A good headshot is not something you can really shoot with your phone or with uncle Bob taking a picture of you against the fence in the backyard. I think a lot of people hate getting their picture taken because they’ve never seen a good photo of themselves. Unless you’re in the eye of the public like actors, musicians, bloggers or Instagram selfie addicts, most people are use to seeing themselves in what you call a“snap shot” that someone’s taken with their phone or digital camera on auto mode. I often get clients that come to me knowing they need a professional headshot for work or social media, but they’re afraid of the outcome because the only images they’ve ever seen of themselves was not taken by a professional photographer, in a studio with proper lighting, hair, makeup and guidance into posing for the camera.
As a photographer and having photographed thousands of faces by now, I feel confident to say that mostly everyone can look the very best version of themselves in a photograph with the help a a few key components. Lighting is key, that’s a given, posing … of course, but good hair and makeup is essential if you want to look like a million bucks. Most people look at a photo of a celebrity on the cover of a fashion magazine and think that’s what they look like in real life. Unless you’re involved in the world of photography or the movie industry, it’s probably not general knowledge as to what goes on behind the scenes on creating that flawless portrait or magazine editorial. There’s probably a team of 10-20 people working together, each one bringing a specific talent into creating that beautiful image. Of course, the photographer is framing the picture with just the right amount of exposure and depth of field, but there are so many other things that have to happen before that photo is taken and frozen in time. One of the main, key components is called “professional hair and makeup”! I love beautiful photographs of women with no makeup and bare skin but let’s face it on the acting scene and the corporate world, people are not looking for that all natural, no makeup look. If you’re an actor, musician or a professional working in the corporate world, you probably want to look like the very best version of yourself without looking 20 years younger or someone totally different. So even if you are not used to wearing makeup, a great makeup artist can do the makeup/no makeup look. It’s all about enhancing your features in the right places and disguising the little imperfections that we don’t want to show the world. Although I work with models and artist of all types, I also work with people who are not used to being photographed professionally. I love it when I show them what they look like on camera once we’ve put together all those industry ingredients into creating possibly the first professional image they’ve ever seen of themselves. It gets me excited when I know I’ve made that person’s day by seeing the reaction on their face when they see themselves as they’ve never seen before!
