By Chris Violette
The Second In A Four Part Series
MISTAKES 6 & 5
While the photographer may be taking your picture, it’s up to you, the actor, to make sure you get what you want and avoid wasting money on pictures that fail to grab the eye. We covered the first two most common mistakes in last week’s article, which I recommend you have a look at first if you haven’t already. In this second part of a four part series we’ll look at the next two most common mistakes. The first here is the one that surprises me the most. The second may at first blush seem like a luxury, but it’s not.
6. NOT PUTTING ENOUGH THOUGHT INTO WARDROBE
Your pictures are an important investment in yourself and what you wear matters. Wardrobe for your photo shoot is not something to be underestimated or left for the last minute, though it often is. Think of your photo shoot as a show you are producing and do some pre-production planning.
First and foremost, how your clothes make you feel is more important than how they look on you. Anything in your own wardrobe that makes you feel confident, sexy, powerful, charismatic, etc., make sure you bring it to your shoot. Have a pair of jeans that are fifteen years old, shredded, stained, but make you feel like the sexiest beast on the planet? For heaven’s sake, bring those. Fellas, do you have a suit you rarely get to wear that makes you feel ten feet tall? Have it pressed and bring it. It could be your secret weapon of a black cocktail dress, shoes, undergarments, accessories – anything that makes you feel something more than just comfortable. “Shoes? It’s a portrait. We won’t see the shoes”. That’s right – it’s not about how they look but rather how they help you feel that matters.
If you feel limited by the choices in your own wardrobe, you might ask a stylish friend of yours to have a look at your clothes with you and see if there are combinations you haven’t thought of that might do something for you. If you’re on a budget and still need more than your own closet as a resource, check out used shops like “Out Of The Closet”. My wardrobe in a recent play was primarily Hugo Boss, in ‘as new’ condition, and furnished courtesy of Out Of The Closet for less than $30.
For some, it’s the feeling of new clothes that gets them charged. If that’s so for you, I say it’s worth it to add a budget for clothes to your shoot even if it means putting off your session a bit until you’ve saved enough money. It’s a waste of money to have headshots taken if you don’t feel great in the clothes you’re wearing. Having said that, money is usually the easiest solution to a problem. Getting creative is often the best way to go.
If you have the budget for a stylist, okay, but be sure you share the same agenda. Your pictures should reveal authentic facets of who you are. If a stylist is trying to make you look like a hipster and you’ve never heard of The Decembrists, your pictures will fail you.
This brings me, perhaps, to the most important point. Do not dress for a type. Dress to bring out the best in yourself while also leaving something for the imagination. I know you will hear advice to the contrary but it’s sorely misinformed. Dress for the casting director to see you as an ‘executive’ and, if you’re lucky, that’s all you will be considered for. Likewise with any other stereotype. YOU are more interesting than any type you think you should play.
Some final basic DO’s and DON’Ts:
DO:
- Press all of your clothes (or have them pressed) the night before your shoot and bring them on hangers.
- Make sure your photographer has a steamer on the premises for touch-ups. Wrinkled clothes in a photograph are distracting and can be difficult to fix in retouching.
- Bring basics – white T-shirt, black T-shirt, white dress shirt, blue dress shirt, etc. – even if you don’t think you’ll wear them. They’re a great ‘plan B’ if needed.
- Ladies, bring black, white, and neutral colored undergarments.
- Glasses if you actually wear them.
DON’T:
- Bring anything with a visible logo, quote, cartoon, photograph, etc..
- No horizontal stripes. Please. I beg you. Stripes in general are tricky but horizontal stripes, in particular, usually add weight to the subject.
- Wear a hat.
- Wear a uniform or anything that suggests a uniform.
- Wear what you’ve previously worn in other headshots.
When in doubt, if it makes you feel something more than just comfortable, bring it. If not, leave it in the closet.
5. NOT HIRING A MAKEUP ARTIST
To not hire a makeup artist for your headshots is penny wise, pound foolish. Both men and women should have a good makeup artist for their shoot for a number of valuable reasons.
A professional makeup artist is an important part of a shoot’s team and can make a dramatic difference in the quality of the resulting images. The subsequent amount of production value you get in your photos is much greater than the actual cost. Unless you do makeup professionally yourself, you can’t reasonably expect to do as good a job as someone who does.
Additionally, and particularly for women, a professional doing your makeup will save time which means more time for you in front of the camera and, subsequently, more pictures to choose from.
Men, unless your skin is absolutely perfect and never for a moment gets shiny, you will also benefit from having a makeup artist. For one, you have it easier than women in that it’s typically much less expensive (roughly $40-$60) and consumes much less time during the shoot.
A lot can be corrected or retouched in post production but the goal is to get the best possible images in-camera. The less an image needs to be retouched, the better. Professionally applied makeup can even out skin tone, hide blemishes, and enhance features without drawing any attention to itself.
There are a number of resources for finding a makeup artist starting with your photographer. I typically bring in Kate Shaykhutdinova. She’s brilliant and couldn’t be more pleasant to work with. Model Mayhem is also a good resource for makeup artists around the world. There is also a group on Facebook called Production Resource Group that can be very helpful.
I recommend some communication with your makeup artist prior to the shoot concerning your expectations and preferences. It would be wise to also have your photographer on that call. Sending the makeup artist an unadorned selfie taken in good light is also a great way to avoid surprises.
Lastly, it’s okay to be fussy with your makeup particularly where skin tone is concerned. If your foundation or concealer doesn’t match your natural skin tone the results will be apparent to the camera. Similarly, though makeup is important, so is good taste. You need to be able to arrive at auditions looking like your pictures.
I hope this helps you get the most out of your money. If you liked this article and found it useful please do sign up for future entries and exclusive offers, and share the article on Twitter and Facebook. Check back next week for the third installment in the series.
Break legs!
Copyright 2015 Christopher Violette
