Figure out what your type is, what your brand is, and make sure your headshot portrays it. If you want to get cast for a particular role, make sure your headshot is representing that. You want to have consistency in who you portray, what you project, what your picture says, and how people are going to be perceiving you.
A headshot should be something that somebody can imagine you in various parts within your type. When you are taking a headshot, you want to look like there is something going on, and have the photographer catch the sparkle in your eyes.
This is an important decision-making factor for casting directors, as they are looking through hundreds of submissions. Headshot portrait is usually from the chest up, so you should pick tops in solid non-distracting tones. Choose tops in neutral colors, and maybe one in black. If you have a top in the color that emphasizes your facial features and eyes, then go for it.
For females, I would also suggest bringing up to 5 different tops. Your outfits can be dresses too, just make sure they are easy to change into. Make sure your outfits are neat, clean, and ironed. Bring everything on hangers, to prevent any unnecessary wrinkles which can potentially ruin your whole look.
If you have a professional approach to this photoshoot, you are more likely to get high quality acting headshots. Bulky, colorful, and heavy accessories can be distracting in a headshot. Consider skipping the accessories, or leaving them to the minimum. Simple earrings are ok, as long as they are not stealing the attention away from your face. Your acting headshot should represent your image in the most accurate way possible.
This includes the way you style your hair, do your makeup, and everything else on the day of the photoshoot. Style your hair in the usual way you wear your hair. This is not a modeling headshot photoshoot where you want to look extravagant.
You want to look the most natural in your headshots, without going overboard with hairstyles and makeup. Casting directors want to work with actors whose acting headshots exactly portray their actual looks.
Like in any type of photoshoot, you want to gently cover up any skin imperfections and highlight your features. No bright and contrasty makeup, just more of a natural-look kind. Guys need to be freshly shaved on the day of the photoshoot. If your everyday look has facial hair, then leave it as is for the session.
The main idea is to photograph you in the most natural and real way possible. Another important factor for a successful photoshoot is to come in well-rested and energized. To see more of our tips on how to prepare for a photoshoot better, read our detailed guide here.
The location of your headshot photoshoot can be determined by the type of role you want to submit for. If you are going for one of the serious roles, such as a lawyer or a CEO of a large company — you might want to consider a studio headshot photoshoot.
Headshots taken in studio tend to be crisper, more contrasty, and bring all focus to the eyes of the actor. With the help of artificial light, a professional photographer can add a little backlight to separate the hair from the background. Headshot sessions in the studio have a lot of benefits to the clients.
You will have an easy time changing outfits for different looks in your photoshoot. Also, you will have the ability to quickly fix your hair if needed.
When you are researching photographers for your headshot photoshoot, pay attention if they offer studio sessions. Not only your acting portfolio will imply that you are dealing with a professional photographer, but you will also have a much more smooth photoshoot time. Some actors prefer outdoor headshots due to their specific type of environmental look.
Again, it comes back to your type and what roles you want to be cast in. If you feel that an outdoor headshot will represent the true you, then go for it! Taking headshots outdoors gives actors the freedom to be more natural and relaxed in front of the camera.
Something to be aware of and another reason for you to be viewing and making your own judgement as you go along. For a lot people opening the eyes a little wider makes them look more alert and engaged and avoids them having a slightly sleepy look. It also helps to correct things if you have one eye that opens a little less than the other. To be still and have personality is a bit of an unnatural challenge. What starts out as organic will just turn into a fixed expression if you hold it for too long, so look away and back as often as you like to keep the face relaxed and also so that we can get some natural looking away shots.
Looking around also allows you to keep rediscovering and prevents the mouth getting tight. This is important as the mouth dictates the look of the photos more than anything else.
Being completely upright can often look a little removed, even arrogant. Its less of an issue when standing upright. I think standing up in outdoor shots works better. Standing or sitting completely face on can look very stiff and posed. It can be useful to get a few completely face on shots but I think very slight angles can look much more relaxed and natural, so try turning your head away a little, just enough for us to see less of one ear than the other not too much when either looking away or to camera.
People also tend to raise their heads a little when being photographed which draws us more to your chin than your eyes. Much better to lower your chin very slightly, I think.
Leaning in very slightly when sitting, will also draw us to your eyes and makes them the focus. No hands. It is easy enough to do convincingly without having to think about who you are looking at or what they are saying to you.
Off camera shots work well in the Spotlight folio and in my experience, they are popular with agents and casting directors. Some photographers might choose to take some off-camera shots for you to include in the mix. Others might not include them as standard. If you agree that they can work well and help to add a bit of range, you could ask your photographer to take some.
These shots often look better if cropped narrower than 10 x 8. They often look and feel more like a still from film or TV rather than a photo shoot. At the very least outdoor shots can look like a different shoot to the indoor ones, which adds to the range. I think mid shots work well outdoors. Lighting In my experience a lot of people favour natural light or a mix of natural and studio lighting that gives the same look.
Natural light can give a clear impression of the individual, whilst still being flattering and more importantly, a sense that this is what you look like. Studio lighting is often apparent in a photo. Some photographers are able to use studio lighting well, but from others, we still see an awful lot of bleached out, over lit photos that show us very little of what the actor looks like. In my opinion a blurred but natural, in-situ looking background will always look much better than a clinical and flat studio back drop.
Studio shots unavoidably scream photo shoot. Natural settings can give your photos more of a film or TV still feel. I see studio shots taken, perhaps by some of the less experienced headshot photographers, where the actor is so close to the white or light-coloured backdrop or wall, that we see a very strong shadow in the background.
Even the passport office is likely to reject photos like this. I think lighter or darker backgrounds can work regardless of whether you have dark or fair hair. It easy to separate you from a background with a bit of back lighting. After the session Contact sheets You might not find many photographers that are prepared to spend the time doing this, but I think some of the photos should be cropped for the contact sheets, to give you a clearer idea of what the final images might look like.
I think a session fee should include no less than five different photos with at least two crops of each. Be sure that you and your agent are invited to select all of the final selection, rather than your photographer selecting any of them for you.
Ask your photographer to copy in your agent when sending contact sheets or a link to them. There are no rules and it depends on how many genuinely contrasting looks you achieved at your photo sessions. Three is too many if they are all the same. Five, one of which might be a body shot, is often enough and they can be complimented with a handful of genuinely interesting screen grabs or theatre production shots.
A body shot could be a screen grab if you have a good one. Whether it is brightening it up a bit, improving the contrast or colour, tidying up the hair, softening lines under the eyes, removing blemishes, etc.
Be sure to check that your photographer will re-touch your final selection at no extra cost and that they are happy to do further tweaking if you think any need it. A lot of headshot photographers pay other people to do their re-touching, so might not be willing to do further tweaking if you are not entirely happy with the work. Hair is often left messy or with wispy bits sticking out. Choose a good range, get opinions.
You probably only need about five photos to cover range. More than that and you might be repeating yourself. A mid shot is often a useful addition to a portfolio. It could be from the shoot or you might have a good production still that does the job. Your agent should agree with your choices. Often an agent will make the choices for you or with you and you should find that you at least largely agree. Get all your photos in colour. If you do want some in black and white for any reason perhaps to add some variation to a website it is very easy to turn a colour photo into a black and white one, but impossible to do the opposite.
Your photographer should be happy to do this for you at no cost. The crop of a photo can make a huge difference to how good it looks and how much impact it has. We just see the small Spotlight images either on their website or on a hard copy of your CV, so the more face we see, the more impact the photo will have.
Aside from mid or full-length shots, I find that a lot of agents and actors favour the tighter crops of a headshot. No harm of course in including a wider shot showing the full glory of your hair if it is a feature or very long. The best crop for a head shot might sometimes be 10 x 8, but some photos will look better with a different crop.
Hopefully your photographer will take most of the photos widely enough for all options to be available. Two or three screen grabs from film or TV or theatre production shots, if they are good, clear and interesting, can add to the mix and range nicely.
Get prints as and when you need them. Be sure that you are not obliged to use the printers that a photographer recommends as you then have no control over how much you pay for prints. We rarely use prints as part of the casting process these days, so their main use is when you have a job — for the production office wall or theatre foyer. Nowhere else in the world, is there a more comprehensive or advanced database of actors, than Spotlight.
In most European countries, the biggest concern for actors is that it is difficult to get themselves known to casting directors and production companies etc. All they are able to do is write to us or hope that we see them in something. Spotlight can be accessed from anywhere in the world and you can send a link to your profile to anyone in the world without them needing to be a subscriber.
There is no better website than your Spotlight page. The book has gone, there are now no deadlines and you can upload new photos at any time, so there is no longer an appropriate time of year to get new photos taken.
Facebook Twitter. Actor Headshots - Advice from a Casting Director Actor headshots advice by Carl Proctor, one of London's leading casting directors and also an actors headshot photographer. Who will give the best advice?
Choosing your photographer. Testimonials Look for testimonials on websites from actors. Popular photographers Which photographers are most popular changes frequently. Do actors make good headshot photographers? Split sessions Splitting a session for the price of one with a friend is often a false economy. Half sessions If you already have some good photos but just need a couple of different looks to complete the range, you could ask a photographer to do a shorter session.
The package Be clear about exactly what is included in the package and any additional charges. Student discount If you are a student, you will hopefully be given a discount. Check list Viewing as you go along I would suggest that you ask a photographer if there will be time and if they are set up to be able to let you view the photos as you go along on a large monitor, not the back of the camera. Length of session 2. Number of re-touched photos included not less than 5 A lot of photographers offer about five touched up photos as part of the package.
Memory stick or download of the whole session Ask photographers if they will put all photos from the session on a DVD or memory stick or enable you to download the whole session in a high-resolution format, not just the ones that they have re-touched for you. Usage Unless you are being paid rather than paying for the shoot, I would avoid agreeing to let a photographer sell your photographs or use them for any purpose other than to promote their photography work.
Terms and conditions Many photographers are relaxed and trusting enough not to feel the need to have terms and conditions on their web-sites, but some do. What makes a good headshot? I think that all photos should look real and organic, not posed or deliberate. A relaxed and natural looking photo gives the impression that you very probably look like that in the flesh. If your main shot is engaging and energised, the casting director is more likely to click and view the other images in the Spotlight folio.
At the same time, they are the best way for CDs and agents to remember specific actors for future work. As earlier stated, headshots are the first things to be considered by casting directors and talent agents - and most will only look at your showreel and resume only if you fit the part, looks-wise. Since there is very little that you can do about how you look, the main aim is to have the most professional-looking headshot of taken. You will be surprised by how easy it is for experienced CDs and agents to spot cheesy photographs and how they quickly put them off.
Your aim should be to make sure that your submission isn't thrown into the bin straight away. Headshot Standards The standards that define the quality of acting headshots are quite strict; especially when you plan on using color headshots. As an amateur actor looking for screen glory, you might not understand the photography-based technicalities that make up a great headshot, but casting directors, who see hundreds of headshots a day, love photos that speak volumes and tell the person's story; just from a glance.
The acting industry has high standards, and the criteria here in the US are a bit modern compared to those in the UK. As an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, it is essential that you know the standards that define the casting of new actors.
This will help ensure that you get professional work done. Acting headshots are not something to get weird or creative with; that could lead to your photos getting thrown into the trash since it would be apparent to the agent or CD that you are not up-to-date on industry standards. For this reason, it is essential that you work with a professional Los Angeles Actor Headshots Photographer that understands what CDs and agents are looking for and you have come to the right place.
Give us a call and work with people who understand Los Angeles; casting standards. Layout and Size of Headshots Actor's headshot photos usually are eight by ten 8x10 photographs; the industry standard in the US. It is crucial that you never use headshots smaller or larger than this. Both are acceptable, and neither one is superior.
However, in we have began to photograph headshots for our clients in a horizontal orientation because they are much easier to use in different layouts. For instance, we can easily crop horizontal photos vertical, and they allow for better placement throughout social websites. Taking Good Headshots Whenever your headshots are being taken, there are several things that you need to remember if you want them to stand out.
Keep in mind that you are trying to create an image of who you are in real life and how you look; acting headshots aren't for your modeling portfolio, so try and look as natural as possible. Here are a few key points to remember when getting acting headshots: Avoid having piercings in the eyebrows, nose, ears, or anywhere else you usually have them Slight make-up is advisable for both men and women but do not overdo it - it should be just enough to conceal imperfections Avoid accessories hats, jewelry, necklaces, etc.
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