfolio. The larger the variety of looks that you can demonstrate as a model, the more marketable you will be in your modeling career, because there will be a higher chance that one of your looks will be relevant for the modeling job that you are trying to book. The looks on the back should reflect casual / lifestyle, fashion (if that’s what you can pull off), and a tear sheet photo, if you have one. Tear sheets are often good to use because they show that you have experience as a model. With that headshot photograph on the front, you should also make sure that one of the pictures on the back of the card is a long shot, showing your entire body in your best posture, so that people can see how your body looks.
On the subject of headshots and headshot photography, it just happens that Aurora PhotoArts specializes in, and offers, Tampa talent headshots, too, which are a part of a modeling portfolio photography package! With a six look modeling portfolio package, each look would also have a headshot photograph with that look, so every modeling portfolio photography session has at least six different headshot looks, which is four more than actors and talent get in their headshot photography sessions!

Printing your composite card
Some models print their composite cards at home on their PC printer on photo paper, or have them printed as cheap laser composite cards.
Don’t be that model. You won’t give a good impression, and, in the best situation, you will blend in with the crowd of other models using laser composite cards, and it will be harder to get noticed by the modeling job. Doing so is ineffective in marketing your modeling career.
For as far back as we’ve been in business, that standard type of composite card in the Tampa Bay, and Florida, modeling industry were cheap cards printed on laser printers. These laser cards, although having the advantage of having small print runs and low prices, had washed-out colors and a flimsy feel to them. They were, and still are, barely adequate.
Those cards are still the standard, and are the comp cards that you will find the average model using.
You don’t want to be average, though, do you? The smart model has their comp card printed on heavier stick, 12 PT or better, and has it printed using a 4 / 4 color process. The only drawback, however, is that, to make these cards cost-effective, that larger print runs have to be done. This works well, however, and we can explain.
Laser modeling composite cards can be had for less than $100.00, and in small print runs of 70 to 100 cards. High quality composite cards, which blow the laser comps away in every way, are usually printed on heavy 14 PT stock which is UV coated to protect the comp and to retain the color saturation, and the comps are printed with a 4 / 4 color process for accurate colors and the best contrast. The drawback? They are over twice the price of laser comps, and to make such cards cost-effective, actually dropping the price per comp lower than that of a laser-printed composite card, you have to order at least 900 comp cards.
Now, this isn’t a problem, if you think about it, unless you are tight on money and don’t want the best quality composite cards than you can get for your career. We’ve heard the arguments that models should do print runs of the smallest number of comp card as possible in order to keep their cards fresh every six months or so. Models, they say, should at least give the impression that they are working by redoing their composite cards with new pictures every six months. Well, we disagree. First of all, giving anyone the impression that the model is working by redoing their composite cards is deceptive, in our opinion, unless the model really is working that much. Also, do you really think that everyone has seen your card when you send it out? Is your comp card omnipresent, and everyone in your market instantly sees it the moment that you get it back from the printers? We didn’t think so. Everything old is new if it’s the first time that you see it.
The bottom line is that, unless something in your look changes to make the comp card misleading, that a good comp card can be used for up to a year. Sure, if you are resubmitting to the same modeling job, and they didn’t like your card, a different card might open doors (although it wouldn’t be worth it to simply go out and get new cards just for one modeling job client. If they don’t think that your look is what they need, then nothing will change their mind. A good, solid card works well, and is cost effective, regardless how often it is seen; the only time that a card should be changed with the same modeling job looking at it is when the card is ineffective, and flawed, to begin with), but it is the exception rather than the rule.
Here at Aurora PhotoArts, we’ve used the same portfolio, with minor additions of photos every now and then, for a decade, with really NO PROBLEMS worth mentioning (there was this one aspiring male model who made an issue about copyright dates on pictures dating them to seven years in the past, but that was it. Without the years printed on the pictures, this would not have been an issue at all). It’s been extremely effective, as great pictures are great pictures. We are not one of those companies who constantly has to reinvent and update their portfolio, as we came up with a solid, effective one to begin with, and it continues to work; having to constantly redo a portfolio is often an indication that it was flawed, and that mistakes were made, and that the one behind the portfolio does not know what they are doing. Do it right the first time, and you find that you don’t have to make extra work for yourself by constantly having to fix and update what you’ve done. As long as you don’t date the work, every portfolio, and composite card, is new if they’ve never seen it before. Good work is good work, and it is effective regardless of how old it is. A high quality, effective composite card will still work, too, as long as the looks on the card do not misrepresent the looks that the model can achieve (if your weight and overall look change, you would have to change the composite card and update it). Because people do change in appearance over the period of a few years, we would say that using a composite card for a year would be the limit, unless your looks have not changed. If that’s the case, then go right ahead and use those “old” composite cards.
You don’t have to work with the same composite card for a year, though, if you don’t want to. That six month period can be used as a general rule of thumb, although we think that it was created by people who sell composite cards (which would be us, too, but really, we don’t try to increase business by stating things which would make someone make and buy new composite cards more often than they have to; it’s not fair to the client). Let’s see how an order of 900 comp cards can work in a six month period.
Lacey the model knows what she is doing. She is a professional independent model who finds and books work on her own, as well as allows several modeling and talent agencies to work for her and to represent her. Sometimes she finds and books a modeling job before the agency can refer her to it, and this saves both herself and the modeling job money, because they do not have to pay agency fees. Lacey also makes the same rate for the job regardless of whether she books it on her own, too, and the modeling job should have no problem paying her usual full rate because she has already saved them money by cutting out the agency middleman.
This independent modeling strategy also gives Lacey an advantage over the less proactive, agency-only models who sit around and wait for an agency to refer them to job leads, as Lacey often finds the modeling job leads before the agency bookers do. Also, the smart agencies already know that independent models like Lacey will often book modeling jobs without going through them, and that the independent model books work, which makes them more valuable because they are booking and making money. Because of the economic realities that they would rather Lacey be referred to the job before she can do it on her own, the modeling agency is then motivated to work harder for Lacey so they don’t lose out on money. The agency does not want to get cut out of money from models who compete with them, so they try harder to find those job leads and refer them to the independent models before they refer them to the models who are not going out and finding work on their own. This further puts the agency-only models at a disadvantage, as they don’t have the priority that models like Lacey have.
At any rate, because Lacey is actively seeking out modeling jobs on her own, as well as allowing more than one agency to find job leads for her, she is going to need more composite cards than the model who is limited by being agency-only. An independent model using multiple sources of modeling job lead will use between five to ten times the number of composite cards over a six month period than a lazy agency-only model who works with one or two agencies. That independent model will also book a lot more jobs than the agency-only models because they are out there more, and are far more visible. Because they book more work for the same amount of comparable effort, Independent models also see more of a profit over their investment. The composite cards are far more cost-effective for them than cheap laser comps are.
900 cards do not seem like a lot of comp cards, now, do they? Some independent models easily send out more than that in six months, because they are constantly sending out cards, or giving their cards out, and because EACH of the agencies that represent the model has to have their own supply of comp cards from the model to send out. Some models are so busy that they buy thousands of comp cards at a time, and go through that order in a few months. Those models also book more work, and make more money, than agency-only models who depend solely on the agencies, and allow their careers to be limited by only going through an agency.
There is another point, too. When you are investing in high quality composite cards, you are paying for the quality and the advantage that having a more effective composite card gives you over the models who you are competing with. All of those extra cards are a bonus. When you look at it differently, and look at all of the angles, it makes sense.
Modeling, like any career or self-contained business, is a numbers game. The more you get out there, the more that you are going to work. The more that you use those high quality composite cards, the more they will make sense, and the cheaper they will be as the work gained offsets any higher costs.

Web Comps - An Aurora PhotoArts exclusive!

The concept of the Web Comp, which is convenient for models to use because it can be used on their modeling web site and emailed to prospective modeling jobs instantly, was created by Aurora PhotoArts and Independent Modeling in 2002. Web Comps are an excellent companion to the traditional printed modeling composite card, and when used together, both play up to their advantages while compensating for the disadvantages of the other.
Web Comps are more convenient, and an effective low-cost modeling promotional tool. Composite Cards are less convenient, but more professional.
Web Comps, too, can be printed from any computer, or copied onto a cell phone, PDA, digital device, digitial photo frame, an iPod Touch, or even an iPad.
The really cool thing about Aurora PhotoArts Web Comps is that models who have their composite cards designed by us also receive a Web Comp file, too, at no additional charge, for a limited time. The Web Comp file can be copied as many times as needed, too, and it is virtually a comp card in unlimited numbers!

Getting your Aurora PhotoArts composite card

Aurora PhotoArts modeling portfolio photography clients all receive discounts on their composite card set up services as long as all of the pictures used in their composite cards come from us. The details and rates will be discussed with you with your booked modeling portfolio photography session. Otherwise, if you already have pictures from another photographer, the rates will be higher. We also have several tiered services packages available. Please call us at (813) 546-0092 for more information.

PUBLISHED 05/05/11

UPDATED 05/03/12