Your modeling and acting headshot will be the most important photo you will have when pursuing your career in the entertainment industry. This is the main photo you will be using for your castings and auditions. Clients want to see the real you!

That’s why it’s important to make sure your headshot is up to industry standard and showcases you in the best light!

USE A PROFESSIONAL TEAM

• A professional hair, makeup and photography team will make a huge difference when taking your headshots.
• Look at their portfolios to make sure they have done modeling and acting headshots before. An experienced team will help with guiding you to achieve the industry standard headshots you seek.

MAKEUP, HAIR AND WARDROBE

• Makeup for headshots is very clean and minimal. You don’t want to go in front of the camera with a full glam look but you also don’t want to go bare faced either. A good headshot makeup artist look will cover any blemishes, dark circles, even out your skin tone, bring out your natural features with mascara and a light blush, make sure your lips don’t look dry or chapped and are a natural tone and smooth out your skin as much as possible. Remember, the camera picks up everything!

• Hair for your headshots should be your natural curls, soft waves or straight hair. Ideally, it should be a cleaned up look of how you wear your hair on a daily basis and how you will wear it when showing up to castings.
• Wardrobe for models can be a black or white solid fitted top, jean jacket, or a top in a neutral solid color (no patterns, textures or logos). For actors, you want to go with outfits that fit the roles you are wanting to audition for. This can be a leather jacket with a solid top for spy or undercover cop/detective role, a casual outfit for an everyday mom/dad/student role or even a business outfit for a workplace business role. Even then, you want to avoid any patterns, textures or logos on your outfits. This avoids any distractions and helps your photos from getting “outdated” too quickly.

DURING THE SHOOT

• Once you are on set, make sure to give different facial expressions and angles. Try soft closed smiles all the way up to a full teeth smile. Just remember avoid giving the same look/expression the whole shoot. This is a great time to see how you photograph and select the best expressions for you.
• It’s easy to get tense or doubtful once you are in front of the camera, especially as a beginner. Make sure to make the team aware of anything that can help you feel comfortable. It helps when you play music you like during the shoot, build rapport with the team and even receive feedback on how you are doing and seeing how some of the images are turning out so you can make adjustments as needed.

You can definitely get a team together to do your headshots on your own, but we would LOVE to help! Our photo shoots come with a full team of hair and makeup, photographer, wardrobe stylist and posing coach. Learn more about our 5-month model training program and how we help graduates succeed in the modeling world.