Actress Headshots c&c

[JoshBeck]

Living in LA, there's plenty of actors/actresses who need head shots so I figure it will be a good way to earn extra money.
I've had my Canon Rebel xsi for about 6 months but this is the first real photo shoot I've done. I have no other equipment so we shot outside.
Afterward, I did some Photoshop retouching, tell me what you think.


My friend Becky:

 

[Derrel]

Well. Becky is attractive, but the concrete steps behind her are a tremendous distraction in the first two shots, and the horizontal framing is not what you want for a headshot....you want a clean, unobtrusive background and a vertical framing. A professional headshot needs to be a vertical,so the person's face is shown large and clearly. She has a slightly large nose, and the relatively short focal length and close-range shooting you did in the first two shots sort of exaggerates the size of her nose; you'd do much better to get away from the 55mm focal length from close-range, and move the camera back,and then crop in,or better yet, shoot her with a longer focal length setting like 200-300mm. Her expressions are also a bit 'off' in the first and third shots.

She's got good features, but the under-eye crescents in shot 1 ruin her 'look'. You need to frame her vertically, and try a reflector positioned under her chin to add some sparkle and dimension to her lovely eyes. Make sure her bra strap is tucked under the shoulder strap on her top,and avoid a necklace that simply drops out of the frame,as in photo 3.

 

[ocular]

I don't see any image.

 

[Josh66]

I don't see the picture either.

Living in LA, there's plenty of actors/actresses who need head shots so I figure it will be a good way to earn extra money.

You should know...

For actor/actress head shots, there is a very specific set of rules you have to follow.

Not following the rules can cause the actor/actress to get passed over for jobs...
(If your clients are getting passed over for jobs, so will you.)

 

[JoshBeck]

I accidentally deleted the photos from my server, but they should be back up now. Thanks for the input. I agree with most of what Darrel said, but I don't know anything about lenses. I guess I'll have to look into that.

Also, I'm an actor as well and I've done my share of getting my own head shots taken so I'm aware of the "rules." But, it's a lot to think about as a photographer while you're shooting. I'm really just trying to get a best lighting without having a studio to work in. In reality, as soon as you get an agent, they're going to want you to take new headshots anyway so my goal is to take the photos that get the actors the meeting in the first place.

 

[Nocojoe]

I agree with the others, there are very specific sets of rules for headshots. There is a good tutorial about it on ModelMayhem somewhere...up there we go: ModelMayhem.com - All about Headshots

Read that over it should point you in the right direction as far as headshots go.

 

[bigtwinky]

A few actor friends have had their headshots redone and it seems that the trend in the "in thing" to do now is to have a landscape headshot instead of portrait. Probably just a fad, and might just be local.

 

[gopal]

why she is made us to be afraid of her in third shot....? she looks more cute in second.

 

[ocular]

why she is made us to be afraid of her in third shot....? she looks more cute in second.

She's expressing an emotion, that's what actors do. Anyway I like it :thumbup:

 

[c.cloudwalker]

why she is made us to be afraid of her in third shot....? she looks more cute in second.

She's expressing an emotion, that's what actors do. Anyway I like it :thumbup:

You may like it but that picture is useless as a headshot.