Jermaine - an actor's headshot

[John Maio]

D2X with the 85mm f/1.4 prime.

http://myfilelocker.comcast.net/jmaio2/images/Jermaine.jpg

[Mike Spinak]

The studio lighting is handled very well, here, and the exposure is excellent. I'm not sure that the background color is the most complimentary choice, though I don't know what color to suggest.

Mike

www.mikespinak.com

[Ivan Garcia]

I agree with Mike here.
He looks kind of mean, so maybe a red background will have been good.
It would have helped to set a mood of danger.
Also, the contrasting colours of red and black will have worked better for me.
Kind regards
Ivan

[Tom Henkel]

I guess I agree with the other comments. Nice composition and exposure, but I'm left wondering why he appears so angry. Was this shot done for a particular role the actor was playing? If not, how is this photo to be used? It's a kind of scary publicity shot. Is it part of a larger portfolio? I like the shot, I just think it needs some context to help us to understand it.

Tom

[Jeff O'Neil]

I guess I agree with the other comments. Nice composition and exposure, but I'm left wondering why he appears so angry. Was this shot done for a particular role the actor was playing? If not, how is this photo to be used? It's a kind of scary publicity shot. Is it part of a larger portfolio? I like the shot, I just think it needs some context to help us to understand it.

Tom

Coming from the performers side..as a voice talent..I have seen many a picture like this. Actors will often have a smile pic along with angry..etc that can be submitted to casting agents. They come in at the cattle call and have to leave a picture in the order they were taken into the casting call as a refeerence point later on. I think they like to tailor they're picture accordingly. I've also done a fair bit of video editing on actors reels and I can tell you we tailor the reel to the actor and the job. They often have several reels available for different types of roles so it only makes sense they would have pictures done the same way.

Jeff

[Asher Kelman]

Coming from the performers side..as a voice talent..I have seen many a picture like this. Actors will often have a smile pic along with angry..etc that can be submitted to casting agents. They come in at the cattle call and have to leave a picture in the order they were taken into the casting call as a refeerence point later on. I think they like to tailor they're picture accordingly. I've also done a fair bit of video editing on actors reels and I can tell you we tailor the reel to the actor and the job. They often have several reels available for different types of roles so it only makes sense they would have pictures done the same way.

Jeff

I think Jeff hit the nail on the head.

One does headshots for a purpose. The actor tells the photographer or it's the agent or manager, what is needed. I've been asked to to a "40's look" for an actress, for example. So anything else is not appropriate. The context is created before the photgrapher sits the actor down in most cases.

Otherwise, the photgrapher might just be creative based on the look that he thinks might work.

So it is difficult to go beyond enjoyng what someone else has produced.

When John did this shot this was a pose they worked on together. It is a complete thing. This is what it is and to me it works.

If anyone else can produce a shot like this, come to Los Angeles and earn a good living.

This shot projects a character that might very well catch the eye of a casting director as she flips through 50 pages in a book.

Whenever a photograph demands attention like this, you know it works. Now we don't know anything about this picture or the parts for which this actor had his desires, so we can't comment, and were not asked to comment further.

I think this is mainly posted as an example of what one can do and for us to enjoy, an I do!

Asher