What not to wear for a headshot: episode 1

I have a few rules for choosing clothing to wear during your headshot. One of those rules is this: no t-shirts with stuff on them. Stuff like logos, crazy patterns, glitter, bows, splatters of mud, or anything else that distracts from your face.

A headshot should be a photo of your head, and anything else in the photo- the background, your clothing, jewelry, etc.- should be incidental and exist only to frame and compliment your face. Anything that steals the show from your face is a no-no.

If you see your t-shirt before you see your face, then it's got to go. Change, that is. Being shirtless for a headshot is also a no-no.

Check out these examples-- in the first photo, her face is competing with the awesomeness of a giant griffin fighting a dragon on her t-shirt. If you're put into an empty room and there's a young woman standing in one corner but and a griffin fighting a dragon in the other corner of the room, which corner are you going to be looking at?

Don't let your face be upstaged by a griffin.

And the second photo is pretty self-explanatory. If you're going to wear a t-shirt with someone's logo on it, you might as well be selling their product in the photo, and not your own face. Now excuse me, I suddenly want a refreshing carbonated drink...

Can't decide what you look like?

Most people are not like my dad, who has had the same haircut since the late 1950's*. We like to change our look here and there and even on a daily basis... one day we've got a beard, the next day it's a mustache. The day after that it has vanished to mustache heaven.

Although I wear contacts 95% of the time, I walk my dog every morning before I put my contacts in, and I always see the same early morning commuters and dog walkers around the neighborhood who only see me in my big, black librarian glasses and red and white knitted hat. They must think I always dress like I'm in a "Where's Waldo" book.

So how should your headshot look if you've got so many different looks? I always vote for the majority. (we're not talking about political stances, by the way, just portraiture trends.) If you usually wear your glasses when meeting your clients for the first time, then wear your glasses in your headshot. If you're usually clean shaven and only sport a mustache to go with your Tom Selleck Halloween costume, then leave the mustache at home for your headshot.

Or in some cases- if you're an actor and want to have multiple looks for different types of auditions, then take photos with all those looks so you'll have a big pool to choose from. Auditioning for a lumberjack role? Send them that bearded headshot! Trying for the part of a young librarian? Send them the naked cheeks and spectacles look!
*true story.

Spit out your gum.

There's nothing worse than an amazing photo of yourself where your smile looks so perfect, your eyes sparkle, your head is titled in just the perfect angle that makes your nose look so cute... but there's one little hair sticking straight up. Or one little fingerprint on your glasses. Or one little fuzzy from your sweater resting on your lip.

Or one little glob of bright pink chewing gum mashed between your teeth.

Sometimes we can stress ourselves so much about having our photo taken- timing the next haircut and color perfectly or when to trim or shave the beard so it's just perfect at the appointment, or choosing just the right shirt that brings out those itty bitty little blue highlights in your eyes...

For me it's generally about seeing the forest instead of the trees. People are drawn to portraits of friendly faces that catch your attention because of the warmth of the smile and the natural, confident, comfortable ease in their face. It's the overall tone of the image that's the most important in making it successful in grabbing and holding someone's attention.

But something that distracts from that will ruin it and cause the viewer's eyes to go to that one spot in the photo- instead of to the whole photo. Something like a huge, sparkly piece of jewelry, or bright purple polkadots on a tie... or a piece of pink gum poking out of someone's mouth.

So before you have your portrait taken, spit out your gum.

Pinup photos! With food.

Organic Headshots is the official photography studio for FOODGASM- an online cooking show with a vintage pinup theme. Michelle takes all the fun promo photos for the show, and even films it with them as one of the camera operators or the director of photography for some episodes. Congrats, Foodgasm, for all your recent success. Here's to many more yummy episodes!

Print!

As if being a full-time photographer didn't keep me busy enough, I'm also heavily involved in the world of handmade goods and markets with my side project, Cussing Cozies. (If you haven't checked it out yet, you should... they're reusable handmade coffee cup sleeves with swears on them. Yes, you read that right.)

When Cussing Cozies has a booth at handmade markets, I usually share that booth with talented letterpress printer, Shayna Norwood, and her business Steel Petal Press.

Today I visited Shayna in her studio and took some headshots and action photos for her to use in the massive amounts of press she's been getting lately. You might be seeing these photos in a publication or two sometime soon on local letterpress awesomeness!

Wedding outtakes

It's summer, which is "wedding season," as we photographers call it. So I figured I would share some of my favorite photos that usually never end up in the wedding albums... Prepare yourself for some minor ridiculousness...

151 headshots in 8 hours!

Last week, Organic Headshots set up shop at McCormick place to take photos of 151 members of PepsiCo who were in town for a couple days of meetings, banquets, and other general annual convention duties. Hair and makeup artists touched everyone up, and Organic Headshots set up 3 studio settings, taking photos of multiple people at once. Since it was mostly walk-in based, we were rushed with occasional crowds of smiling, photo-ready attendees, but no one had to wait for longer than 90 seconds for their turn. This is thanks to the Organic Headshots team of Michelle and her fellow shooters Vanessa and Alex- who all did a great job keeping everyone moving quickly and making sure everyone got some great photos they could be proud of!