Actress Headshots
sweet caroline
Registered Users Posts: 1,589 Major grins
She is a fellow teacher and amateur actress, and needed these for an upcoming audition. She submitted a smiley shot when she auditioned for a part in Annie with this company (which she got), so they've already seen that look.
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Caroline
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Caroline
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Comments
I am generally looking forward for your work, but this particular series is plain uninspiring. Bland lighting, non-existing attitude, just another strip from a mall booth.
Sorry.
Thanks, Nik. A little more background- it was a quicky pro bono shoot, done in a classroom after school. I don't have time during the upcoming weekends for a real shoot with her, but she wanted something for an audition that is coming up soon. It didn't help that she was uncomfortable in front of the camera. I have a few with more interesting light, but I felt they left one side of her face too dark for head shot purposes.
All that being said, I want to deliver good work any time I shoot. I appreciate the feedback, even if it's to tell me I missed the mark;)
Perhaps I'll see if we have time and nice enough weather to at least get her outside after school one day.
Caroline
These are quite bland (not your usual). They should be cropped much tighter for a more effective headshot.
http://clearwaterphotography.smugmug.com/
Keep the background lights and subject lights separate. I can’t tell for sure, but it seems that you are relying on the main lights to help light the background. That way madness lies.
In the color shot, the background is too yellow, but the flesh is way too magenta. I have had this pesky problem. Shooting a grey card won’t solve this. One possible answer is to do what you can to bring the two together using gels. They don’t need to be exactly the same but they need to be closer than they are here. I’d suggest getting the WB right on the flesh first. Also, it may help to know the temp of your lights, perhaps by renting a color meter.
She needs some makeup. It would make your job easier.
She needs some adjectives. When I shoot headshots, if they are not thinking of anything, it will usually show. If they are thinking of something, it will show on their face and in the eyes. “Confident. Competent. Boyfriend’s name. Dog’s name. The door behind me just opened and in comes an old friend.“ Something to engage the brain. In these shots, she’s not thinking, she’s posing.
If you’re going to have the light coming from all directions, you need to create some shape somehow. If you’ve got white bounce cards everywhere, you might try removing them from the sides. This light is just very flat overall.
I’ve rambled on enough. Caroline, I remember the last time I posted, I was commenting on one of your photos. I don’t mean to be critical of your work. I’m just trying to help.
I know that people generally downplay headshots as too easy (not true) or not rewarding or not worth the effort. I respectfully disagree. I’ve learned a lot about lighting by doing them, and I think they can be very rewarding.
Jim
p.s. Mitchell, 90% of the actors I shoot are uncomfortable in front of the camera. Weird, but true. Only the accomplished actors are comfortable, and I'm not shooting them usually. We have to be ready for this.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
The room I shot in was a school classroom with huge windows. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of green that would show on the beige walls. I did not have all of my equipment with me ( no back drop, for example) as I was there to teach yesterday, not to do a photo shoot. Usually, I would have taken her outside, but it was very mucky out. I had my sb600 pointed at the wall, and my sb800 in an umbrella very close to the subject. She was approx. 8 feet in front of the wall. There are many things I would have done differently if I had been planning on a photo shoot. Hiring a make-up artist is unlikely for a teacher who does theater for fun on the side.
These were actually her not so posed shots. We were engaged in conversation at this point. Direction from me resulted in some really goofy expressions- not what she was going for this time. This company has seen her do the big character thing, they've seen her big smiley look, so she wanted a more subtle expression.
Here is a tighter crop and some more contrast:
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The question is not so much what I can do differently to get good head shots, it's whether my fellow photographers find these usable for an amateur actress for a specific audition with a company that is already familiar with her. Should I just toss them and advise another shoot? Yes, we all know they are boring, but are they really bad? She already has an audition scheduled, so she will be making her impression during the audition. These shots are not for getting her foot in the door, she's not sending one of these in and hoping they'll call her.
I'm sorry if I sound exasperated. I had ANOTHER lens break a few days ago, as well as a bracket for one of my flashes. With these shots, I was jut trying to do a quick favor for a colleague at a time when I don't have openings in my schedule to do a real shoot with her.
Caroline
A bunch of thoughts. I agree that your subject is a little less sparkly than one might like but I'm not sure that it can't be made rather good - she's an attractive lady, and you've got some nice lights in her eyes - headshots are always ALL about the eyes!
The style that you've done these - and that she may have expected, or led you to believe she wanted - is what was going on in headshots 10+ years ago and, outside the big metropolitan centers some people believe is still what a headshot is. However, the digital revolution, online casting and just plain old fashion trends have changed what's expected, and the old, rather formal head-and-shoulders BW now looks a little staid. Heck, even in conservative operaland people using colour and a more natural/quirkier style with close-crops and tilts! Actors are always one step ahead of classical musicians, so you need to have a look at current trends. I always recommend that 'togs look through the reproductions directories (both the NYC one and the LA one, since the styles are ever-so-slightly different on either coast).
ALl of that said, I think you can make these really quite good for her use. I hope you don't mind (and I'll take it down immediately if you do), but I had a stab at the last one, in colour (fwiw, most people I know are using colour, except if they need a bw for printing in the program. That may vary according to each company, but in general it's my experience). I've also done a BW conversion - since the BWs are usually for printing - and at small sizes - they need a fair bit of "pop" to be really effective. Obviously, working on the jpeg meant I couldn't go as far as you can with the original file, but FWIW. I suspect you have some others in the can which might turn out to be pretty good if you give work them a little in post
What I did (some in PS, some in LR):
- tilted and cropped to get a more dynamic composition that really brings you in to her eyes. The bare arm is tough - they always are in headshots because they can dominate if you're not careful (they work better in 3/4 shots IMO) - but I do like the over-the-shoulder look from this set which gives it a little more "life"
- lighten undereye circles using low-opacity clone brush set to "lighten" blend
- burned in eyelashes and eyeliner to make her look slightly more made-up (her makeup isn't bad, she just needed a tad more eye/lip definition IMO - her skin looks gorgeous, so props to you for however you processed that)
- saturated her lip colour a tad (and in the bw, darkened the red and magenta sliders to get a little more contrast out of her lips); if this were my shot and I were working it in raw, I would have taken more of the pink out of it and tried to move it to a colour which more naturally matches her skin tone (probably a little more red/peach base to it so it could be darker AND stay natural-looking)
- dodged eye highlights further
- dodged the earring highlights so it doesn't melt into her hair
- curves layer
- really bumped up the contrast in the bw (moved the black slider considerably to the right)
It's still not as "alive" a shot as the "perfect" headshot might be (which believe me, is a Holy Grail that is HARD to achieve!!!!), but I think it has more life than the original. (Again, please let me know if you want me to pull these and I'll do so immediately....)Hope that helps!!
(NB: My monitor is calibrated, but slightly low contrast - I sometimes add too MUCH contrast, so if these look overdone on that score, that may be why; I find I often have to adjust that when I print, so....)
Colour
BW
Caroline - I was typing and playing with your images while you were posting!
Yes, I absolutely think these are fine for an amateur actress, especially with a little more pp. I find the new one you've posted slightly too contrast-y, but again that may be monitor variations. See if any of my suggestions help you out, and good luck with it! You're doing just fine
I will do more research on the current look of head shots before scheduling any.
Thanks,
Caroline
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
If you want the white background, Caroline, here’s a link to shots I did of my neighbor, Jesse. Divamum sent me some great links in her responses. You might want to visit them.
To get your subject relaxed, start the session with some stimulating conversation. Jesse and I did that, and then we went straight into him insulting me to get the right laughs from him. We joked back and forth and what you see in the link was the result. You want a good range of expressions, so talk about everything that comes to mind.
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No problem. I usually do want thorough critique, and I failed to mention the type of critique I was looking for on this. I very much appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Caroline