Can you guess?  And which do you like better?  I’m curious what the current consensus is on film vs. digital.

These images were taken at the hot springs near Mammoth Lakes California on my Holiday break last year.

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Hot Springs, Mammoth Lakes California

Hot Springs, Mammoth Lakes California

I thought it only fitting that I post a blog about corporate headshots today since I’ll be gone all week shooting over a 100 people for a client.

The same client had a few questions about wardrobe and what I’m most impressed with is how my answers were neatly summarized into the following list, so I have to give them credit especially since they added a few more useful tips!

• Wear business attire (coats and ties for men, business suits for women)
• Avoid pinstripes as they can confuse camrea lenses or draw attention away from your face
• Avoid chunky or large jewelry as they can be distracting
• Have a contrast in shades between your jacket and shirt
• Avoid beigh and chocolate brown as muted colors can come across less powerful visually
• Do not wear bright colored jackets but bright undershirts are okay for an accent color to pop the photo
• For ties and accents, choose primary colors.  Small patterns are okay.
• If you wear glasses, wear them for your photo if you have anti reflective coating. 

Below are some examples.

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Padraic Mc Freen: IBM

Stephen Mason

Stephen Mason

Stephen Mason

John Evans: USC / Katy MacLeod: New York Life Insurance

Deiva Blake: Creative Abundance

Speaking for myself, I find that my most  amazing sessions have a lot to do with a client’s attitude coming into the session.  I realize headshots are a large investment and that there is a lot riding on them.  And often by the time actors come to me, they’ve had one or more bad experiences, their agents haven’t been happy with any of their pictures and they are at a complete loss.  Regardless, assuming you have done your due diligence and have thoroughly researched photographers, once you make a decision, it’s important to trust your decision as well as the process of the photographer you chose to work with.  In other words, let the professionals do their job.

What I’m about to say can easily be misunderstood so I want to be very clear.  I’m not saying your input isn’t important and I’m not saying you shouldn’t voice your concerns or opinions. However, when  someone is overly controlling about every aspect of  the shoot from the largest detail to the smallest of details, it tends to stifle creativity.  Not only is the organic process gone, but I’m worried about making the slightest wrong move and failing to please my client.  I’m worried that what I do isn’t what they want so I’m extra careful to only do the things they ask me to do.  I refrain from offering my usual advise and typically end up confining myself to tight parameters which doesn’t leave room for spontaneous moments that make for great pictures.

Believe it or not a person’s attitude can become a self fulfilling prophecy and can literally make or break a headshot session.   The person who walks in with a negative attitude, constantly stopping the flow and the momentum because they are worried about what is going to go wrong because of what has gone wrong in the past, is very likely to walk away with pictures that don’t represent what I do in my body of work.  This is never intentional on my part but if I’m prevented from doing what I normally do how can my pictures turn out the way they usually turn out?  The person who comes in with a positive attitude, is free and open to new experiences, open to direction and entrusts me with the experience, will very likely walk away with exceptional results.

Part II of this post will outline some examples and show you the most amazing session of the year because of my client’s amazing positive attitude!  Stay tuned and share your experiences here!

Below are headshots wrapping up the last of the batch from 2011!

Jason Thompson: Casual College Student / Urban Hipster

Thomas Webb: Egdy Bad Boy / Quirky Office

Charleene Closshey: Upscale Wife / Carolina Adler: Girl Next Door

Tessa O'Toole: Silverlake Hipster / Quirky Office

Reza Mir: Casual Office / Edgy Villain

Jennifer Neal: Young Mom / Mischievous Girl Next Door

Sean Fagan: Young Student / Robyn Heller: Quirky Mom

Alexandra Hoover: Business Professional / Sassy Office

Alexandra Hoover: Upscale Wife

Jefferson Rogers: Edgy Bad Boy / Guy Next Door

Steven J. Oliver: Business Professional / Mobster Boss

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We watched some sea lions and birds hang out on the rocks,

ate some yummy food,

drove Honey crazy because…

we kept feeding the squirrels,

and petting the local kitty cats.

We enjoyed the sun,

the mountains…

the beach…

and the beautiful sunsets!

He said, speaking over me when I attempted to explain why I don’t give out all the high resolution images with my packages.  In a very antagonistic tone, he said it again after I attempted to explain a second time “No no no there is no copyright, who does that?” .  So I wished him luck and hung up the phone.  The actor will remain unnamed but I was a little perturbed by the hypocrisy of this fellow “artist” during this one way conversation which started as an inquiry of my services.  Musicians live on royalties, actors live on residuals,  and photographers live on licensing their images and most of us “do that”.

As my colleague Joe Henson from NY so eloquently put it…

“This issue is definitely one of the biggest struggles in our profession, the concept of licensing fees for the needs of different clients.  Because photography has been devalued by the explosion of talented amateurs who have no real need to protect the rights to their work and because original digital files are reproducible with no degradation of quality, we professionals have to dig in our heels and protect what little value we have left to the rights of our work.  I find it easiest to explain licensing fees to my clients by establishing a link between my rights as a photographer and the rights they retain in their given field.”

To establish that link with the acting profession, I would like to point out that as an actor your union protects the rights to your image in many ways one of which is by making sure you are properly paid for the different uses of your image.  If a show plays an episode you’re in x amount of times, you get x amount of residuals.  In addition, if a show plays an episode you’re in on network TV vs. basic cable, you get x amount of $.   Similarly if you book a national commercial, you get compensated differently than if you were to book a regional one or a straight buyout.

These laws are in place to prevent your image from being exploited without proper compensation.

The same goes for all artists, architects, painters, poets, novelists, filmmakers, and yes photographers.

The Copyright Act of 1976 protects the creators of content, visual or intellectual.

So to get to the point, when you pay x amount of dollars for a headshot session the images of which are intended to be used for your personal promotional needs, you get x included in your package.  For me to exercise some control over how my photographs are used and to prevent them from being used in a manner not intended or paid for, I don’t give out high resolution images.  Instead, each high resolution image is purchased separately and paid for separately with a small copyright mark placed unobtrusively in the corner somewhere.  I ask that you respect my copyright.

If Warner Brothers decides to use your headshot to promote their next show, then Warner Brothers will need to license the rights to that image from me.  The value of that headshot changes when used to bring in big bucks by way of exploiting it as advertising for a show.  Starting to see the similarities in what we do as artists?

I hope so because there is copyright.

-Vanie

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The following images are of my fellow clients, actors I’m grateful for because they support and respect my work as an artist.

Brian Palatucci: Commercial Business / Young Professional

Ellen D. Williams: Funny Best Friend / Girl Next Door

Victor Montero: Edgy Hipster / Young Intern

Eddie Ruben: Commercial Office / Guy Next Door

Tish Merritt: Hip Girl Next Girl / Love Interest

Check out Tish’s blog as she documents about her session with us here!

Stephanie Jackson: Young Mom / Casual Office

Charlotte Ubben: Girl Next Door / Disney

Jenny Garris: Girl Next Door / Urban Hipster

Tell your friends!  It’s Halloween Weekend and we’re having a spooky sale!  Book your session on Halloween Monday (October 31, 2011) and receive a 10% discount on any package.  The bigger the package, the bigger the discount.  Happy Halloween!

*Fine print…not valid with other offers .

Hilliard Bain: Sassy Mom / D.A. Matzke: Quirky Dad

Christine Marie: Edgy Detective / Out on the Town

Christine Marie: Commercial Business / Sassy Love Interest

Sarah Gaboury: Quirky Office / Fun Best Friend

Marion Dunham: Love Interest

Melanie Ann Foché: Casual Office / Didi Banks: Girl Next Door

Nadia Dawn: Sexy Vixen / Quirky Young Mom / Business

Nadia Dawn: Leading Lady

3x returning client Gary Brintz: Edgy Love Interest / Detective

See Gary’s previous shots HERE.

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• Think about the market you are trying to appeal to and shoot your photos accordingly!  No need to shoot an environmental photo if the environment doesn’t add to your message.
• Put together clothing that clearly communicates who you are as a professional.  Are you the “business casual” or the “upscale executive”?
• Accessorize your image!  Take with you those accessories that define what you do.  In the case of environmental shots, props also work as great accessories.

Marisa Saladino

Mei Wallace: Mei Wallace & Associates

Daniel Franklin: Franklin Educational Services

Nazanin Barouti / Kelvin Ho

Estelle Baumhaur: E-Salon

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Blog written by Scott Frank

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of sitting with Scott Frank, an anthropologist who specializes in studying Hollywood, to discuss Headshots.  When I read the paper based on his research, I was fascinated to read about my business purely from the perspective of a study.  I was particularly fascinated by the section on Casting Directors, part of which Scott agreed to share here.  Are headshots really not as important as actors think?  Judge for yourself!

Hi there.  My name is Scott Frank, and I’m a professional anthropologist (i.e. I have a Ph.D in it), who’s specialty is studying how Hollywood works.  The following is an excerpt from a paper I presented last year at a national Anthropologist’s conference.  The subject of the paper was headshots, and how different people in Hollywood interact with them in different ways: actors, headshot photographers, and casting directors.

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Casting directors are, in a sense, unusual in that they are the end users of headshots, and ultimately the eyes for which the entire process of actors and photographers regarding headshots exists.  It’s also the least precise group – technically, it’s probably better to use the term “casting professionals,” because many people can be involved in casting – there can be several levels of casting directors, casting associates, etc., or for a small production, the producer or director might even do it themselves.
In any case, the first thing to understand about these casting professionals is that they look at a LOT of photos.  One told me that for a standard smaller film role, looking for, say, a 22 year old female, they might get 7,000 submissions.  Another told me from his experience on network TV, for a minor guest star role, there would be between 1,500-3,000 actors vying for the slot.
The method through which most casting in Los Angeles works involves a complex series of events, but almost everybody at one point ends up using one of the online casting services, and eventually using the physical headshot artifacts themselves.  Very briefly, for example, a TV show would send a script to Breakdown Services (which everyone uses); Breakdown will pull all speaking parts, make a description, and send it back to the casting agency for approval.  Once approved, the descriptions get posted online, and they wait for the applicants to pour in.
The next stop is the headshot-intensive one.  Casting professionals will scroll through all these hundreds – really even thousands of headshots for each role.  Each shot is either passed over entirely, or rated a 1, a 2, or a 3, a ranking of how excited they are about each prospect.   And here’s the part that I personally find fascinating – the way they select from all of those thousands of photos.  For all the time and energy put in by the actors and the photographers to make each shot perfect, to make it really sing, the initial answer from casting people I spoke to was “I pick based on impulse and instinct.”  When I started interviewing casting professionals, I admit I was hoping to hear some hard-and-fast rules, some strongly guiding principles for what they can tell is a good versus bad headshot, but truth be told, instinct is the only way really to do it – when you have to look at 7,000 photos over the course of two days, you can’t spend time really looking at each one; a quick glance and an instinctual response is the only way to pore through all of that data.  Because that’s what your headshot is to a casting professional: data that is supposedly indicative of something they need: a good, working actor.
When someone casting a show says they go with their gut when selecting an actor based on a headshot, that can mean different things: one told me that he flashes “when you can tell who they are in the headshot” – he says that means you can tell they’re a good actor.  Another said he’s flashing on how the actor fits the mental image he has of a character based on the breakdown description.
All of the casting folks say that headshots aren’t as important as actors think they are.  Which is in a sense true – the selection is based on many factors – but in a sense also seems false: the casting professional is zooming through hundreds of shots – the only thing they are going on at first is your headshot.  As one actor said, “all a headshot does is get you through the door”, and the casting professionals agree – after that, it’s your resume, and your actual ability, as demonstrated during a readthrough or pre-read.
The other thing that casting professionals seem to agree on is that somehow, in a way nobody is quite able to explain, in a truly great headshot, the actor’s personality – not just their appearance – comes though.  One casting agent said that this happens in .3% of all headshots.  At first I assumed he was joking, but then I ran the numbers and it makes sense: if you have a pool of 2000 applicants, .3% comes out to six people you’d strongly believe are up for the role, which sounds about right.  In a sense, it’s shades of the old saw – that a photograph really can capture your soul; or at least an actor hopes it does.

Oh, and by the way, the other final rule I discovered in my research?  Nobody – successful actors, agents, headshot photographers, casting professionals – thinks that an actor can pick their own headshot.  When you’re selecting which one to use, ask for the advice of other people you know and trust.  Speaking as an anthropologist, it’s not about which photo makes you look the best, but which one transmits your personality to the viewer.

Beth Triffon: Edgy Girl Next Door

Caity Jane Mullen: Young Disney / Greg Roman: Young Intern / Jan Morris: Upscale Wife

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Recently Backstage West asked a few photographers to give their input in an article titled Los Angeles Photographers on What Makes an Effective Headshot.   This was my little bit followed by a couple of headshots.

“Your headshot should not simply be a pretty picture—a trap most novice actors fall into. Instead, your headshots need to market you specifically for the type you’re auditioning for. Your type, or what I call “marketing look,” is based on your age range. For example, if your age range is 18 to 23, your marketing looks may include “all-American guy next door,” or possibly “edgy hipster” or “edgy urban,” etc.

The two photos I chose—while full of personality, something I aim to draw from actors by directing them—also display very specific marketing looks. Sarah is clearly “the girl next door,” and Eduardo is clearly “the businessman.” When the casting community isn’t familiar with your work, a headshot that closely resembles the type in the breakdown gives them reason to believe you can act the part and to call you in.”

The following pictures are some examples of different looks!

Tom Krause: Young Grad Student / Kevin Shewey: Edgy Urban

Claire Crouch: Quirky Girl Next Door / Edgy CW

Mark Dippolito: Addict / Business

Drew Fonteiro: Bad Boy / Boy Next Door

Lenka Svobodova: Commercial Office / Leading Lady

Kyla E. Druckman: CW Love Interest

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