Time to Update Your Headshot

“I age really well. ” “I still look like my old headshot”

“I haven’t changed that much since drama school.”  “I take care of my looks.”

They’re all things I’ve said in the past, and they’re great reasons not to change your headshot.  It’s recommended that actors change their headshot every two years, but why or should we just stick with the same picture?

Above are 3 examples of my own headshot over the last 4 years.  Whilst you can tell it’s me in all of the pictures but something has changed in the style of the photo and in the way I react to the camera.

As a London based headshot photographer, I’m not using the same techniques I used 10 years ago.  As I grow and develop I refine my technique through a process of accepting what works and rejecting what doesn’t, so when it comes the moment I take an actor’s picture I can provide the client with the best possible photograph.

As an actor, I too have learnt that something’s work and others don’t.  I’m developing and refining my style.  As I learn as an actor what works and what doesn’t my way of interacting with the world changes, this also bares out in the way I interact with the camera and will present itself in front of the camera.  It’s up to the photographer to capture it.

Leaving drama school I was very green and eager to please. With me as with most young actors there is a eagerness to make your mark on the world.  To be the next big star of London’s West End.  It’s a great ambition to have!  As we grow a little older we learn to contain our enthusiasm to channel and focus our energies for a more successful creative output.  Just watch many older actors on stage and you’ll see they are doing the bare minimum to achieve the greatest effect.

Can you capture this in a picture?  I say you can.  Confidence is a big part of the industry and that same confidence that grows in you comes out in your every day being and every day interactions.  If your eyes are the windows to your soul, then your headshot is the casting directors glimpse at an actors potential.

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