Post Shoot Info

Your guess is as good as mine.  I kid! I kid!  As a guideline what I tend to look for is: Does it look like you? Do you look good? Is there something interesting and compelling going on behind your eyes? Does it make me want to meet you? If you only had one shot to represent you, to go in the program next to your bio, would this be it?  What I recommend doing once you have gotten all your files is that you make a "Favorites" folder on your desktop and start pulling your faves over into it.  Then take that favorites folder and get them all printed up in 4X6. It is amazing how clear your decision becomes when you can see the shots you are trying to decide between laid out side by side next to one another. Making 4X6s can also be helpful if your agent wants to see a bunch of them bigger before s/he makes their final decision on which shots they want for you.You can do this a couple of ways. One: upload the photos you want directly to Walgreens Photo, or CVS photo, they usually have same day in store pick up, or if you're not leaving the house right now, they'll ship them to ya. Shutterfly is good for this ship 'em to ya' option as well. Two: actually go to Walgreens or CVS with the flash drive I gave you, and you can just insert your drive in their photo machines and make your own prints, and reup on whatever quarantine binge foods that are getting you through right now. Walgreens and CVS run about 19 cents a print, and Shutterfly runs about 15 cents a print. All of these places are always running some promotional offer or other, "sign up and get 50 free 4X6s!" so you should be able to do this pretty cost effectively. 

How Do I Order? What if I Want Touch Ups?

I include one cleaned up shot with the 1 to 2 look shoot, two cleaned up shots for the 3 to 4 look shoot, and 3 cleaned up shots for the unlimited shoot. Each additional cleaned up shot after what is included in your package price is $15.

What does "cleaned up" mean?  It means we do eye and teeth whitening, skin smoothing, get rid of fly aways, make sure everything looks good contrast and color balance wise, and we crop and put your name and borders on it so that you are audition ready. 

If you need heavier lifting on retouches, like getting rid of glasses glare, changing out a background, getting rid of a neck beard (you know, when the two sides of your long hair meets in the middle and overlaps over your neck?) that goes to my retouch dude, Alexis. He's $30 a shot - which is awesome because most places charge $35 to start, and about $85 an hour. He is amazing. He once changed a friend's hair color from red back to blond because her agents said casting directors weren't calling her in her as a redhead. Which is totes dumb, but, seriously, don't get me started - long story short, he saved her $1000 LA headshots for $30. 

Once you receive your retouches do with them as you please!  Upload them to casting sites!  Make hard copies!  Send a copy to grandma! Last minute audition, and you’re out of headshots? No problemo! If your printer is good enough, print one out, and if it’s not good enough, go print one out at CVS, FedExOffice, or Walgreens! It’s that easy! And if you call now, you also get the Ginsu II Knife Set!!! (Does anyone get that reference anymore?)  

How Do I Make Reproductions of My Headshots En Masse for Cheap?

Everything is on-line nowadays so for all my clients no matter where they are I recommend J&S Photo. They are delightful people and do a beautiful job.  

What If I Want Nothing To Do With You and Your Shenanigans? 

You're roommate is a photoshop wizard and you don't want to pay for retouching, your brother works at reproductions and can get you 50% off so you don't need me to crop and put borders on your pic. All good my friends!  Do it!  A couple things:

I think that cropping can make or break your shot, so even if you don't go through me for retouching please don't be shy about contacting me to crop and format your shots that your roommate touched up. It's free and I love doing it. I believe that every headshot out there that I have taken is one of my business cards and I want it to be perfect for you. I want someone to lean over to you in a casting director's waiting room and say, "who did your shots?"  Don't ever be shy about contacting me to help you make them perfect. You're actually doing me a favor!  

If you are going to go it alone, I have a couple of suggestions: Let whomever does your printing know things like if you would like to have white borders all around your headshot, or if you want your horizontal headshots placed vertically or horizontally on the page, whether or not you need any cropping done, etc. For horizontal headshots placed vertically, I recommend that they blow up the shot so that your face size is about the size of your fist – not including your hair and ears, just your face. Face = Fist. Oy, sounds like a date night with Chris Brown. (Too soon?) For Verticals, I am not a big fan of head room, so I recommend them cropping the top of the picture close to your head.  

When you get your repros done is when they’ll do things like put your name at the bottom. Two things that I suggest for your repros is matte prints, and having them put a black-line border around your picture (they call it a "key-line") – I think it really makes your headshot pop. I do not recommend lithos for headshots – I don’t care how cheap they are, you’ll never need 300 of the same picture of yourself. Ever. Ever. Go with photographic quality if you can for headshots. For postcards, DO go with lithos – they are sturdier and will fare better when you send them through the mail, you can write directly on the back of them without them bleeding through to the front of the picture, and you may well need 300 of them.

Remember, everything is controllable in color – your skin tone, hair color, eye color, background color, I can add a third eye #Picasso – the sky’s the limit! And yes, we can always turn your color headshots into black and white if you like. If you have ANY questions or confusions, no matter how large or small, I encourage you to contact me!!!!!! I am a resource for you whenever you need me! There are no stupid questions!!!!  

Take Care and May The Force Be With You!