How To Take Stellar Headshots!
Everyone wants to look gorgeous in portraits, I mean, who would say, "nah, I'd rather not look amazing?" That's right. NOBODY. So listen up, I'm about to share how I accomplished the transformation you see below to help our sweet model, Hope, rock this stellar headshot!
I had Hope arrive with a fresh face, so we could take a before photo of her (left) and see the finished transformation (right).
First, Hope applied her makeup beautifully on her own. Makeup is a great start when getting professional portraits. (Side note - when investing in portrait headshots, you want to look your absolute best, so take it up a notch and spend a few extra bucks to get professional makeup done - it is SO WORTH IT!) With makeup and good lighting, I shot another photo of Hope. I shot her square with the camera and here's what we got when I said, "just say cheese."
Next, you can see the difference simple posing instructions can make. When she tilted her head slightly, put her hand on her hip, took a step forward and put her weight on the forward foot and leaned forward slightly, the result was simply amazing!
Here's the before and after of just standing in front of the camera vs posing.
The last step to great headshots is all about retouching, wait, minimal retouching. On the left is a sample of an untouched portrait next to the same portrait with some retouching. The retouching helps to further enhance the model's natural beauty, without making them look unreal. Some skin smoothing, under eye treatment, blemish removal, and a hint of eye enhancement takes this gorgeous portrait to a whole new level! Don't you agree?
To recap, here is difference from starting with a fresh face to applying makeup and setting up your lighting to then nailing a great pose and retouching the final image.
Thanks to our sweet, patient, model, Hope! I hope (no pun intended, haha) you all enjoyed this little post. If you'd like to see more blog entries like this, please share this with a friend and send me a shoutout to keep posts like this coming!
Want your own amazing headshot portraits like Hope? I can't wait to hear from you :)