Headshots

I want to take a minute to talk about headshots. A good headshot is just as important, if not more so, as the very first impression you make when meeting someone for the first time. It's your calling card. It is your first impression. 

That's a lot of pressure. In an industry where technology has literally taken over the way projects are being cast, and your image has to pop from the size of a thumbnail, you better have a good picture. Scratch that. A great one. 

No wonder we go out of our way to psych ourselves out before going in to shoot with a photographer. Especially one that we don't know, or more importantly, that doesn't know us. 

If any of you are as emotionally sensitive as I am, you can agree with me that the pressure you put on yourself to get the perfect headshot always leads to a feeling of straining for a result that disallows you to show up fully and be completely open and present in your session. 

Taking headshots is a very vulnerable experience for most people. When we don't know how to take care of ourselves, to be the professional we all know we are, self-doubt takes over, and it's very hard to come out of that. 

But why? Why does it become so precious? Didn't we go in there to have fun? 

Well, for me? The answer lies somewhere in the realm of self-doubt. I've recently learned a valuable lesson about myself. And here it is.

I'm too self-critical. I have incredibly high, perhaps too high, expectations of myself, and once I feel that I am not living up to them, I begin to doubt. And begin...well that leads to not only beginning to doubt, but doubting altogether. All by itself. Until there's no way out.  

This is the point. Learning to recognize it, when it begins to shift, when it's happening, is the point. Learning what to do about it, well that's really the ultimate question, isn't it?

Here's what I've recently learned regarding this, and I want to share it with all of you. It's the best...option I've heard so far. And...It's literally beginning to change my life.

You have to know so specifically what you want going into a shoot, whether it be a film shoot, a headshot session, or any other kind, so that absolutely nothing can throw you. Not an extra person on the shoot you weren't expecting, not a suggestion you don't agree with, nothing.

If you don't have such a clear understanding of what you want, and know how to communicate it, you're dead in the water before you even begin. 

It's a focus. The Quiet Eye.

Headshots are a collaboration between two professionals on two different sides of the spectrum. Suggestions from a photographer are invaluable. Especially because we don't always know what will pop and/or photograph the best. But a suggestion is merely a suggestion and must be treated as such. 

You can't lose sight of your vision amidst the collaboration. And if you disagree with something, you have to be strong enough to address that. Sure. It can shift. It can morph. But ultimately, if you know so certainly what your goals is, and what you hope to get out of the shoot, the suggestions will only add to the end result, and not throw you off course. 

The last thing you want is to leave your session feeling that you aren't walking out with what you set out to achieve. I've been there, and it's a horrible feeling.  

But, if that happens, that's not the photographers fault. Their job is to capture the best of what you give them, and sure, making wardrobe suggestions is great, but ultimately their job is the photograph. 

Your job, the actors job...is to bring it. Plain and simple. You have to show up. No matter what the circumstances are. You have to know how to bring it. And if you've done your work, when things don't go the way you expected, it'll be a whole lot easier to stay on track. 

The readiness is all. Isn't that what they say?

But here's the point I want to make to bring it all back full circle. To what started all this. Self-doubt. It's an easier fix than we thought. 

Your thoughts...they're just thoughts. They don't define you. And when those thoughts begin to creep up on you, all you have to do is change the thought. I'm not self-critical. I have no self-doubt. I am worthy of getting good pictures. Of this job. Of my life. Of myself. 

If you're prepared enough, and you focus on that, you might just begin to believe it, too.