The foundation of every acting career begins with a professional headshot. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at a recent client acting headshot session:
Why Professional Acting Headshots are Important
Before we start, let's talk about why professional acting headshots are important. When an actor auditions for role, they must present a recent headshot to a casting director. Casting directors receive dozens, and depending on the production, sometimes hundreds of submissions for a particular character. From there they then select the actor who looks like the best fit for the role. Since casting directors are so inundated with actor's headshots, they only take a few moments to look through each headshot. And that's why it's important to capture a quality headshot that not only represents you authentically but can also make the casting director stop and look at your submission.
What Background is Best for Acting Headshots
Our headshot session took place at the Austen Hunter Photography Studio. You can take your acting headshot in a studio or outdoors, but the key takeaway is that your face should be the only point of interest in the shot. Regardless of the setting, if your background is distracting, your headshot will suffer for it. If you're uncertain about how serious you want to go with your acting career, getting your headshot taken on a neutral studio backdrop is a great way to start. You can always update your headshot later when you're more established in your acting career.
How to Pose for Acting Headshots?
Your posing and expression is crucial for an acting headshot. Actors should use their eyes and pose to showcase the range of roles they could be cast for. If your goal is to be cast for the 'popular girl at school role', you'd probably want to pose with high-confidence body language and smile for your headshot. On the other hand, if you want to be cast as the villain in a particular story, you'd better practice that smoldering gaze! Using poses and expressions congruent with the role/type you want to be cast for will help the casting director see you as a good fit for the role.
Acting Headshot Examples
Our client is a new actress, and she's still experimenting with what 'types' she plays best. With her outfit choices and posing, I'd say say she reminds me of 'computer hacker' or 'grunge musician' type in the first shot, but is definitely rocking the 'girl-next-door' type in the second shot. What do you think?
The worst thing you can do for your acting career is to skip out on getting quality headshots. But before your session, do be sure to learn all my acting headshot tips and even check out the Complete Guide to Acting Headshots. If you'd like to book your acting headshots, look no further than right here! Click below to get started.
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Austen Hunter Photography is a Pensacola, Florida photographer who specializes in senior picture photography, beach photography, fashion photography, graduation photography, military portrait photography and headshot photography in a bold, graphic style, from Destin and 30A Florida, to Pensacola to Orange Beach and Gulf Shores Alabama. Austen Hunter has been published internationally and is known for his bold, graphic, and clean photographic style. He uses a variety of both natural light and off-camera flash to capture images. People usually book Austen for outdoor portrait sessions or sessions conducted at his home studio.
