So, for most actors, taking headshots are daunting, they're scary, it's like the most frightening thing you could ever do. So, I want to give you some pointers of how I do my headshot sessions when I'm taking a headshot. Because having had over 40 years of taking headshots for commercials and theatrical, I have um bombed a lot of times. I didn't know what I was doing, especially in the beginning. I mean, it was hit and miss. If the shot came out good, it had nothing to do with me, it had to do with the photographer. And most of the times the photographer didn't know anything about me, didn't know who I was. Um, what I found was that some of the older photographers had a better sense. But you can't rely on older photographers to know who you are and what you sell. Luckily, when I was first starting out, I was a teenager, so it was pretty, it was pretty simple. It's like, okay, let's let's get you an ice cream cone. Let's get you, you know, being quirky and cute. But it is um up to you to know what it is that you sell. What's your brand? And how to be able to translate that in clothing, in hair and makeup. And even for you guys, you may need a makeup artist who can touch up your face a little bit and then ask for that um for that makeup, the brand names, what they did, so you can go to the store and buy it and have it so you can duplicate it. Because when we take headshots, we got to be able to duplicate the look. So we don't want to take a headshot that is so different from who we are that we need a hair makeup person to be able to execute it. We want a makeup person who can just accentuate who we are, but not change who we are, and we don't want to take glamorous pictures. Unless you are a glamour queen or a very handsome leading man, um, you know, don't try to take um gorgeous shots because you're not gonna get any kind of calls. You're not because the minute they look at those shots, and if they do call you in and you do not look like those shots, you are in trouble. You want the pictures to sell what it is that you do. You know, you want you want the photographer to be able to capture your essence, your vibe, and your brand. I recently got some headshots done, and I documented the process to bring you along so you could see how I take headshots. I guarantee that if you follow this formula, I'm sure there are others, but if you follow this formula, it really will help you nail a bunch of great shots. Hey actor, where are you gonna be in 90 days from now? Is it gonna be with that same old headshot that is not getting you anywhere? That same old story that it's everybody else's fault while you're not booking? Or even worse, depression, because nothing is happening for your career. Well, let me help you. Because in 90 days from now, you can have a whole new set of pictures that are built on your brand. You can have a list of agents that actually would fit what it is that you sell, and a plan to have a more prosperous career. Listen, I cannot book you, but I can make you bookable. So if you are ready, willing, and excited to change your circumstances, come and join us at ActingSmarterCircle.com. Sign up and get started. We're a weekly community that helps actors get in gear and get the career that they deserve. So the first thing that I do when I start getting ready for a headshot is I start looking for number one, a great photographer. There are a lot of photographers out there, and there are a lot of headshot photographers, but we want a headshot photographer that's going to stand out. When you look at their pictures on Instagram or on their website, the first thing you want to look for is not their style of taking pictures, but you want to notice every actor are they selling something specific? If you just looked at their headshot, would you know what it is that they sell as an actor? Because that's the type of photographer that you want. I was very fortunate about a month and a half ago when I was thinking, oh, I'm gonna get some new headshots because I had a list of some photographers. My dear friend Judy Kane had just taken some new shots and she had posted it on Instagram, and I thought they were amazing. So I went to the Instagram of the photographer and started going through all their shots from their actors, and they were outstanding. What did I love from them? Well, first of all, I love that he was able to catch the uniqueness of the actor, that they I could tell everything they were selling by their headshot. They weren't trying to be glamorous, they weren't trying to be affected, they were just being who they were, and he was capturing it. His Instagram handle is Headshots by Jeff. I had a list of some photographers, but he knocked it out the park to the point where I just contacted him, paid my deposit, and set my date. So now that I got my photographer, I've set the date, my next thing is to start looking at what kind of headshots do I want to take? What is it that I sell? So I want to be real clear on what it is that I'm selling. So for me, I made a list of four things that I sell. I sell mom, I sell executive, I sell doctor, like a psychiatrist, a therapist. I also wanted to take some shots for my podcast. So I made those categories. Then I decided to look at, okay, what kind of mom headshots do I want to take? I want to be the soccer mom. I want to be the caring mom. I want to be the mom who goes to the PTA meetings. So that was what I put down on my list. What kind of medical professional do I want to be? So I put down, I want to be a doctor who's been doing it for a long time. Also wanna be a therapist or a psychiatrist, because that is what I'm good at. And then executive, you know, someone who's probably the boss of a small agency, maybe a creative agency, and even someone who could be a detective, which happened to come in towards the end. It wasn't even on my original list. But as I was compiling, starting to compile my clothes, my wardrobe, I was like, oh my God, this would be great for a detective. So I went through my closet, started pulling out things that I thought would be mom category clothes, things that I thought would be great for the medical person, things that I thought would be great for the executive or lawyer, and things I wanted for my podcast headshot. And once I went through my closet, I was able to see, well, I don't have this, I don't really have this. So then I went to Macy's, plugging Macy's because they have some good sales during the week. So I went to Macy's and I tried on a bunch of things for mom, for the executive, for a medical, and I was able to then pull my clothes together. It was so much fun doing the process. And then I was thinking of okay, so I'm gonna take these headshots with this photographer. Am I just gonna do headshots? Because originally I was I my thought was I'm gonna do some headshots, but then I want some full body shots. You know, maybe me sitting, maybe I'll do a couple uh of me that I can give to press when I have to do interviews. But as I started to dig in for wardrobe, I said, you know what, this particular shoot is just gonna be about the headshots. I will do another photo shoot at a later date where I'm giving the full body, where I'm giving more than just the headshot. My next thing, I got my wardrobe now. The next thing I started to do was look for a hair and makeup person. I particularly do not like taking um pictures with hair and makeup the day of without having them uh do a test on my face. Because once they do your makeup and your hair, for those shots, you can't undo them. So I highly, highly, highly recommend that whoever you're getting to do your hair and makeup, you should do it a couple of days before and run through it with them. Like, I'm gonna take these headshots, I'm looking to have the mom look, I'm looking to have the lawyer look, the doctor look, the detective look, the podcast host look. And so that's what I did. I brought out my clothes, I booked the hair and makeup person to do tests. I wanted to see how they saw my face, because everybody's got a different way of how they see you. If you know what you sell, and that is not how they are they've put your makeup on or done your hair, you gotta change, you gotta let them know you have to, you gotta take authority here and say, hey, I I liked what you did, but that's not gonna work for me for this shoot. Because one of the things that I've learned is you can have the best hair person, best makeup person, they do a magnificent job, but you can't ever recreate it. You don't want that. You want to be able to take headshots that the makeup person, you know, puts the makeup on you, the hair person does you, but you can recreate it if you have to do a self-tape or you have to go to a meeting because they saw this particular headshot. You can recreate it. So I did my uh due diligence. I said, no, I need this type of makeup because I have done my colors. I had Jill Kirsch, the fantastic color consultant, um, do my makeup a few years ago. My makeup, my wardrobe. She even did my website and just told me what colors worked for me and what colors made me look sickly. So I'm very aware of it. She also has these uh a shameless plug for her. She also has this little booklet that you can take with you that has all the different colors that fit you, and you take them to the store with you when you're shopping so you can see what colors work for you. Because you know, sometimes you go to the store and you'll buy some stuff, and then you get it home, and that color does not look good on you because the lighting is a little deceptive. So that little swatch book that she sells for, I believe it's about 50 bucks, and it is worth it. Um, and I take that with me every time I'm gonna go shopping because that way I am not, it's not hit and miss. I'm actually buying something that works for my skin tone, my hair color, my eye color, and then I can I can just hit it out the park. So once I have my hair, my makeup person together, we've done a test. I've got my clothes that I want to wear. I actually, when the hair and makeup person is doing my um doing my test, I will put on the clothes that I that I'm gonna wear to take a photo on it from my smartphone to see how how is it gonna look. Is it gonna look good? Is it not gonna look good? So that's what I did. And then I sat with it for like two days to go, yeah, I don't, I don't like that. That's not gonna look good. I don't want to do that. Because at one point we were thinking of doing eyelashes, uh, little extensions at the end, but that was a disaster. That was not good, and it was great because we tried it, we tested it, and we knew nope, we gotta, we gotta kick that out. It is so important for you to do the test so you can play with things, whatever your idea is of how you want to take headshots, you get to play with it before, so you're not wasting a lot of money with a photographer, and then you gotta do reshoots because it didn't show up. And taking photos of yourself on your smartphone of you in your wardrobe and maybe you in your makeup and hair before you go to the photographer will give you an idea of will that work? Is that gonna work? Is that not gonna work? So that helps a lot. The day before the shoot, I put all my clothes together. I got my clothes that I wanted to wear, and I usually take extra just in case it doesn't work on camera. I take extra. So I went to the cleaners, I put in all my clothes that I thought, you know, I think I might want to use this. So I had uh maybe 13 outfits that I took with me. And it was great because I had extra. So when the photographer said, I don't know about that, I was like, no worries, let's go to the next. And I had everything set in order on the rack at the photographer's. So I knew I'm going from this outfit to this outfit to this outfit because I'm starting with my mom look, then I'm going to the medical, then I'm going to the executive, and then I'm going to the podcast host. And my makeup, I start because I'm doing the mom, there's not much makeup and it's commercial. So I wasn't trying to have a lot of makeup on me. And I wasn't trying to have my hair all fancy schmancy. So I work up to the fancy schmancy, the more makeup, you know, the a little bit more glamorous, maybe a little bit more upscale. But that comes later. We started shooting the photographer, Mr. Jeff Lapenza, was brilliant and amazing. And what I loved about him was that he was uh very efficient with the photos. He wasn't just click, click, click, click, click. No, he was like, let's, you know, um, he directed me and he was like, so what do you think of this? And what do you and and we just had a conversation and he I got 250 shots. I got five, maybe six looks from the photo shoot. Maybe eight of those photos were not all that, but the rest of them were amazing, and I will show you some of these. You get to see them right now, but they were amazing. So it was highly successful because I did my homework before from picking my outfits, getting the photographer, knowing what he could deliver, and we and we were able to communicate via email for about a week. Like we were going back and forth, and I so appreciate when the photographer is in contact with you and you guys are talking it through. You know, he was like, So, what kind of pictures do you want to take? What are they for? Uh, sometimes when you get with a photographer, you book the photographer, but there is no conversation. You just set the date, you show up, and they take pictures. And there's no um, you don't get to have a little one-on-one with that person. And I felt so safe, so well taken care of before I got to the photo shoot because we have been exchanging emails during the week. And he was like, you know, what kind of colors do you like? What are you thinking about? I mean, he just primed me, even though I I thought I was primed, he really did an excellent job of asking me even more questions that I didn't even think about at that moment. I mean, I had my little thing of what I wanted to do, but he was so giving in the emails that when I got there, I felt so at home with him. And he made me feel safe. You know, sometimes when you're working with photographers, and I say this because I've taken over 45 years of headshots with various photographers. And, you know, most of the photographers are are really capable, but they're not good communicating with the actor. Some have their own language, and if you don't understand their lingo, you're you're like, what? And that's what makes actors uh nervous and tight. It's like, oh, I'm getting in front of the camera, I don't know what to do. And you want somebody on the other end of the camera who makes you feel comfortable, calm, relaxed, fun, ready to have fun. One of the things that I love about Jeff was if he saw me starting, if he saw my energy starting to go down, he would go, We're having fun. I was like, Yeah, we're having fun. And then I was able to pick my energy back and work with him. Um, and so as an actor, your headshot is the most important tool in your uh toolkit. You gotta have the right materials, and that headshot has to be a great selling point for you because that's the first thing that they see. So if you don't have your headshot ready or you have a bad headshot, you're in trouble. And I know a lot of actors who say, Well, I don't have a lot of money, so I'm gonna take this guy because they're gonna shoot me for a hundred bucks. Please don't do that. Don't do that. Do not take headshots for a hundred bucks because that's what you're gonna get. A hundred bucks of bad headshots. I I don't know anybody who's taken headshots for $100 that became a money shop, what I like to call a money shop, meaning you can use it for everything and it works. When you invest in headshots, and it's gonna cost you anywhere between, let's say, $600 to $1,000. And we're talking the photographer, we're talking hair and makeup. That's gonna run you uh just average about a thousand dollars. And I'm not talking a high-end photographer, I'm not talking you having a stylist, that is even more money. A couple years ago, I was doing headshots and I hired a stylist, and that cost me about $1,500 just for the stylist, not the photographer, not the hair and makeup person, but just the stylist. So it can get rather pricey. So you gotta know what is it that you need. I say to you, if you don't have the money now, save it. Wait till you can take some headshots that are really gonna make a difference. And the only way they're gonna make a difference is with the right photographer, having the right hair and makeup person who you can tell them what it is that you sell and they can translate it on your face and on your hair. And then having the right clothing so that when that picture comes up, and you gotta think in terms of when casting directors are looking at headshots, they are looking at about an inch and a half, maybe. Maybe, yeah, maybe about an inch, an inch and a half, and they're scrolling. There's all these photos just going up for each category, each role. Your picture has to pop for them to stop and go, oh, wait a minute, let me look. So you got to think of that. You got to think of your clothing. What kind of texture does your clothes? You want clothes that pop as well, that it they come alive in the photo because when we're scrolling, oh wait, stop right there. Oh, that's good, and that the colors just complement you. You know, the colors should complement you unless you are a character that is looking very sickly, and that's what you sell. You sell a sickly character, then go for that. But be on point of what you sell, make sure that the photographer knows what it is that you're selling, that the hair makeup person knows what you're selling, as well as the stylist. Um, some stylists will make you fill out a form, a long form, so they can get an idea of what it is that you do so they can match you with the right outfits. Headshots are crucial. I hope that this little talk with you, walking you through my process, has helped you. If you're enjoying this channel, I need you to do me a great favor. Yes, I do. I need you to subscribe to the channel. So if you can, just click the subscription button because it helps us to give you more great content. How's that? You hit the subscription button, I give you more great content. Deal? Deal.