"Professional" Headshots, critiques needed

[julianliu]

I am trying to take some headshots for students at my university for $10-15 per picture and brand them as "professional" headshots. But since I am charging people for my service, I am pretty careful about the quality of the photos I give them. I am posting some headshots here and see what can be improved to warrant charging them for these photos

Please critique. Thanks



#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

Julian Liu

 

[JohnnyWrench]

These look pretty good. Especially for $15! You need more fill light on 4 - 8. The pose in number 2 is feminine so watch that with your male subjects. His head should be tilted the other direction. Look at the difference in head tilt between 1 and 2. 1 is a masculine pose while 2 is feminine.

This write up explains it. It's old but the fundamentals hold up.
Chapter 5 - Posing Men, Part Two

 

[SoulfulRecover]

They look great.

This may interest you if you like this type of work:

 

[julianliu]

These look pretty good. Especially for $15! You need more fill light on 4 - 8. The pose in number 2 is feminine so watch that with your male subjects. His head should be tilted the other direction. Look at the difference in head tilt between 1 and 2. 1 is a masculine pose while 2 is feminine.

This write up explains it. It's old but the fundamentals hold up.
Chapter 5 - Posing Men, Part Two

The essay you linked is really helpful! Thanks a lot! I kind of pose people's head according to my intuition but now I get some professional advice, feel more confident now

Julian

 

[julianliu]

They look great.

This may interest you if you like this type of work:

Got to check out this video more later. I think I may have came across this video before. The photos in the video look really nice so this may be my next goal of posing people.
Thanks a bunch!

Julian

 

[tirediron]

Not bad at all; your clients are definitely getting their money's worth and a bit more besides! I think Johnny covered all the main points.

 

[julianliu]

Not bad at all; your clients are definitely getting their money's worth and a bit more besides! I think Johnny covered all the main points.

Thanks, John.

 

[FITBMX]

Those look great to me.
Careful, at those prices and the quality of work, you will end up with more clients than time!

 

[chuasam]

Lighting is good.. expression on #2 is horrific.
Your pricing is way too low.
Is the Bokeh on image #2 done in photoshop?
Your retouching is abit heavy on image #1

$15 is not sustainable. Charge at least $50 for a single retouched image.
Most pro headshot photographers charge $150 (low end) to $300 average and $1000 and up (high end) for a headshot session.
Work out how many hours you put in (shooting, marketing, retouching, and so on) per image. From there you calculate your fees.
Good work for $15 I admit but you've spent too much time retouching.
Charge more and get better at it.

 

[KmH]

Note the poses in the video, with the subject leaning forward from the waist and the chin lowered. I also think most of the subjects are sitting and in the video he shows his pretty simple location shoot lighting set-up.