Headshot / Zed card photos

khmuse

khmuse

Tech Guru
I just shot a series of headshots and zed card images for an actress / model that I know. Here are a couple of the images that I shot (about a 300 image session).

I would be curious to learn what age people think her to be?

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Actually, shes 15. I have been shooting her images since I first met her and her mother (great friends ever since) when Eva was 12. I thought that she was 17 or 18 then!

Here are a couple of more from yesterday.

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The first pic looks odd for some reason, and it either needs to be touched up, or she should have had more make up to hide those little flaws. the others were nice though.
 
Capt Quirk said:
The first pic looks odd for some reason, and it either needs to be touched up, or she should have had more make up to hide those little flaws. the others were nice though.
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These are all "raw" camera images, no changes or touch ups at all. I gave this talent about 300 images from the session, she and her agents will pick about 5 or 6 that they will use and those will be retouched as needed.

The current style of headshots that are getting used are not so "perfect" as they were a few years back. CDs were complaining that the person didn't match the headshot and it was a bit of a waste of time for everyone. Now the style is to show (though diminish a little is OK) imperfections in theatrical headshots, hair is often a bit "messy". High fashion and print is still heavily retouched and more makeup is used on the talent. Commercial headshots fall in between these two extremes.
 
When you showed me these before I thought she was probably about Courtney's age. But she definitely looks older than 15, although I have to say in some of the shots you showed me, she looked more her age...maybe it was the silliness and her expression. Great session by the way...:thumbsup:
 
Slimothy said:
My guess was 15 or 16.

I win.
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Yeah, but you are closer to her age than a lot of us old farts!

Eva is a great kid and a solid actor as well. Her modeling career is just beginning to take off, I suspect that she will do really well. She has the ability to look different depending upon how she is dressed and the way in which you shoot her. She is very versatile and an absolute joy to work with. She has a very supporting mother (which all successful kids need) and she keeps Eva grounded and focused on whats important. Shooting theatrical images of Eva has always been a bit of a challenge as it is to her advantage to look younger, and as you can see, she leans toward the other direction more often than not.

I am going to be shooting another young girl in a week or so, she is 17, but wants to play younger (more employable based upon child labor rules). Its always a challenge as the girls naturally try to look older and more attractive, getting a young and innocent look takes a bit of work.
 
khmuse said:
Its always a challenge as the girls naturally try to look older and more attractive, getting a young and innocent look takes a bit of work.
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I would imagine it is a challenge with all teenagers, who can't wait to get older...if they only knew...

I can definitely see how it could be an advantage to have an older girl play younger because of the union rules (not to mention labor laws) regarding minors.
 
Brandon Rice said:
I should be an actor... I'm 21 but everyone says I look 17...
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The term in the industry is "legal 18 to play younger" and it is a large benefit as the costs to the production company are considerable lower (no studio teacher required, unrestricted working hours, etc.).

Now as to being an actor have you worked on the other side of the camera before? Its great for those who love it but its not for everyone. Consider that if you are really pretty good, you will book about 1 in 70 auditions. Thats a lot of rejection and not everyone is good at taking rejection.

If you think of each audition as a job interview (and it really is) then think about doing this for a living. Most working actors say that booking the job is so much more difficult than working the job.
 
khmuse,
very nice shots. It makes the job easier when you don't have to film ugly people huh? lol.
The only thing I would say (If you have to touch them up) is make them less purple/pink. Maybe dodge her pupils out more. She has pretty eyes. Other than that, nice poses/crops.
 
Thanks WaveRider,

I just noticed that you are in Hermosa Beach. I am going to shoot this same actress/model this coming weekend (swimsuit shots) by the Hermosa pier. As for shooting ugly people, they too can make interesting subjects. What I find the hardest is to shoot plain/average people. Thats the hardest for me to get a strong image from.

I agree, Eva has great eyes, and its one of her strong points. The images that I posted are raw, uncropped, untouched, just converted to JPGs for posting. I set the white balance just a bit on the warm side as this is something that favors her skin tone.
 
I shot these with an Olympus E-1 body with 17.5/45mm and 40/150mm Zuiko glass.

Just picked this combo up over the summer, still not certain if I really like it or not, but the four-thirds format has nearly the exact frame area as 16mm so it comes in handy for pre pro work. I will give Olympus big points on the ergonomics of this body, it really feels great and nearly everything is on a dial, not buried under some nested menu. I HATE menus.
 
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