If you’re reading this, you may be a pro at having headshots taken or you may be wondering how to prepare; or you may be a photographer looking for help. Here are tips to prepare you for your headshot, which both a headshot subject and headshot photographer could find useful.
Clothing
- Avoid logos, words, or graphics
- Think about the color wheel
- Warm colors like reds, oranges, and yellows, tend to be more inviting and make you look vibrant
- Cool colors like blues, purples, and greens aren’t a bad idea, but they do communicate a little different feeling
- Black or darker colors are good choices, which present a no-nonsense attitude, power, and sophistication
- Avoid white or off-white, unless a jacket or sweater is worn over it
- Whether choosing solid colored clothing or patterned is up to you
- Some photographers will tell you to avoid patterns, but I think that’s a personal choice
- Get your clothes and accessories together several days in advance
- If you’re unable to find what you planned, you’ll have time to come up with an alternative without stress
- Iron your clothes if you want them wrinkle-free (eliminating wrinkles-a difficult problem to fix in post-production)
- Have a second shirt option and take it with you just in case something happens during your car ride like:
- wrinkles, a spilled drink, or deodorant rings under arms
Indoors or Outdoors
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- The choice to photograph indoors or outdoors may be yours (depending on your photographer) but will be weather dependent
- Discuss your background options to help you decide
- If you think you’d like to be photographed outdoors, avoid variations of green, if being photographed among trees wearing a solid-colored shirt
- If wearing a patterned shirt, it could be nice to have green in the pattern
Accessories
- They can be nice additions to photos
- The number of accessories depends on your personality and what your end goal is for having new headshots
- If the photos are for acting or modeling, or to use in your professional life, you probably don’t want anything distracting and should keep it clean and simple
- If your goal is to update your social media profile or to use on a dating site, then you might want to show off your personality a little more
- Some may consider glasses accessories and others find them essential to daily life
- If you wear glasses, and you don’t feel like yourself without them, then by all means, wear them
- If you don’t wear them all the time and you’re up for it, take some photos with them and some without
- Clean your glasses before the shoot because smudges, fingerprints, etc. will show up in the photos
Miscellaneous but Still Important
- Get rest the night before
- Avoid salty foods and alcohol the day before
- Drink a lot of water the day before
- Check the address the day before to know exactly where you’re going
- Don’t apply lotion or shiny makeup to your face before the session; the camera will accentuate it
- Give your hands and nails a little extra attention in preparation
- After the traditional headshots are taken, some more casual ones might include your arms and hands
- Practice “your look” in front of the mirror several days before the session
- In full dress as if you’re about to be photographed
- Different smiles, some with teeth and without
- Soft, pleasant expressions without smiling
- Try squinting slightly (sometimes known as smizing) because it surprisingly looks confident
- Be five minutes early for your appointment
- Five minutes before your appointment time, check yourself in a mirror or your phone
- Look for stray hairs
- Check your teeth for food and/or lipstick
- Make sure your collar is laying the way you want it
- If you’re wearing a necklace, check to see if the clasp is at the back of your neck, and if there’s a pendant, if it’s centered
- Make sure there are no unwanted straps showing from underneath clothing
- Try to relax, it’s only ten minutes; you can survive anything for ten minutes, LOL
- If it makes you feel any better, I’m incredibly awkward when being photographed, which is why most of the photos you see of me are self-portraits
What to Expect from Your Photographer, Bang Images
- I’m short and I’ll have a step stool if needed
- I’ll ask you to project your forehead toward the camera
- If you’re worried about your neck or chin, you’ll like this
- We’ll photograph for only a few minutes, but I’ll take more photos than you need
- I’ll cull your images and provide you with the best for you to choose from
- I’ll edit them, tweaking color and contrast slightly
- I’ll apply a softening filter to the final images unless you ask that I don’t
- More extensive retouching can be requested at additional cost, but is at my discretion since final images reflect the brand of Bang Images
- You’ll receive a link to your gallery via email during the week after your headshot session
- You’ll mark your favorite images
- More info will be provided on this when you receive a link to your gallery of images
- You’re welcome to purchase printed images, digital files, and/or an album
- You’ll send me an email to discuss your choices
- If digital files are purchased, I’ll prepare them for downloading
- You’ll receive a link to download your high resolution jpeg files within 24 hours after you’ve alerted me to having made your final choices
- If printed images are purchased, I’ll order them and it will take approximately 3 weeks to print and deliver
- If an album is ordered, it takes one month from the time you place your order to have it created, printed, and delivered
- If digital files are purchased, I’ll prepare them for downloading
With all this said, these are your photos. You aren’t required to follow any of my advice. Personally, I love being informed and prepared, especially for something new so sharing this information with you felt important.
Contact me to schedule your next headshot!
Photographers, here’s a great article published by Adorama for you when considering photographing headshots.
If you’re an actor, I think you’ll find this article beneficial.
