Secret Revealed to be a Successful Headshot Photographer

Headshot Photography  does not only mean how a photographer using their camera, gear and the gizmos;  it’s a perfect framing for capturing one person  complete expression for a specific purpose. Sometimes your client needs this for their personal activity or sometimes for professional purpose, that’s why you should keep in mind to find out their best outlook which describes the character accurately.

Technical part (basic settings like: ISO, aperture, shutter speed) of doing headshot photography can be done by anyone through practicing, but as a professional you should work hard to find out the best outlook from your model. Here, I try to summarize some important point for those who want to expose their headshot photographic talent in front of the whole world.

Image from shutterstock

Understand the Human Face

As a professional photographer you should examine your model face structure (mouth, eyes, eyebrows and body position) deeply cause every single change of facial part can change the total expression of a model. Same expression for photograph does not suit for every person; this is your career so you need to know how human faces looked in your camera.

Grab the Master Expression

How a celebrity look awesome in their every picture, did you ever notice that! The answer will be – every single person has a master expression look which best suit on their face all the time; their photographer has already found that look and all the time they try to capture those through their camera gear. So try to find out the best expression from your client.

Find out the Best Emotion

Some look great as a ruddy, some in tough mood, some are as arrogant and so on; so before you capture a photo try to notice your model various emotions. You can keep them practicing through a mirror and can give them proper direction for receiving the best output.

Find out the Most Interesting Look from Your Client

Models need to express their best glance through their photograph so as a professional photographer you should guide them to find out their best look. Some newcomer model may feel hesitate in front of the camera, try to build a frank relationship with them to make them feel free for their photo session. During your conversation noticed his/her every expression and find out their most interesting looks to capture by your gear.

Try to highlight on the eyes

Human eyes are considered as the window of their soul. Therefore, nothing is more vital than achieving sharp, fresh eyes in your shot. Grabbing the perfect eye expression will be a powerful way to create a strong connection with your viewer into the photo.

Fixing your angles

Keep in mind that for taking headshots photos, angles will influence the result look and feel. For ladies, make the eyes turn up larger and the face more elegant by shooting down on them. For men, highlight their strength and success by shooting a bit up.

Include a hair light

You can apply a hair-light for creating an attractive look and dynamic view in your image. A hair-light can be put above or behind the subject [with a flashlight or the sun] to add depth view to the shot, and draw the highest point of the head out of the foundation.

Utilization of Lens

Nothing is more annoying than a close element headshot that comes up short just due to lens distortion. Normally for capturing a close headshot always try to avoid wide angle lens. Rather, use a lens that will retain your image and slim your subject’s face – you can use 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens which is highly recommended. You can also apply 50mm f/1.8 lens, 135mm f/2 or, 85mm f/1.38 lens for this purpose.

Edit the image as a post-production part

After capturing your desire headshot don’t forget about the most important step that is, photo editing as your post- production activities. By adding your special touch you can formulate it as a professional photograph from an average one. Remember, during the shooting time you have full access to capture a headshot but after capturing the snap you have limited opportunity to explore it. Don’t worry about making any fault cause by practicing more you will be able to get the perfect photograph.

Keep in mind, a camera cannot give you a good picture it all about your photography how you express it, its act as a typewriter for a novel writer where the author has to write what they want to express through their writing. You should keep in mind that you cannot get a picture as perfect as you want. For correcting your image error you may need to adapt some photo editing activities, if you want to do this part with a professional you can go for PhotoTrims to renovate your snaps.