Look your best with processional portraits and headshots. There are several key elements to a successful headshot. This is true whether you want a Dallas business headshot, or acting headshots, modeling portfolio headshots, athlete headshots, entertainer headshots or even beauty/glamour headshots.
 |
| High Key Vs Low Key Headshot Lighting |
Key 1: lighting. The lighting has to be right. Without proper lighing, nothing else will look good. For beauty headshots, you minimize shadows. For gritty or sports photos you might make use of shadows for mystery and tension. There's too much to mastering lighting to cover here. But simply to say that overall, usually the headshot is either well-lit (called high key bright look) or low-key which is a darker ambient light on the face.
When it comes to your business headshot, you want a high-key look (nothing mysterious or dramatic hiding in the shadows), but for an acting headshot, you might want more drama. It all depends and the artistry is the photographer having the right sense of the lighting that best serves the specific purposes of the headshot. This sample musician headshot is a very simple example to illustrate the difference between high and low key lighting setups.
Key 2: the Pose. The pose is another art in and of itself. Face shape, jawline, length of neck, the way you wear your hair, and all these aspects that appear in the camera frame, all determine the right pose. Are you trying to look more slender? That indicates some key distinctions in the pose. Again, too much to say about posing in one short blog pose, but your pose must compliment your goals, and I see too many so-called professional photographers that are sloppy or downright wrong on the best pose for a person.
The right pose can emphasize or deempasize an aspect of your face, such as law or nose or forehead. Each photo is customized to your physical shape and your goals.
All faces are not created equal. Is your's long and narrow? Flat and wide? How is your nose, your chin? The length of your neck? And is your neck thin or thick? I take all this into account in determining the most flattering pose of your shoulders and head. And to be honest, I don't know of anyone more precise and methodical in achieving great results, than my posing techniques. I first started studying posing for models at age 17.
The headshot pose has to do with the physical features of the subject, but also with the purpose of the headshot. Which value are you trying to visually communicate primarily? Competence? Confidence? Approchability? FIerce or welcoming? Reassuring or bold? Do you want to look intimidating and powerful, open and honest, helpful or demanding respect? All these factors of the visual communication will inform the pose. I tailor your headshots, not for just your look, but for your audience, and this is yet another way in which my headshot photography regularly achieves such strong, positive results for my clients.
Key 3: the Retouching. Headshot retouching is another art in and of itself. Retouching is the most subjective aspect of your headshot. There can be too much or too little. Clearly, a polished beauty pageant headshot has a different expectation of finished result, than a more raw acting headshot.
 |
| Expert, magazine-quality photo retouching for your Dallas headshots |
This example shows a lot of retouching. My retouching can be subtle or more significant, as in this sample. Photo editing is done to your taste for the best results, given your headshot's audience. It is time intensive and detailed. And some prefer barely any retouching, or to look years younger - the choice is up to you. But my clients call it the $20,000 digital facelift!
Retouching can whiten teeth, slenderize the neck, reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, and so much more. Let's talk about any retouching specifics you desire when you book your headshot photo session in Dallas, TX. Contact www.HeadShotPros.com at 877-858-0071 and book your photoshoot.
