We are in a tight time spot! You have 2-3 click’s within 3 minutes to perform your best in front of the camera. A fun challenge!
Here is my suggestions for how to be prepared for such a tight shooting:
Intense look?
A good skin means 8 hours of sleep. Yes, that’s right. Tiredness will show on your face and thus impact your overall look in your headshot. Be rested. Wait for later to binge watch your favorite streaming stuff.
Teeth not white enough?
Coffee, soda and wine are the usual suspects if your consider your teeth too yellowish. But smoking is a top bad boy here. The colour of our teeth is genetically determined and there is a high degree of variability.
Communicate with you eyes
No matter the expression you are going for you need to show your personality. You need to go into character, express your eyes. Hold a thought that will create the authentic spark in you eyes. That is your goal.
Make-up common issues
To much or bad make-up will make you look dated or artificial. Use little make-up to put pure authentic emphasis on your true look.
The turtle trick
Sometimes your chin might appear to become doubled. When you smile the head goes a little back creating the double chin. To avoid this, rehearse the turtle trick.
Move you head a little-bit forward, 1 up to maximum 3cm. It feels a bit awkward but double chin might be gone on the photo. And there will be a lot more emphasis on you face.
Mirror practice home work
It’s time to rehearse all your facial expressions. Big smile, half-smile, closed mouth smile, serious look?
This is ultra important. You need to know your look before getting in front of the camera. Otherwise you wont feel the portrait captured the true you. We are very short on time.
Stay focused with short concentrated sessions of 5 minutes. Rehearse only one look at a time. To really feel it – and nail it. So you can replicate it naturally at will.
The magic 3 minutes?
- You walk in. Sit down on a bench that is twisted a bit from the background. Look towards the camera. I capture your look.
- You see the immediate result on a laptop. Not working for you?
- You get another chance. Still not working for you?
- You have the very very very last chance.
You select the image you want on the KFTS webpage. You write your name in the image title field which will be the name below the photo. You’re done!
The images will be cropped but not retouched.
I’m looking forward to meeting you!
Benny Thaibert