Headshots

slpollett

A young model/actress in my area needed headshots and asked me to do them for her. Here's the results.

1. This is the one her agent chose.


2. Other one agent liked


3. 3rd choice


4. Though the background is a little too distracting for a headshot, Reagan liked this picture (and the next one)


5.


As always, c&c appreciated.

Thanks,
Sherry

divamum

I really like #5 both because of the diagonal comp, and her body angle is more dynamic. Looks to me like her agent wanted the most youthful, natural-looking of the shots - and perhaps preferred the most studio-style background? - and the light on her hair in those first two is really pretty.

Only nit is that first one actually looks a tad soft on my monitor - perhaps run a high pass filter on it if that's not simply a result of resizing for the web?

Nice job.

WingsOfLovePhoto

My vote would be for #3, the smile looks a little more natural to me and less "smiley" I think the photo could benefit with a bit of teeth whitening/brighening, especially since most headshots get turned to black and white. Good job all around though!

slpollett

Thanks Diva & Sandy.

I also liked #5 a lot, but the agent thought the angle a little too severe & the natural background a little too distracting. He thought #3 looked too much like a school picture. I didn't edit that one because it wasn't chosen or I would have brightened the teeth a little bit. I don't have to convert these to b&w because the industry's headshot style is moving to color (at least in our area) and all the local agencies require color.

I think the softness on #1 is due to re-sizing. The image itself is pretty sharp and it printed up nicely.

I shot all of these outside in natural light. I had someone hold colored poster board several feet behind the model to eliminate background distractions. Some of the background colors 'worked' and some, uh...didn't!

Thanks again,
Sherry

divamum

slpollett wrote:

because the industry's headshot style is moving to color (at least in our area)

In all areas, to my knowledge. Even in opera (typically the MOST conservative and behind the times branch of the peforming arts photographically) colour is becoming the norm - sometimes they'll ask for BW for print program requirements, but in general colour is totally acceptable now which it wasn't even as little as 3 year ago. Ditto electronic submissions, which is why crops are now more varied than they used to be.

That said - I still like to have a good BW conversion of my own stuff, and thus when I'm doing headshots I offer one because I'd rather it was MY conversion than somebody who just hits a generic converter. I've seen some of those in print, and they're not pretty....

Nikolai

Headshots/compcards are different from the other things. Everybody in the business know what can be done with hair, MU and PS. The purspose of the pictures agents are looking for is to give a fair idea of how person looks like IRL, so the potential customers can get that idea, too.

slpollett

Hey, Divamum, thanks for the suggestion to give 'em a b&w anyway to control the conversion. I guess because everyone around here wants color, I didn't even think about that!

And yes, Nikolai, anything more than very minor ps is very frowned upon in a headshot. The agencies here don't mind removal of temporary blemishes or very slight whitening of teeth, but they don't want anything else done to a headshot.

Thanks to you both.

Sherry