A headshot is a strange little photograph. It is not a portrait of you at your most glamorous and it is not a snapshot either, and it has to do a very specific job, which is to look like the person who walks into the room. When somebody meets you after seeing your headshot, the photograph should already have told the truth.
That is the whole brief, and it changes how I do the makeup.
For a wedding or a gala I am building something that reads across a room and holds up for twelve hours. For a headshot I am doing something much closer in. The camera is a few feet from your face, the lighting is even and unforgiving, and the photograph will very likely be cropped tight and then looked at on a phone screen. So the work goes into skin that looks like skin, brows that frame your face properly, and definition around the eyes that survives being shrunk to the size of a thumbnail.
If you have had makeup done for a wedding and found it beautiful but more than you would usually wear, a headshot is the opposite end of that scale, and you will be relieved how natural it feels.
Studio light finds shimmer and turns it into shine. Anything with a pearl or a glow in it, on the eyelid or across the cheekbone, tends to read as an oily patch once the lights are on, so for headshots I work matte or close to it and I bring the luminosity back in gently and only where it belongs. Matte does not have to mean flat and it certainly does not have to mean heavy.
Please also skip sunscreen on your face that morning. The ingredients that block UV bounce a flash straight back at the camera and can leave a pale cast across your face in the photographs, which is a frustrating thing to discover afterwards.
This is the question I ask everybody before I start. Are these photographs going on a law firm website, or a LinkedIn profile in a creative industry, or the about page of a business you built yourself? A headshot for a financial services team and a headshot for a wedding photographer are not the same photograph, and the makeup should sit where your work sits.
Bring the blazer or the shirt you plan to wear if you can, or tell me the color, because a strong collar changes what suits your face.
Bring them to the session and put them on. Lenses change how eye makeup reads and frames cast small shadows under the eyes, and it is far better for me to see that and work with it than to do beautiful eye makeup that disappears the moment the glasses go on. If your lenses are not anti glare it is worth asking your photographer how they want to handle reflections.
Company headshot days are their own kind of day, and they run best when everybody is not queueing. I come to you, either at your office or at the studio where you are shooting, and I coordinate the running order with you or directly with your photographer so that the next person is ready when the camera is. For photoshoots I always stay on the set during the shoot unless we have arranged something different, so I can keep everybody topped up as the day goes on and nobody ends up looking tired in the afternoon photographs simply because they were scheduled last.
Keep your skincare gentle and familiar, and this is not the week for a new product or a facial you have never had before. If you want a treatment, have it well ahead so your skin has time to settle. Exfoliate gently two days before rather than the morning of, because makeup over freshly exfoliated skin can go patchy.
Arrive with a clean bare face, no moisturizer and no serum and no sunscreen, and I will prep your skin myself so everything sits properly. If you have a favorite lip color that you wear to work, bring it, because that is often exactly the right note for the photographs.
Yes, I serve my clients on site in Buffalo and the surrounding areas and I will travel anywhere throughout New York state as long as mileage and travel expenses are covered. For team headshot days I come to you.
No, and this is the part people worry about most. Headshot makeup is built to look like you on a good day, and the goal is that nobody who meets you afterwards is surprised.
Yes, bring them and wear them for the session so I can work around the frames and the shadows they cast.
Yes, and it is worth planning the running order in advance with your photographer so nobody is waiting around. I stay on set and keep everybody refreshed through the day.
Grooming and oil control make a real difference on camera for everybody being photographed, and it is the sort of thing that goes unnoticed when it is done and very much noticed when it is not.
All of my current rates live on the menu on my services page, which is where I keep them up to date. Send me a note about your session and I will come back to you with exactly what it would involve.
If you have a headshot session or a company photo day coming up in Buffalo or anywhere in Western New York, tell me the date and where you are shooting and I will come back to you with availability.
You can also read about how I work on other kinds of sessions, from senior portraits to boudoir shoots.