I've been using a new service called Thumbtack to obtain business. So far, so good. The way it works is that a person in need of a professional service, like photography perhaps, would post a request for...oh, I don't know - headshots let's say. As a service provider of said headshots, I have the opportunity to bid on the request. If the requester likes the quote and my profile, they can respond and offer me the gig. Amy did just that.
Amy's an actor in NYC and her agency wanted some new headshots done for her portfolio. There were some pretty specific things they were after so we focused on that first and then did some other things to play a bit later in the shoot.
I called on Nicole, a makeup artist I'd worked with in the past. She's great! Very reliable, does great work and is always willing to help with more than make-up duty.
We started with a variety of colors and tops on black since part of the requirement was to get some clean shots of Amy with this variety. These are some of my favorites.
Whenever I do headshots, I like to get some that probably lean more toward beauty shots vs. a traditional headshot. Here are a few that I liked of that set.
One of the fist things Amy mentioned to me when I met her in person is that she is challenged with *not* smiling. I had to stop and think about that for a minute since I would say its much more common for people to struggle with having a nice, natural smile on camera. Sounded like a challenge to me to come away with at least a few for her that she was a bit more serious. As you can see from the featured image in the set above, she nailed it. She even knew of a technique that I believe Peter Hurley invented called the "squinch". Essentially its 'squinting your eye lids in a way that portrays confidence'. We had fun playing with the look.
We then moved onto another location. The set of three above are actually shot in natural light (which I don't tend to do very often). I've shot in this location before and really like the options it gives you as an artist.
Only a few feet away from the previous set with Amy sitting on the bench, there was a post I had her stand near for a few images with a blazer and a set of glasses. Again, with the goal of giving the agency some options with making Amy more marketable.
Finally, a few from the same location as the blazer but with just the green top and a bit more casual. It was a real pleasure working with Amy for the first time. She is as nice and down-to-earth as she is beautiful. As the shoot went on, she also provided laughs "on the set". I'll leave you with a few silly faces that came through in the session that got us all laughing.
