today's AC

[rm]

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/32299/how_to_choose_a_headshot_photographer.html
How to Choose a Headshot Photographer

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/32309/new_york_citys_gay_lesbian_pride_parade.html
New York's Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/30957/advice_for_helping_your_child_deal.html
Advice for Helping Your Child Deal with Bullies (repurposed from old, lame content)

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/32686/attractions_of_the_sydney_australia.html
Attractions of the Sydney Opera House Complex

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Apart from the hair (I can, pretty well, do the make-up) I can do headshots for 100 bucks.

But that's going to be digital files, minimal re-touching, and simple color management. If you want me to tweak them you are going to have to pay for my time.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

These are the things your headshot photographer needs. Lights, and drapes.

The drapes are optional. I well recall (back when I was thinking of getting headshots, not making them) the says of solid black backgrounds. Lights, however, are not.

A simple flash, no matter how well used, is still going to be flat, or harsh; or both. You want at least two, preferable three, and four (a soft-box for hair light) isn't too many.

If you want B&W from digital, expect to pay more. The simple fix (a quick desaturation, or worse, a greyscale conversion) in Photoshop leaves a flat image, and lacks contrast. Done wrong (the grayscale conversion) all the work in the world isn't really going to help much, because a lot of the manipulable data are lost.

As a final note, if you are getting digital files, you have to be careful about how they get printed. The monitors need to be calibrated, or the color spaces will be off (no one looks good with a cyan cast to blond hair, or magenta blush on the cheeks) and you want the largest .tiff files you can get.

Expect to pay a tad more for getting files, since the photographer is giving away future fees for printing. If you get large .jpgs they can make decent 8x10 prints, but have little room for error, and can't really be tweaked after you get them. If you demand .tiffs, you can expect to pay a tad more.

Come to LA, and I'll see if we can shoot you. :)

TK