After being a photographer for over 10 years now, I can honestly say that some of my favorite portraits are the ones that feel honest and natural.
A good portrait is when you can feel the person’s energy in their eyes with or without a smile. As a photographer’s it’s my job to guide my clients on how to present their bodies and faces to the camera to look their best. If you ever wonder why a headshot session takes over an hour to two hours, it’s because it takes time for most people to learn what they are doing with their body and face until they get to a place where they understand the subtle nuances of their facial expression and whether they feel more natural when they’re smiling or not. Working with models is a different story. If they have experience, they know what to do and how to move. Actor’s are different. Although they are used to being in front of a moving camera, doing stills often feel foreign to them and need coaching just as much as the realtor or other cooperate headshot client.
I recently had the opportunity to do a headshot marathon day at Vancouver’s actor’s union UBCP with a bunch of various actors. It was interesting meeting so many actors in one day of all shapes, gender, ages and ethnicity. I look forward to working with them again.
I’ve learned over the years, that most people don’t love getting their picture taken to begin with and will avoid going to get a professional headshot because they’ve only ever seen themselves in snaps shots taken by family or friends in less then perfect lighting. I think most of us want to look our very best in profile photo for LinkedIn , but we also want to feel genuine and look like ourselves. So my job as a headshot portrait photographer is to put all the pieces together to create images that truly represent the very best version of that person in front of the lens.
Sometimes that means being a problem solver because not everyone is going to love themselves or understand what is it about the photograph that they don’t love or are no comfortable looking at. I mean lets face it, it’s really hard to look at a photo of yourself when you don’t love it.
I had a client once who came to my studio to get her headshots done. She hired one of the professional hair and makeup artists I use. After her hair and makeup was done, I gently guided her in front of the camera and started taking her picture. I was using very soft natural looking light mixing filtered window light and strobes. We looked at the images together and she did not like the way she looked. I have used this lighting on so many women over the years and the usual response is that they never seem themselves look so good. It wasn’t the lighting. We kept trying. We toned down the makeup and changed the lighting. After what seemed like an eternity, she still didn’t seemed to be in love with anything. I saw her start to get more and more uncomfortable and teetering on the verge of tears.
That’s when I decide, ok, nothing is working so I need to change my approach completely. I told her to go in the washroom and take off all the makeup. She was not used to wearing makeup and so I thought at least that might eliminate one problem. I turned off all the strobes and sat her by the window using only available light. I photographed her for about 10 minutes and then we looked at the images together again. Finally I was winning! She loved the images. I was exhausted but felt so relieved that my client was walking out the door with a satisfied heart and feeling pleased with the outcome.
CBC’s Heartland actor Jordan Burtchett
