Actor/Artist Headshots require a bit of preparation and forethought if you are going to make the most of our session.
Clothing
Bring multiple options. Four or more of your best-fitting tops is a pretty good amount.
You want to wear clothing that will make you feel confident and comfortable, though we recommend keeping the shirt/blouse choices simple and unadorned. Solid colors are best. Prints can make a photo look dated before its time. Earth tones are great. It's hard to go wrong with black. Classic whites and greys are also a good choice. Stick to simple lines, no frills, no shoulder pads. After all, it is your face and head we are primarily featuring here.
But you can also bring some crazy and fun stuff (hat, leather jacket, Groucho glasses) if you want to play around with that. Whatever we shoot in should add to the personality you wish to convey.
All items should be ironed and ready for the camera. Please don't stuff all your outfits into a duffle bag or wad them up (but if you do, yes we have a steamer...). Time spent ironing out creases is time lost in front of the camera.
How your clothes fit is important. Don't bring baggy shirts or tops. Skip the polo shirts. They look floppy on camera.
While we are focused on headshot portraits here, don't fully neglect the pants or skirt, as often we'll want to shoot half-body or even 3/4 portraits, e.g. seated portraits, so pants or skirts, etc. should be presentable and neutral to work with most all tops/shirts.
We will shoot as many different looks as we can fit in, but remember the outfits and clothing are props. You are the main attraction, so outfits should support your expression and pose, not distract from it. Pick colors and styles that you feel most comfortable in.
Glasses and Jewelry
If you wear glasses and have more than one pair, bring them all. This is because we may want to try different looks, but also because some glasses are just impossible reflection magnets, and it is good to have alternatives.
What about jewelry? We are here to capture your story, not that of your jewelry. But if bold, colorful jewelry is part of that story, bring it along. Yet in most cases, simple jewelry or no jewelry at all is the best way to keep the viewer's attention on your face. Again: understated and simple is best for an enduring image, whether in business or the arts.
Face and Hair
If you shave, come freshly shaven and trimmed, including nose and ear hairs, and any eyebrow hairs gone wild. If you want to look clean-shaven, shave a few hours before our session. If you want the stubbly look, that's fine. But note that we cannot remove a 5 o'clock shadow with Photoshop.
If you have a beard or mustache, trim it up neatly and clean up the edges, especially along the neck for a clean look. Straggling hairs jump out and yell for attention.
If you are going to get a haircut or some coloring done, be sure to do it two or three days before our shoot.
You should arrive with your makeup and hair good to go – how you normally look. Fresh, natural, and classic are always best. Cameras tend to accentuate things, so less is more, and understated and subtle are the watchwords. Go easy on the base and especially light on eye makeup and mascara.
Go with the minimal amount of makeup you are comfortable with. Of course, if you want to go for a more dramatic, edgy look, by all means, let's do it. But you might want to bring whatever tools and supplies you need to remove or remake things mid-shoot, in case you change your mind. Try to avoid makeup with an SPF, which causes more shine.
If you don't normally wear makeup, you may want to use a bit of moisturizer ahead of time, as a high-res camera will pick up on dry skin. The same goes with lips – dry lips are not a good look; bring some lip balm if you think you are going to need it.
In a headshot photo, eyeliner can be very distracting. I generally recommend not applying eyeliner (or a very light application) at all.
If you want to put on lipstick and/or lip gloss, this is fine, but be mindful that this could be the only accent color in your headshot, and it might attract more attention than you expect. Subtle is usually better. But lip gloss can be good (if not glossy), especially when we are dealing with the dry air of winter.
Other preparation
First, don't worry. We got this. We work hard to create a fun, relaxing environment where we can collaborate to create great images.
Your main job is to arrive well-rested and not stressed.
But do spend some time thinking about what you want to convey through your headshots. Consider if you have a certain "type" you want to portray, if you are shooting theatrical headshots, and how you would describe it.
Feel free to bring a Spotify or other playlist if you want a certain musical vibe to help you get into the mood. And we love it if clients create a Pinterest board with images they like that we can use as jumping-off points for the images we want to create together.
If you still have questions going into this, we are always happy to set up a short discovery call before your session.
Can I bring a friend or spouse?
Yes, but after introductions, we will send them out to the coffee shop or bookstore (thankfully, we have the best of both right downstairs) until we are done (be sure they know that this may take 45-120 minutes).
Our process requires a distraction-free, unconstrained, judgment-free zone.
While family members and friends love you and are surely well-intentioned, they will be a distraction, and they will skew your judgment in undesirable ways. That is experience talking.
Design by committee does not work. No one knows you better than you. And with a professional photographer standing next to you (focusing on what people who don't know you will see in the final image), you are the person best qualified to judge your personal image.
My experience has shown that this environment helps people make far better image choices, and of course, taking and choosing the best possible images is our ultimate goal.
Can I get a gallery of all the images and have others help me choose?
That is not how I work, so if that is what you want, you should look for another photographer.
My process, honed from working with hundreds upon hundreds of clients, is a very focused, intentional collaboration in the studio. The choices need to be made by those who have been directly engaged in our collaborative creative process and be based on what we see and discuss in the studio.
Without exception, whenever non-participant opinions have been brought into the selection process that happens in the studio, that process has suffered.
If you have an agent and they want to input on the process/deliverables, it is very useful if they share a Pinterest board or links to samples for the sort of look that they feel will serve you well. No two people are alike, and we are not going to copy-cat another actor or artist, but we can taken inspiration from other looks and styles (and see my share of some such boards below).
Of course, if you select the "All the Bests" option for your image selects, instead of the pay as you go model, you will get a wider selection of images (with a less detailed retouch) and could share those with an agent or partner before making choices of which images to post/share, if you truly feel that is the best path for you.
What do you mean by "retouched"?
If you are having retouching done, my style is to a fairly "light retouch" that shows you in the best light, smoothing out rough edges, eliminating blemishes, some flyaway hairs, etc.
As possible without heroic measures, we can usually eliminate unsightly shirt wrinkles, brighten your eyes and teeth, even out skin tones, and clean up any irregularities in the background.
With rare exceptions, I will not reshape your face, even though the retouching tools at my disposal allow quite a bit of that. My general rule is that, if it is something that won't be there in two weeks (like a blemish, say), we remove it. We can remove moles or scars, but we generally don't recommend that.
All final images will look polished and professional, but natural. They should look like you on your best day, and not greatly differ from the person who people will see showing up in person.
Additional Information
- We have a range of canvas and paper backgrounds available. Here is a gallery showing most all of what we have with sample shots from past shoots. Canvases are in the middle, after the black background images.
- This gallery shows all the colored papers we have in stock. (The chip card that is shown at the bottom of the gallery shows all possible colors; if there is something you definitely wanted to get and use, we would have to see if it is obtainable in the time we have before your shoot; a special order roll of paper costs about $65-70).
- It can be useful to create a Pinterest board of images you like and/or that you would like to try to recreate. I have a couple of boards I periodically add images that I like to:
- Here is a link to our "All the Headshot Things" page, which is generally for corporate and nonprofit clients, but there is considerable overlap in preparation information. The page also has a series of videos on preparation, the value of headshots, etc. And I particularly like sharing the last one by Dove.
