What Is A Headshot? What Is Involved In A Session?

12 May

The Plan and process, when taking a 30 min Headshot session

Headshots! What is the meaning of this?

Theory - a photograph of a person's face or head and shoulders.

Most people require at least one headshot to use for professional use, this can be for your LinkedIn profile, Facebook images or use on a website, as a staff picture. When researching this type of picture format you will find that this photography type, originated from actor headshots.

Since this, headshots have come on leaps and bounds, in how you look, facial expressions and lighting you may decide to use.

A headshot can be taken on location with the background in view behind the person’s head & shoulders.

Most headshots are cropped as a portrait, but some more modern versions of this picture can be cropped as a landscape picture.

Most headshots of people are used to show a person’s face and facial expressions. A person's expression can have a smile on the face, a stern look or a laughing face. Every person will have their own idea of how they wish to portray who they are.

The image to the left shows action in the picture and the person is not looking into the camera. I have not cropped this picture to an 8 x 10 size. I took this picture to be used as a branded image as it’s relaxed and it can be cropped to be used as a headshot.

tHE PROCESS OF BOOKING

What happens when you book in for a headshot?

You have the option to book either a 30min, 1 hr or 90 min session. In this blog, I will explain the entire process when you book a headshot with me.

FIRST THING IS TO BOOK A PHOTO CONSULTATION/SHOOT - We start by getting to know each other, your brand and the brief so we’re all on the same page. Within this discussion, we will consider your clothes, location for the shoot and the message/brand that you wish to portray. I will then go form a visual mood board from the ideas discussed during the consultation

Here is an example of a visual board that has been sent to a client, so that I can plan the location, poses and clothes that the client should wear. The brief for this 30 min photo session, is to take some more professional pictures, to be used for a LinkedIn profile picture & his pictures need to show professionalism. For this set client, I require a location that looks like an office.

NEXT STAGE IS THE PHOTOGRAPHY SESSION - During this shoot, the client and lighting were set up in three different areas around the office space location.

The client was seated at an office table, with natural lighting coming through the windows at the back and the right-hand side of the client. I am using a one-light setup for each picture so that I have a shadow from the left side of the client for each setup.

From this one setup, the client took off his blazer and tie, to show relaxation to professionalism. Another way to run through a range of relaxed to professional images is with the type of poses used. I photographed the client standing near the window & ask the client to sit on the computer table in a more relaxed pose.

2. The second setup was a picture of the client working on a computer/laptop. I have not included this process and picture, because this setup is leading more towards a branded image.

3. The last setup was to give the client a plain background and most images I take are with a black background as it looks professional, but this client was happy to not use a background.

During the photo session, I asked the client if he would appreciate a white background picture, which was agreed on and this was the setup for this picture. I am still using one light setup, although I would have used two lights to reduce the shadow on the background, which I edited out during the post-production stage.

For this one setup, the client took off his blazer and tie, so that he had a selection of images in front of a white wall.

POST-PRODUCTION & DELIVERY

For the 30 min session, I offer a 48 hr turnaround for the delivery of the final edited pictures. When editing a headshot image, I do three main editing processes and these are:

enhance the eyes
enhance the exposure/tones

3. If required I will clean up the pictures or amend the background. For this set shot, I have amended the white background images, by removing the head shadow from the background.

See images and examples from this process

Once all images have been sent to the client, these images can be used for their own professional profile images. If you found my process interesting or you feel that you may like to book a headshot session, then take a look at my headshot information page

Lastly, I would like to thank Andrew Fruish for signing up for my 30 min headshot session and allowing me to use his images/behind the scene clips for this blog.

Andrew Fruish is the Director at Nene Cyber Security, if this is something you wish to know more about, then follow this link and connect with him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-fruish-339956197/

If You Would Like To Have More Information And Learn More, Then Please Give Me Some Blog Suggestions In The Comments Below Or Arrange A 1:1 Photography Session With me.