Finding A Good Headshot Photographer Near Me

WHO NEEDS A HEADSHOT PHOTOGRAPHER?

A good headshot photographer can really enhance your brand to your target audience.

You may be an actor who is looking to submit acting headshots to castings on casting websites or to agents and managers. Or you may be a fashion model who needs a good headshot to put on a comp card, or who is looking to get into acting on the side. Or you could be in any kind of professional field from a doctor, finance person, lawyer, in HR, or any job under the sun.

With sites out there like LinkedIn, it is imperative for nearly everyone to have good headshot photography and to have yours taken by an experienced and talented headshot photographer.

I, myself, am an nyc based actor and photographer (who travels to Los Angeles a lot) and you can see my actor headshots rates here.

WHY DO I NEED A GOOD HEADSHOT

First impression

Your headshot will often times be your first impression to people on the web, which ultimately means to people all around the world.

Whether an acting agent, a model scout, a potential client, or an HR person at a company you desire to work at, having a professional headshot will be the first way that people judge who you are and what type of person you are.

If you have a headshot that comes across as unprofessional, there is a chance that those looking at your headshot will question your level of professionalism.

Your headshot can define you

Your headshot can also define whether you are funny, charming, approachable, stern, serious, or any other adjective, which can all be expressed through a great headshot.

The reason for a having a good headshot, shot by a professional headshot photographer is so that the first time that people see who you are, you and a professional get to define what they will see when they see you.

WHERE DO I START LOOKING FOR A HEADSHOT PHOTOGRAPHER

USE THE WEB TO GUIDE YOU

If you are an actor, a model, or a professional looking for an image of yourself for your acting or modeling career, your LinkedIn, or other places online, the first thing you can do is literally google "headshot near me" or "headshot photographer" and scroll the first few pages of individual headshot photographers and check all of their work on their websites, along with the cost of their services.

Likely at the top of google search engines will be mass websites that pool a ton of photographers together. While using those types of websites does work for some, I'd recommend you scroll down and go directly to the website of individual headshot photographers and look at their websites to choose from there.

Check their websites out and see if they have shot other actor headshots, model headshots, or corporate headshots before, and see if they take good shots that you think are amazing, of high quality, and have a style type that you like.

Look for quality work you admire

If they don't have quality work on their website or shoot in a style that you like, then you should skip them altogether. You want a photographer who's headshot work you admire and who you think will give you a product that you will love.

ASK A FRIEND

You can also consider asking friends (other actors, models, or professionals) where they got their headshots done. If you see that they have a headshot that you really like, you can ask them for the contact of the person who shot theirs.

And be sure to tell the photographer who referred just so you can get cool points for your friend.

USING A LEADS WEBSITE

There are a ton of lead websites like www.upwork.com, www.bark.com, www.fiver.com, www.thumtack.com that you can find headshot photographers on.

While you can find success with them, I personally would not recommend using any of these sites for finding a headshot photographer because you just don't know what you will get.

Go directly to photographer's websites

Going directly to someone's website or using someone that a friend refers you to is a safer and more practical way to go at it in my opinion.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN SEARCHING FOR HEADSHOT PHOTOGRAPHERS

PHOTO STUDIO

Check and see if they have access to a professional photo studio and what the cost of that will be.

Lighting is very important

Shooting your headshots at a good location with great light sources, whether in studio or outside is very key and a lot of professional headshot photographers will have access to a studio that they get shots of their actors, models, and professionals regularly.

PHOTOGRAPHY CAMERA

If you know a bit about cameras, it can also be good to know what type of camera a photographer shoots on. Granted, great imagery can be shot on nearly ANY type of camera at ANY price range.

But the more expensive a photographers' camera equipment is can correlate with how serious the photographer takes the craft of photography and sometimes how knowledgeable they are about it.

This idea is not set in stone, as there are many photographers who spend tons of money on camera equipment but have no idea how to use it. But more often than not, the theory holds.

TIME SPENT AS A PHOTOGRAPHER

It's also good to know how many years a photographer has been shooting, and how long they have been a headshot photographer for hire. Finding out of they provide photography services as a business or if they just shoot actor and models for fun can tell you how much of a priority taking your headshots are.

A lot of times when a photographer does photography for fun, they have other things in their life that are a higher priority to them, and it can take weeks or months to get back your photos.

Typically photographers who take pictures for a living or do so as a business regularly schedule time out of their week to go through, choose, and edit pictures. This leads to them ultimately getting your great professional headshots back to you sooner than later.

The details on a person's motives for shooting are important so you can know how serious they take photography, which can determine how serious they will take your photography session.

The best headshot photographers are the ones who have been providing the services for a long time, who have worked with many actors, models and professionals, who know the use of light well, and who at least know all of the basic details of their camera.

RETOUCHING

Most professional headshot photographers in New York and Los Angeles will do some retouching on your imagesand give them the feel that they should have. Through that process they can remove pimples or unwanted scars, lighten or darken the image, bring certain colors up or down, make the image sharper, or all kinds of other editing tools.

A good photographer will know how to manage this and know the difference in the look between a corporate headshot, and actor headshot, and a model headshot. But ultimately they should all look natural to the subject and not to artistically edited.