Six Tips for Perfect Headshots
by Ruth Kulerman
"What constitutes a good headshot?"
That is IMPOSSIBLE to answer. However, here are some general suggestions.
First, yes you may staple your cover letter to the front of your headshot, in
the upper left hand corner. Be sure the staple does NOT cover important contact
information on your resume.
1. Like the envelope and the letter, the headshot must look professional. Always
8x10". I prefer a matte finish. NY still opts for a decent sized white border
with your name printed in the bottom border. No fancy fonts here either. Even
the print style you select says something about you. Neither the border nor the
printed name should draw attention away from your face! The aim of a headshot is
to have your face grab their attention.
2. What should the picture look like? YOU!!! Women: Please do not try to look
like the next Miss America. "Ordinary" is very much in these days. A pretty
woman trying to look glamorous has fewer chances/fewer roles than a pretty woman
who presents herself as she is: pretty. Or plain. Or intelligent. Or humorous.
Or whatever she is. Teenagers, please look teenager-ish. If they want someone
who looks 22 there are thousands to choose from. If you look 15, then look 15.
The more your headshot looks like you, the better the headshot.
Men, one nice outfit and one casual. If you aren't the Wall Street type, go for
tee or sports shirt only. It used to be one legit (soap, theatre) shot and one
commercial. (That is, one glamorous pose and one girl/woman/boy/man next door.)
Today I would strongly suggest that if some of your roles will be business
types, then men wear a tie and jacket and women wear a suit and blouse as one
pose and tee shirt or more sporty outfit for the other pose. Whatever you wear,
LOOK LIKE YOU. Try as truthfully as you can to figure out what kinds of roles
you are likely to get cast in. Chances are if you are not a hunk or a model, you
are not going to get hunk/model roles.
3. Make up? Exactly the same that you yourself could apply. Horrors! I can hear
the women screaming. There is only one exception: If you have very dark circles
under your eyes, then lighten them under careful makeup. Men, unless you are
only the "scruffy, unshaven type" then please shave. LOOK LIKE YOUR HEADSHOT AND
HAVE YOUR HEADSHOT LOOK LIKE YOU. Unless you are stunning, please do not have
your face all glamored up, unless you are willing to pay a make-up artist every
time you audition.
4. Just be sure the picture is about you, not about hair or boots or glamorous
makeup. What does that mean? I once saw a headshot of a young woman sitting on
the floor wearing boots. The shot was angled from the bottom of her boots. Those
boots, consequently, were twice the size of her head. That was a picture about
boots. After I first saw the boots, five minutes later I had forgotten the face,
but the image of boots has lingered five years.
More and more I see headshots with distracting backgrounds--wrought iron fences
with parallel lines, cityscapes, angles, circles, cars. STOP. Your headshot must
have NOTHING that takes the viewer away from you. NOTHING. No housetops, no
trees, no nothing. If the photographer insists, run -- run very fast to another
photographer. The photographer with distracting backgrounds is more interested
in his own clever shots than in capturing your face.
5. NOTHING MUST TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR FACE. That is what people must see.
6. If you smile, get your whole face, especially the eyes, into the smile.
Otherwise just a "real you" look is best. If you are self-conscious about your
teeth, your smile will show it. No, do not smile unless you can commit to it
completely. (PS. You CAN teach yourself to smile!)
Truthfully, I would have to look at every person's contact sheets before
making a judgment on headshots. However, don't merely rely on your family to
help you select the appropriate pose. Get the opinion of someone in the
profession who really doesn't know you or else who doesn't have a vested
interest in you. An impersonal unbiased opinion. Don't believe the photographer.
He's looking at his work, not at your face.
A note-personal-about headshots. I love to laugh. Mouth wide open, tonsils
showing, eyes squinty closed, head thrown back. The kind of unladylike
laugh/face that embarrasses proper mothers.
My first headshot session captured one of those laughs. Against EVERYONE'S
ADVICE, I had "the laugh" made up into a postcard. That "forbidden" pose, the
laughing postcard, landed on a casting desk (because I had mailed it). And "the
laugh" led directly to my first agent. That's a pose against every rule of
headshots. But I just knew it totally captured a major side of me.
My advice: Go and do thou likewise. Capture you.
The hardest advice of all: If a headshot is not working (that is, if you are not
getting called in for ANYTHING) heave it out and get another set of shots. That
is why it is so terribly important NOT to pay a fortune for headshots. You do
not have to use the biggest name photographer. Your headshot is not about the
photographer. It is about your face. And if one picture isn't working, move ON
TO THE NEXT.
SUMMARY: HOW TO GET ATTENTION
Present the best you in your envelope's appearance.
Present the best you in your cover letter's appearance and content.
Present YOU in your headshot.
"Actor Tips" is copyright 2006 by Chad Gracia and ActorTips.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
For more articles on acting, as well as free monologues and acting supplies, visit
www.actortips.com.
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