(the real)

In the year 2000...

2011-10-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

So, I was just on someone's real estate site, and saw that their latest blog entry was 10 months old. I started thinking snide thoughts, and realized that I'm the pot, calling the kettle black. Bad blogger, me.

What's on my mind, then...

I just bought a used light from an older photographer. He was kind of bitter about how bad the photo business has become - and it has, for a lot of photographers. With cell phones that shoot 12 mega-pixel pictures, and the newest computers-with-lenses from Canon & Nikon, the perceived 'need' for a professional shooter is getting smaller and smaller all the time. Consumer photo printing is dying - when was the last time you had vacation pictures made at a lab? But am I worried about the headshot business?

A little, to be honest, but not that much. Maybe I have my head in the sand, but I believe that there will always be a need for photographers that know how to shoot quality headshots (see previous blog entries for what makes a good headshot).

Of course the delivery method for headshots will most certainly change. How much longer will anyone be submitting an 8x10 glossy print? Some day soon, digital headshots will be distributed via email or other methods. Maybe we'll all have a big casting version of Facebook with our own pages that Casting Agents can easily search. Have you seen that used car commercial where the buyers keep narrowing their criteria to get to the one they want? Picture the same kind of process for performers... " I want males, 6'2", dark hair, 180-212 lbs, age 38-41, within 18.5 miles of 32801" - and page of headshots populates, then just pick and choose who gets invited for an audition. Maybe the process will look different, but it will definitely evolve.

But you'll still need great headshots, shot by professional photographers. Maybe even more so! A marginal headshot might look okay on its own, but now put it side-by-side against a well-shot photo, and it looks bad by comparison.

Rambling done for now. Scot out!

Summer's nearly gone

2011-08-11T10:27:00.001-04:00

I know this because class schedules are a factor again when scheduling headshot appointments. It went by pretty fast.

Good things are happening right now...

I had a book printed for promotional use: see it here!
One of my favorite agents told me I'm her preferred Photographer!
A well-respected member of Central Florida's theater community has also started recommending my services!
My baby turned 15 months old!
There may be a new home on the horizon soon!
...and a few other things that I want to keep quiet for now! :) (apologies to Larry David for the smiley face)

Of course, there are headshots being shot, too! Here are a couple:

I actually had more to share, but for some reason, a lot of people lately have worn turquoise in their selected photos, and I didn't want to be too mono-chromatic... Anyway, I just wanted to check in.....

2011-04-07T12:40:00.003-04:00

I recently received this email from an actress:

I am an actress looking for new headshots. My agency told me you were the best. Does the basic package come with 1 retouched image, and then all the rest untouched, full size? Please let me know the details so I can decide if we should make an appointment. That would be awesome, thanks!

My Reply:

"The basic package comes with one retouched image, and a CD of all un-retouched full-sized images is available as an add-on for $100."

Her Reply:

I would really like to get headshots done, however I do not think the pricing is reasonable and cannot afford it. It is $165 for 1 retouched image? I'm just trying to figure it out?

Do you know any other headshot photographers who have a more reasonable and realistic price? That would be awesome! thanks.

She asked about buying just the CD of un-retouched images for $100.

My Reply:

"I can't sell just the CD of full-sized images for $100. Even as an add-on to the package price, that's a tremendous bargain.

I certainly understand working with a budget. If you don't currently have the means to properly invest in your career, maybe its better to wait.

I have a few points for you to better understand my pricing.

The price for my Package doesn't pay for one photo - you get a photo session. We'll shoot 100-200 images for you to choose from, and hopefully, plenty of great images to make your choice difficult. Ultimately, yes, you choose one headshot, but that's usually what you submit - one photo. The price reflects my years of experience and the quality of my work. As corny as it sounds, you get my 'vision'. I'm charging for the photography, not the photograph.

You can find cheaper photographers, and you can also find much more expensive ones, too. I keep my eye on the Orlando market, and for the quality of my work, believe me, I'm priced very reasonably.

Whether I shoot your headshot or someone else does it, don't make the mistake of shopping with price as your only guide. If you want a cheap headshot instead of a good one, you'll get a cheap photographer, maybe not a good one. Maybe you'll get lucky. Remember that you get what you pay for."

- So about 3 days later, she emailed back to set an appointment. When we met in person, I asked her why she changed her mind about investing in a shoot with me. She told me she had a friend shoot some pictures…. You can figure the rest out.

She Wrote:

So, so far I have narrowed it down to like 6. I will keep narrowing down though and I will let you know either by tonight or tomorrow morning which picture I want edited. Thanks so much, and the pictures look so wonderful. It was definitely worth the money :)

Thanks so much!

Quick Hits...!

2011-03-27T14:46:00.001-04:00

I just added a twitter account - follow me! twitter.com/OrlandoHeadshot

I'm in Los Angeles this week, 'cause i'm a travelin' man! Holy Cow! there are more than a few headshot photographers out here! Just a quick craigslist search showed 40+ ads in the last 2 days!

I'm glad the time changed a couple of weeks ago, because now I can shoot later in the day and accomodate people that have dreaded day jobs, too! If you need a 5pm appointment, that's now easy!

March was once again a busy month with SETC, NETC, and some UCF deadlines that I appreciate. I've made a lot of new friends so far!

That's all for now - stay tuned!

Quickie Headshots

2011-01-13T06:56:00.002-05:00

I just saw an ad for a headshot special that offered a 30-minute session! That must be a great photographer, to be able to get a good shot of their clients in 30 minutes or less. Let me explain further....

Don't get me wrong, I think it's easy to get a good photo in 30 minutes. And the pictures I saw were nice portraits. Shutter speeds, F-Stops, ISO settings, and all that technical stuff are easy to nail in 30 minutes. Most people that come for a headshot are even ready with a practiced smile. Heck, when I shot photos on Cruise Ships, I routinely had just 5 seconds (or less!) to get a good shot of people.

However.... I think a good headshot is more than a pretty picture. And it's gotta be a photo that my clients are happy and confident with. I can only speak for myself, but it takes me a little while to get to know someone, to understand what they're looking for, and (sometimes more importantly) what they're not looking for. Many times, the shots that get chosen are taken near the end of our session. Sometimes, despite having taken good pictures, I can just see that I haven't captured the real 'them' and I shoot more. Sometimes we get it in 60 minutes, sometimes it takes 2 hours, sometimes more.

While I'm proud of my mad skills as a photographer (wink wink), the goal is to get images that my clients want. Of course I am happy to offer my opinions, but at the end of the day, you pay the tab, and even though my headshots are reasonably priced, it's still a significant investment. So it's important to me that you get a headshot that's a good image of YOU, that tells a Casting Pro who you are, and who you can be - not just a pretty picture that's technically proficient.

Let the pictures speak!

2010-12-10T08:18:00.000-05:00

So I've been lax lately with the updates. Been super busy with all the usual stuff, but I've eeked out a few outstanding shoots lately. I'll just let the pictures speak this time....

This Week.

2010-08-06T11:15:00.001-04:00

his week, I had 2 separate clients reschedule their appointments, and then fail to show up for the new appointment! I've been very tempted to send out invoices for time that was not only wasted, but became unavailable to others that might have wanted to shoot. This happened periodically early in my headshot shooting days, but for the last few years, I can't remember more than 1 or 2 instances - total.

I'm not trying to get down on how rude people are these days. Generally, people are pretty considerate, but as they say (and I paraphrase), it's the few bad apples that leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, venting complete. I've had plenty of good shoots recently. UCF is auditioning for this season's shows, and I've worked with a few aspiring Actors. I also learned that 2 performers that I've shot this year were recently cast in the national tour of "A Chorus Line"! Congratulations to Rachel Schur & David Grindrod!

Over the last couple of years, I seen a few people that I been lucky enough to work with when they appear on TV and in movies. It's a neat feeling to experience!

I was wondering....

2010-06-20T08:05:00.000-04:00

Do headshots matter?

I had the opportunity to assist with a casting session recently, and I got to see about 40 different headshots that people are actually using. About half looked professional, but the rest had me a bit puzzled. Some people were using what were obviously home snapshots laid out and printed on the home inkjet. Some people had old headshots that no longer gave a good idea of what the Actor looked like. Some people had 'Glamour Shot' type photos, and some didn't have a headshot at all.

Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I think that if you're serious about your acting/performing/singing, you should have a professional headshot. In the broad picture, when you're up against other people looking for the same job, I think that if you don't look professional, that can be an immediate disqualifier. Casting Pro is given a choice between actor 'A" with a good headshot, and Actor 'B' with a bad headshot. Assuming each meets the physical requirements for the part, they've got to be thinking that 'A' know what she's doing - she cares enough about her career that she's taking the details seriously, and would be an asset to the project. 'B' maybe not so much.

Think about it as a job interview.I think we'd agree that you should shower, dress nicely, and be polite and professional. Having a bad headshot is like showing up to that interview with bad breath, a stained shirt, and flip flops..

Your headshots don't need to be taken by a professional (yes, I said it), but they sure need to look like they were! They represent you, good or bad.

Back to business

2010-06-10T08:57:00.001-04:00

Alright, I was thinking about some of the questions I get asked a lot. One of the major questions is:

"Where should I get copies of my headshot made?" Well, it depends on what you need.

If you want a stack of 8x10 prints, ready to mail out to agents and casting pros, you simply must use a headshot printing company. Despite my full-service inclinations, I don't normally handle the printing of these, because, lets face it, it's a pretty easy process to do yourself, so why pay me extra? But because I'm a full-service photographer, I did the work and I googled for you here. Which one should you use? After talking to several agencies and actors, I have a list of places that I feel pretty comfortable recommending. You'll have to ask me for it though.... You should know what you want. Most printers will be able to print a resume on the back of your headshot, but some don't. By the way, this is a suggested practice. As one agent told me, you don't want to send the headshot responsible for causing a staple-cut on the Casting Agent's hand, do you?

On the other hand, if you don't want to commit to a hundred headshots, and prefer to print as you need them, there are a lot of easy-to-use local photo labs. Just make sure you do your research and find one that offers consistent work. I'll share a story...

A few years ago, I thought it was super-convenient to have a drugstore photo lab across the street from me. To make things even easier, I could upload my digital file on their website and just stroll over 20 minutes later and pick up my prints. Well, I did a sample 8x10, and it looked pretty good. But, being the full-service headshot photographer that I am, I wanted to test further. The next day, I sent the same file, and then did the same thing again for 3 days. When I looked at my finished 8x10s on their own, they all looked okay. However, when I looked at them together, they all looked different. Imagine going to Home Depot's paint department and looking for a sample of gray paint. There's 50 gray samples that are all gray, but all slightly different. You can see the same phenomenon with photos.

While day-today consistency may not be terribly important for you if you're using one 8x10 at a time,consistent output is important for me, because I want to know that the skin tone I see on my screen is what I get on the finished prints. I eventually found a local lab that does regular maintenance on their equipment, and their output is the same, day-to-day.

I would not advise you to use a copy shop - except in a dire emergency. Excepting specialized headshot printers, you should always photo should have your headshots printed on photo paper to get the full spectrum of color and exposure, not using a laser printer as you'll find at copy shops.

Gotta go, the baby is crying......

Busy Month

2010-04-13T23:27:00.001-04:00

So I've been absent from the blogging here... I know it's important to keep this up and fresh, but I have a lot going on right now.

First, the headshot shooting has been going gangbusters of late. Thanks to some friends at UCF, I've been lucky enough to shoot a lot of people in an auditioning class that mandated new headshots for everyone. Thanks to you all!

I also work with a souvenir photo company that focuses (catch the pun?) on Sports Fan photography, with many MLB teams as clients. This means that since Baseball season has started, I've been traveling. A lot. As I write this, I'm in Chicago on the last leg of a trip that's also taken me to Boston, Cincinnati, and St Louis. 5 teams in 7 days! It'd be great if I loved baseball, huh? I like being able to help the local operations with their challenges, be they technological, photographic, or logistical. I like solving problems. Anyway, I'm home tomorrow.

My wife and I are expecting a Daughter in a few weeks, so that's something else going on in my life. Did I mention that we're moving as well? Back to College Park, so I'll be closer to the studio than I am currently.

Hopefully, I'll catch my breath sometime in May, but its a lot of fun!

Retouching

2010-03-16T08:20:00.005-04:00

How much retouching should be done? How's this for an answer: just enough.

With the tools available now, I think that it can be way too easy to get carried away and make the subject perfect. Need a nose job? No problem. Ears tucked? Perfect complexion? No lines? You get the picture. I'm sure you've seen this video on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXf8fr0Kp3Q

(sorry I don't l=know how to embed the video)

Your headshots should give an accurate representation of you - you have to look like your photo when you walk into the audition. That doesn't mean you can't be 'cleaned up' a little. My philosophy is that you should look like you, but on a good day when everything works.

I'll clean up your skin
I'll lessen the baggage under your eyes
I'll tidy up stray hairs
I'll change the background so that it emphasizes you, rather than distracts
I'll clean the lint and dust from your shirt
I'll warm up your skin tone if needed
And a few more little 'tricks'!

This is a shot I did a couple of months ago to give an idea of the areas I touched up, and the final version. Click on the image for a larger view.

Here's a few more:

As you can see, I'm not fundamentally changing the way my clients look, I'm just making them look a bit better. With Photoshopping headshots, I think less is more.

Don't get me wrong, great makeup can help make the pictures amazing, but sometimes when shooting outdoors in the Florida sun and heat, it's not always a good idea to have too much on.

Referrals

2010-03-09T19:14:00.001-05:00

I'm a happy photographer.

I love it when people do their shopping and book a headshot with me. That means they like what they see and trust me to make great images with them.

True story: I had a call today from a mother interested in getting headshots done for her son, an Actor getting ready to make the move to Hollywood. She told me that they decided to both do the research to find a photographer, and then compare notes. Well, it turns out that they both had me as their first choice! I love that!!! 2 out of 2 experts agree!!

But what I love even more is when I get a call or email from someone and they say that their friend, or agent, or teacher (or someone else they trust) gave them my name because they were happy with the work we did together. I'm very proud that more than 50% of my appointments come from referrals. Its important to me that people are happy with their images before we stop shooting and end the session. Sometimes, I wonder if people just say they like the pictures because they're being polite. Maybe some do, but when I receive a referral, I know that they really were happy with the photos.

Specializing....

2010-03-01T06:55:00.005-05:00

When checking out the work of other photographers (which I do all the time), I often come across these kind of descriptions:

Photographer 1: “I specialize in family portraits, event photography, infant, promotional photos for bands, head shots, high fashion model photography, weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc."

Photographer 2: "We do architecture, weddings, portraits, web and blog headshots, and full-length modeling and fashion shots."

You've heard the phrase: "Jack of all trades, master of none"? There's a lot of photographers that are 'Jacks of all trades', and maybe even decent at a lot of things, but what are they really good at? What are they 'masters' of? When you're looking for a photographer, and you visit their websites, the opening (splash) page can tell you a lot. A generalist that leans toward weddings will have wedding images. One that prefers architecture will show buildings. A band photog will showcase a band photo. That's what they really want to be doing, but they do all the other things to try to stay busy and keep the income streaming. These days, you can't blame them.

I think that if you want to be really good at something, you find your niche and specialize. Not "specialize" in everything like Photographer 1, but truly specialize in one thing.

If you're a bride looking for the best photographer you can afford for your wedding pictures, you look for a wedding photographer, right? You wouldn't ask a headshot photographer to shoot your wedding, would you? Even if they did it really cheap, would you compromise on those very important images? Well, I believe that a great headshot can be just as important as (or maybe even more important than) wedding pictures. Do you know anyone that got work from showing off their wedding pictures (besides the photographer)? A good headshot will help you get work. It won't get you a job, per se - you have to be able to act or sing or dance - but it can get you in the door to show off your talent.

I guess that's a long way of saying that if you want good headshots you should hire a good headshot photographer, and be wary of someone that 'specializes' in 80 different types of photography.

That's it for today's lesson (rant)

A really nice email

2010-02-26T06:21:00.000-05:00

I just received a note from an Actor that was nice enough to choose me for his headshots. He's taking some additional classes at Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, and was told that his headshots were the best in the class! Now, maybe there were 2 people in this class, or maybe there were 75. Either way, when trying to distinguish oneself in a crowded field of Actors, I'm sure it can't hurt to have the word "best" attached to your name....

An Actual Photo. No, really.

2010-02-25T07:58:00.003-05:00

Here's a recent headshot. This is Kristin, who's a theater student at UCF here in Orlando, and she was a lot of fun to shoot with. She's heading to the Southeastern Theater Conference in Atlanta later this month and needed headshots pretty quick.

In many of the shots we took, she bears a strong resemblance to the actress Rebecca Gayheart, but I think its important that she look like herself, rather than someone else. Unless she wants to be a stand-in for Rebecca Gayheart. She ended up choosing a couple of different images, but I still like this one a lot.

(on) Second Thought...

2010-02-25T07:51:00.001-05:00

Setting up this blog was a bit of a chore. Don't get me wrong, the mechanics of it were pretty simple (thanks, Blogspot!), but getting the domain was not easy.

My obvious choice (orlandoheadshots.blogspot.com) was taken. As was my second choice (orlando-headshots.blogspot.com). I ended up with something kind of clunky (scotlerner-orlandoheadshots.blogspot.com), but I guess most people will get here by following a link of some sort, and not typing in the address.

These other blogs mentioned above seem to be inactive, but it goes to show how may photographers there are that want to shoot headshots in Orlando. I'll talk more about that another time...

First Post

2010-02-25T07:05:00.001-05:00

Sort of...

I've tried a couple of times to start a blog, but I guess I always felt it was a bit too trendy, and I'm certainly no hipster. As time has passed, though, I've seen the value of spreading the word and keeping people updated with new headshot work and new ideas and trends. So I'll give it a better effort this time.

I promise.