fashion modeling photography
What are my Headshot sessions all about ?
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What are my Headshot sessions all about ?
I start off my sessions with an explanation about I’m going to do.
I shoot using 5 lights, 2 strobe & 3 continuous. The 2 strobes are aimed at the white backdrop and perform 2 functions. Firstly, they whiten the backdrop. Secondly, they splash a little bit of light along the subjects jawline to help highlight that area. The 3 continuous lights are arranged in a triangle so as to light your face completely.
There are a number of things that I concentrate on when I am shooting headshots.
Firstly, the jawline. Jutting the jawline out towards the camera and then lowering the chin has the effect of tightening the skin along the side of the jaw and gives you the appearance of having a really tight jawline with no double, triple chins.
The lowering of the chin has two major benefits, firstly it hides any extra skin that you may have under there but then it also gives you slight humbling look which is really beneficial so that you don’t look arrogant or snobish.
Secondly, the eyes need to squint a little. If you have your eyes wide open and stare at the camera you can come across as vague, out to lunch or end up looking like a deer in the headlights. You need to have a look that says I’m engaged with and interested in the onlooker. The best way to do that is by having a slight squint in your eyes. Its really just raising the lower lids.
Thirdly, the mouth. There are a range of different smiles that you can have from a large smile, half smile, small smile or a closed mouth smile. What I do is find a level of smile that suits 3 things, your personality, your face & your profession. Your smile I believe has to be a reflection of your personality, it also has to suit your face. To add to that, its no good having a super huge smile if for example you are a lawyer or an accountant because you want the onlookers to take you seriously. You need to find a level of smile that suits your profession as well.
During this process I am looking for your angle & also your side. Everybody has a side that is a little bit stronger that the other. With some people it is really obvious which is their stronger side, for others not so. These people are lucky because you can turn them in either direction and they will still look good.
This whole process takes approximately 90 minutes and 130 shots. During this process we stop and review the images and we also stop to change tops, hair styles etc.
At the end of the session when we are happy that we have enough images we go through the selection process. This is a detailed analysis of the images and a narrowing down until we can find the best ones.
How Important is your Headshot ?
How important is your Headshot ?
There is no escaping the need for a decent headshot nowadays. How do we know if we have decent Headshot, what is a decent Headshot ?
Lets talk about being Photogenic. Being Photogenic is the ability to be able to look good in a photograph. For many people, lucky people, this comes naturally and it could be attributed to genes or face shape. For others its more difficult and for most, having their photograph taken is about as appealing as going to the dentist.
I firmly believe that being photogenic is a learned skill and with the amount of social media and the number of cameras everywhere nowadays its important to have the skill to be able to look good whenever someone pokes a camera in your face.
Thank fully there are a few little tricks & tips that you can employ to enhance any image that you appear in.
Firstly, make sure you are well lit, being either with a flash or with loads of natural light.
Secondly, make sure the camera is at your eye level and then lean your forehead towards the camera by just pushing your head out, kind of like a turtle. This will create distant between your chin and your neck and tighten the skin under your chin and around our jawline. Then we tilt our head slightly downwards. This will hide anything that we have going on under our chin and give us a slightly humbling look, which is not a bad thing anyway.
Thirdly, we need to pretend that we are in an eye doctors office trying to read the bottom line on his eye testing chart. We are really raising our lower eyelids to give ourselves that really engaged look we get when we are really interested in something.
Fourthly, you need to be able to smile on queue and make it look natural. For this you need a funny thought that you can pull up at will that allows you to smile naturally. A smile can be large, mid, small or you can have a closed mouth smile. Any of these are fine but it needs to suit your industry and or your personality. What I mean by this is, for example, if you are a solicitor you wouldn’t want to have a large almost laughing smile on your face because people will not take you seriously. Your look has to suit your industry or profession !
Finally, you will need to know your side. Most people have a side that is stronger than the other. You probably already know your side, just look in the mirror and make a note of the side of your head that your hair is parted on. The majority of people will part their hair to one side. This will often coincide with the side of their bigger eye. Many girls that I shoot tell me that their hair is parted on that side because it just goes that way. My usual response is, because they have been brushing their hair that side since they were 3 years old so either they or their mother decided it was their stronger side when they were quite young.
Thats it really. If you employ some of these little tricks your headshot will start to improve. If you are trying to take selfies or a friend is using an iphone it should help your images look better. Of course, there is no substitute for a professional headshot photographer that knows what he is doing.
What does your profile Image say about you ?
There is no escaping the importance of a Headshot or Profile Image in Small Business these days. In fact you can’t have a Linked In profile unless you upload a profile image ! Furthermore 86% of people will overlook your profile altogether if the headshot at the top of your page is not professional.
It begs the questions – ” What does your profile image say about you ?”
Is it a marketing question, probably ! During studies for my Masters Degree in Business Admin, I learnt that in business there aren’t too many things that don’t cross over into marketing in some form or another.
When considering your Linked In profile you have to consider a few things –
1. Why do you have a Linked Profile in the 1st place. Is it because you thought you better because everyone else does and you heard you should have one ? That’s probably a good start, but you should really think about it. Are you job searching, changing careers, changing industries, networking, starting or building a business, networking etc etc. You should start with a clearly defined objective for being on Linked In. This might change and thats Ok ! So for example, you might start out job searching but, once you get a job, your profile then becomes about Networking and if you change jobs again it might change back again.
2. Once you have a clearly defined objective you need to understand your target market. If you are job searching, what industry, what level etc etc, Are you looking for clients & are they individuals or B to B
Once you have decided on the above you will need to think about what to put in your profile. Primarily, your Linked In profile will contain information about you and your professional working, business or employment history –
” LinkedIn /ˌlɪŋkt.ˈɪn/ is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003,[2] it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million members.[7] As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.”
Courtesy -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn
It is a ” BUSINESS ORIENTED SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICE ” Lets talk about your Profile Image. I think, and this is only my opinion but having a profile image of you and your wife at a social function, or you at a social function, or a picture with your pet, or skydiving or in casual attire, or one that is blurry or dark or out of focus, shows a lack of preparation, a lack of caring, a lack of quality and a general lack of professionalism. I have seen profiles with an amazing amount of work that has gone into to the background, professional history and business profile but then the Profile Image or Headshot is blurry, out of focus, of someone that looks like they may have been at a wedding or some Social function ! What does this say to a potential employer, business partner, potential client ?
Statistics tell me that people spend about 4 seconds deciding if they will read you Linked Information based on your profile Image. If its not professional they move on.
Its time to ask yourself, WHAT DOES MY PROFILE IMAGE SAY ABOUT ME ? Do i look confident, approachable, trustworthy, warm, friendly do I look like someone that could do that job that I am indicating that I do or used to do ?
To think about how to get that look, you may need to have a chat with a Professional Headshot Photographer !
A Testimonial for the Headshot Guys
From my very first contact with Brad he took the time to understand our business and the positioning we wanted to achieve. He listened not only as a professional but as someone with a genuine interest in helping us to reach us reach our audience. In this day and age of pseudo celebrity and selfies, he set about to help us show our authenticity and made each and every team member shine through in their own unique way. I cannot recommend him highly enough and it was definitely worth flying him to Sydney to help us achieve our goals. Brad you rock!
Sari Mustonen-Kirk
Business Development Manager
Global Prime
Testimonial for The Headshot Guy
Hey Brad,
What an awesome ‘experience’, this is NOT your average passport photo… this is a professional headshot from the headshot guy. Thanks Brad, I look and even feel more confident. Danny – The Headcase guy. 🙂
Kind Regards,
Danny Crouch
Expert in Human Behaviour
Sales and Communication Coach