My new Head shots

Holosynthetic

Holosynthetic

Active member
I recently had new head shots taken and its time for me to choose which ones I want. If anyone is willing to give their opinion on which ones they like most then by all means let me know!

Click here: Proof Sheet

The photographer is a wonderful woman by the name of Jo Liu in Los Angeles

-John
 
Personally I like 29, 35, 79, & 87 as pictures but not as headshots

That being said there are two things that come to mind with these shots. #1: expensive prints seeing as how dark they are you are going to be using a lot of ink.

#2... I don't know this guys work but it looks like a soft box on the right side and maybe a reflector on the left with no other light. Just a very strange lighting set up with too much contrast on the subject for quality headshots. I would have done a dual softbox (right and left) and a hair light up top... The left softbox would have had a dimmer to reduce some of the light but these are just way too spotty for my personal tastes when it comes to acting headshots.

Best of luck choosing, you have a couple of decent shots there but not for acting headshots... best of luck
 
The lighting setup was purely decided upon by myself. My main goal was to achieve a high contrast within the shot due to my lack of enthusiasm towards most natural softness found in hundreds of other head shots. This shoot while booked for the sake of a head shot was actually written down as fashion shots because of the hard lighting and untraditional setup, so believe me, she warned me against going outside the norm, but I hate the norm.

thanks for taking the time Jeremy
 
I just checked the pictures out and for a fashion shoot they look good. I also like 87 but most of the others I think are too contrasty for a headshot unless you are trying to get a character that is slightly evil/bad then these are fine but I don't think they really tell me anything about you. It just seems as though the dark shadow on the left side is because you are hiding something which is why a lot of headshot are shot the way they are. Overall the picture themselves are great but I wouldn't use them for a headshot.
 
These are not particularly good images for headshots for a number of reasons. The areas that I see problems in are framing, lighting, clothing selection and cropping.

Are you looking for a commercial or a theatrical headshot (they are different in a number of areas)?

I work in the LA market and this photographer's name is unknown to me. How did you go about picking her for this task? There are a ton of self proclaimed headshot photographers here, not all are good. If you want to see what is typical, go into any of the LA Casting locations (can be found on line at www.lacasting.com) and you will find many local photographers will have comp cards of their work that you can take with you. These might give you some ideas as to what good LA market headshots look like.
 
so you guys prefer the more standard look like this:

selfportrait.jpg


This is exactly what I was trying to get away from, its way over done
 
John_Hudson said:
I agree

These headshots are horrible (and should be in black and white)
Click to expand...

While B&W was the norm for many years, about 4 years ago that all changed. Now, it is maybe one in a few hundred headshots that you see are B&W. Otherwise John is correct, these are not very good and won't land you the auditions. You need two different headshots at a minimum. One for commercial and one for theatrical. If you see yourself as a character actor or are interested in print, then you will need more types.

Again, I really recommend that you look at what is being used now to see what your competition is doing.
 
OK, this is better. Here is what I think you need to change.

1) Crop out a lot more of the jacket, this isn't a print ad its a headshot.

2) Center yourself in the frame, again this is a headshot.

3) Don't try a print this as a bleed, it will cost you more (it would need to be printed on larger paper and then cut down to size) and doesn't do anything to make it a better headshot.

4) Put some white space around the image (not a bleed) so you can have your name (and any guild association if you wish) stand out better. Keep in mind that CDs need a place to make notes (assuming that you did want to get auditions based upon your submissions).

Do all the above and you will have a good theatrical headshot that should get CDs to turn it over. Now if you have something on the back that weighs enough, you will get the auditions, if not, work on that side first!

A final word of advice, try Isgo for printing. They are about the best deal in town.

Best of luck.
 
John Parron-

I for one totally dig your need to go against the norm. I think these shots, albeit not standard headshots, are very strong. Especially after you've photoshopped the image. I think its clean, well lit and will give a potential auditioner a strong idea of your "type"...

I agree with KHMUSE about re-thinking the comp...

Then of course, your audition is whats ultimately going to have to sell you...
 
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