“I can’t tell you enough how much I love getting my photo taken in ultra-hi-res by strangers I don’t know.”
— says absolutely no one ever.
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Let’s face it. Headshots are comfortable for no one.
Starting as early as the awkward assembly line photos in grade school, we’ve had plenty of experiences with professional photos to know it’s not the most relaxing environment to capture your most compelling expression. Barring the photogenically gifted, most of us had to adapt. Some of us developed a reflexive default to ironic duck lips or peace signs, some by making funny faces. Some of us carved out a good, cheesy smile through practice.
The challenging truth is: now more than ever, headshots matter. As much as we might resist, the photos in our social media accounts that make up our digital identity can significantly affect our perceived competence, approachability, and value. The headshot is the logo of individuals. And it takes more than a 3-minute slot in the music teacher’s room to develop the shot that best represents our essence.
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So here’s what I’m doing to solve for this.
Environment
We’ll be shooting at a high-rise in midtown Manhattan, overlooking the city from the 49th floor. Before we begin we’ll chat with some tea or coffee, and I’ll walk you through the process, which will essentially be an hour of shooting with brief breaks to review and iterate in between. We can choose any kind of music, stand-up comedy videos, or TV shows I’ve got on my brother’s Netflix to have in the background.
Production quality should be a given with any serious photographer. While I sharpened my skills around adapting to natural light over 10 years ago, I’ve been fortunate enough to upgrade over time to a premier lighting setup with Westcott’s Flexkit, allowing me to capture celebrity-photoshoot-quality shots indoors. Even in the most dead-inside expressions, you’ll at least look top-shelf expensive.
Direction
This is where all my attention goes. It’ll be my job to become the most communicative, real-time feedback mirror for you to develop your angles and expressions. As you might notice in my work, my goal is to capture the precise moments where my subjects convey relaxedness, comfort, and presence, while making sure their head and body placement is oriented in the most flattering way.
Ironically this means avoiding saying “Smile!” at all costs. What it actually entails is me micro-managing every slight angle of your head and body (don’t worry; it’s actually relieving to get a stream of directions to follow, instead of thinking about how to smile right), or it might mean catching your expression right after it settles from a good laugh.
Rates
My pricing system for headshots is straightforward: $250 session fee + $50 per individual photo (discounts at 5 photos and above).
After our shoot, we’ll review the photos together to select the ones you love and would like to use. Professional retouches will be completed and delivered to your email within 48 hours.
Sold? Let’s get in touch.