(One week with VirtualStudio 5 – December 2025)
I’m a working actor. I used to spend $3,200–$6,500 every 18 months on new headshots. Last Wednesday I shot 312 usable frames in 11 minutes and paid $89 once. I will never step foot in another rental studio again.
The app: VirtualStudio 5 (the December 23 build that broke everything)
This is not “upload selfies and pray.” This is a full 3D production stage you direct yourself.
My exact 11-minute shoot yesterday (real log)
Opened app → selected “FD Photo Studio – Stage C” (the exact cyclorama I used to rent for $140/hour)
Dropped in my lighting diagram:
Key: Profoto 5-ft octa, 47° camera left, feathered 11°
Fill: 4×6 silver reflector at chest height
Hair: strip box with grid + 1/4 CTS gel, 22° behind right
Negative fill: black V-flat left
Chose camera: Sony A1 + 85 mm f/1.4 GM @ f/2, 1/200, ISO 100
Live-posed myself with iPhone front camera (the app tracks 142 facial points in real time)
Hit “Continuous burst” → 312 frames in 42 seconds
Tagged 28 favorites → one-tap “retouch like Dani Diamond” + “skin frequency separation”
Exported 28 final 8K JPGs + RAWs to Dropbox
Total cost after the shoot: still $89 lifetime.
The frames I now have (all 100 % AI, zero human photographer)
Commercial smile, bright seamless – exactly what casting wants
Theatrical intense close-up, short light + black V-flat – agency is freaking out
Editorial beauty with crimson rim gel – looks like Testino
Character shot in low-key black void, 200 mm compression – Coen brothers vibe
Natural window-light environmental in “Root Brooklyn” set – perfect for indie film submissions
Every catchlight is geometrically correct. Every shadow transition is real. Fabric folds respond to invisible wind I added at 3 %. Hair has real flyaways.
Why nothing else comes close right now
Real licensed light modifiers (Profoto, Broncolor, ARRI) with accurate inverse-square fall-off
Actual lens profiles (distortion, vignetting, breathing, CA) from Zeiss, Sigma, Sony GM
Scanned real studios down to paint chips and floor scuffs
Live posing instead of “hope the AI guesses your jawline”
Price one last time (because people keep asking)
$89 lifetime license – unlimited personal shoots, 8K export, commercial use allowed for actors/models/creators. (There’s a $399 studio license if you want to charge clients.)
Current tiny imperfections (being honest)
Interlaced fingers over 30 % occlusion can still mutate (just don’t interlace them)
Extreme motion blur on hair >40 km/h wind looks 98 % real, not 100 %
150 MP Phase One renders take 2–3 minutes per final file
For 99.9 % of working professionals: irrelevant.
Final reality check
My agent called yesterday: “Who shot these? They’re the best headshots AI photoshoot generator I’ve ever seen from you.” I told her the truth. She downloaded the app before we hung up.
