What Does it Take to Get a Great Actor Headshot?

Okay, here’s my take on getting a good headshot, and I’m going to keep it real simple, because most of this has nothing to do with cameras.

Find a Good Photographer

Find a good photographer. That’s step one, and it’s not a small step. Look at people’s work and decide what’s for you. You have to like the work. Not sort of like it, not think it’s fine, actually like it. A lot of my clients feel that through a connection we’re going to get something good, and they’re right. So go meet with them. Make sure you mesh personality-wise. Make sure you believe that person can work with you, because you’re about to hand yourself over to them for a couple hours.

Be Coachable

Then be coachable. Listen to your photographer, and understand that a good photographer knows how to coach you. Here’s the thing nobody tells you, guys: the most important part of your headshot has nothing to do with photography. It’s your expression. My photography just enhances that. I work through expression and I let the photography come through. I try to technically make the best shot I can and the rest of it, all of it, is coaching you how to be good in front of a camera.

Have Your Look Down Before You Walk In

Now let’s talk about your look. Your look has to be down before you walk in. Hair the way you know you want it. In the shape you want to be in. Physically prepared for your shot. Don’t be sunburnt because you went out and got super tan. Don’t over-pluck the crap out of your eyebrows. And have clothes that you feel good in.

Wear What You Love

Everybody asks me what to wear, and I’ve got one answer. Wear what you love. If you don’t like it, I don’t want to see it. And if it’s not in my studio, I can’t shoot it. So bring a lot of stuff that you love. What I don’t want is to pull something off the rack you brought and say hey, why don’t you wear this, and you go, uh, you sure? Because I’m going to say, well, you brought it. Don’t bring it if you don’t like it. If you don’t love it, I don’t want to see it.

And do not, do not dress for how you think something is going to book you. What you wear is what you love on yourself. If you don’t feel good in it, you will not shoot well in it. Period. Look at other headshots, see what people are wearing, but my big thing is I don’t want anything taking the eye off the actor. This is an actor’s headshot. It’s all about you and your personality. Why would I need a big plaid shirt pulling attention away from your face? Makes no sense. You will never get booked off of what you’re wearing. Never. You might get called in because one shot has a sexier look than another, but that’s range, and I like giving everybody range. The more range you have, the better.

Bring Range

So do your sweet innocent look. Do your sexy look. Do your business look. Whatever it is, it has to be something you feel really good in, because I’ve been doing this long enough to know how this goes. You put on something you feel hot in, how are you going to shoot? You put on something you feel insecure in, how are you going to shoot? That’s the whole game right there. That’s how you have to think about it.

Give It Up to the Studio

The other thing, and this one’s big, is giving it up to the studio you’re working with. My makeup artist and I work as a team. Every day. We do this every single day, we’re professionals at it, and honestly we believe we’re the best at it in the country. So we expect you to come in and work with us on that level. If you want to do something we don’t agree with, we want to know about it. I had a girl come in today, perfect example. She tells me she needs to wear fake eyelashes for her shoot. That’s not how I work. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think a director books you because of fake eyelashes. I don’t think they enhance your booking ability one bit.

Leave the Pressure at the Door

And if you walk in wondering whether you’re even going to get a good headshot, how easy do you think that shoot is going to be? It’s not. It’s going to be hard on the photographer. The industry puts so much pressure on you guys that it’s silly. Spend x amount of dollars, get it done in this window, on this timeline. That pressure lands on the actor and then the actor hands it straight to the photographer. You walk into my studio carrying that, I have to start working on you while you’re carrying it.

So here’s what I tell everybody. At the beginning of your session you are not going to be the same person you are at the end of it. You can’t run before you crawl. You’re going to crawl first, then I’m going to get you up and walking, then you’re going to start running, and then we nail that headshot.

Go Color

Go color. It’s all about color, people. Black and white was great when black and white was what we had, and it’s beautiful, I’m not knocking it. But the only reason anything was ever black and white was price. In the digital age they cost the same. So if I’m a director booking somebody and they’re blonde and I’m looking at gray hair, or they’re a redhead and I can’t tell, that doesn’t make sense anymore. Show me your best color.

The Five Points

One, pick a photographer whose work you love.

Two, meet with that photographer, make sure you like the person and that you’re willing to give it up to them.

Which brings me to three, be coachable.

Four, physically get yourself together so you feel good about yourself, because once you walk into that room there’s nothing left to change. Accept it and shoot the best headshot you can with what you’ve got.

And five, plan on working your expression like crazy. Go look in the mirror and look at the faces you’re capable of making.

Most Headshots Out There Are Not Good

A huge percentage of the headshots out there are expressionless. Dead. Go flip through a magazine and look at the faces celebrities are making. That’s your example right there. A celebrity is almost never sitting there blank. Meanwhile most headshots, people look like a deer int he headlights. Celebrities don’t do that. And you guys are the next celebrity, so start acting like them. You come into my studio and give me that, you’re getting amazing stuff. And if you don’t, I’m going to get you there myself and you’re getting amazing stuff anyway.

Play

The biggest word I use when I’m shooting somebody, the most important word in this whole thing, is play. Play, and use your imagination. Anything that pulls you away from playing and using your imagination is walking you toward a dead headshot. Expression comes out of playfulness. I shoot digitally, so I delete the crap out of these things. I delete like crazy. That’s the point. I want you to play, and I want you in an environment where you feel like you can. My job is to reach in and pull your personality out for you.

Drop the Headshot Baggage

And to anybody walking around with headshot baggage, I know you’re out there. You’ve shot headshots before, it didn’t go well, and now you’ve decided you can’t get a good one. Come talk to me about it. It’s not your fault. I really believe that. Don’t walk around carrying that. This is a team effort. You team up with a photographer and we do it together, and the way we do it is by getting that cloud of oh my god I have to get the best headshot on the planet out of your brain. Once that thing is gone, that’s when I go in, that’s when we start fiddling around, and that’s when the good stuff shows up.

Because we are going to create the best headshot you’ve ever had.