[Headshot Photography by Vanie]
Thinking about bringing your favorite white or pastel outfit to a shoot?
White and pastels used to be the colors to stay away from, or to use only as a layer underneath other clothing– especially if you have a dark complexion.
Tracy Evans: Lawyer / Detective / FBI Director
Here’s why.
I expose for skin tone.
What this means is that I adjust my camera settings to flatter your face. In doing so, I overexpose the image, which, in layman’s terms, means “wash it out.” Washing out the skin tone gets rid of minor flaws, and generally makes it look better.
BUT the side effect is that anything that is light in color becomes much lighter and much brighter and therefore it distracts, taking attention away from the face.
Karina Frederico: Creative Professional / Fitness
Sam Sabbah: Mafia / Blue Collar
There were ways to get around this issue, as long as some factors were on our side.
- The background needed to be light. If the background of the image is light and the outfit is light, even though everything is brighter than the face, the face (the only dark area in the photograph) remains the focus.
- The light outfit must not have any warm tones that are similar to skin tones. This way, we can bring down the brightness in white by selecting the blue tones without affecting the skin tone, which has red and orange tones.
- Your own skin tone must also be pale. This way, even if the outfit has warm tones, the contrast between the brightness of the outfit and face is minimal, therefore the distraction is minimal.
Related article: Six tips demystifying wardrobe.
Maren McGuire: Secretary / Hero / Gamer
Ariana Anderson: Anti Heroine / Tom Boy / Hipster
So the death of a headshot was if your skin tone is dark AND you bring white or pastels to wear as a top.
Because in order to prevent your outfit from literally glowing, I had to make compromises.
Related article: Stay in the “safe” zone with wardrobe.
James Cobb: Villain / Office Guy
Here’s the good news!
🎉Those days are over🎉 because Adobe now has AI tools that help us isolate an outfit on multiple images at a time and make adjustments without effecting the skin tone!!
So if you have a white outfit for one of your looks, I can simply select all the images in that look and AI will find the outfit and make the adjustments I tell it to.
Amazing isn’t it?
Kalyn Constable: Best Friend / Fashionista
Robby Valls: Detective / Casual Dad / Comedian
Katey Zouk: Quirky Friend / Creative Business / Athletic
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I think the most important thing an actor can give an agent or rep is a picture they can SELL. Obviously. So these looks are great. More than glam, which is what we sold back in the 70s, this is more practical and casting people can see where you’d fit in multiple roles rather than try to imagine where to put you. I had one casting director call me and ask whether I was “thin” or “fat.” If she’d had great shots, she might have been able to see me in both slots and decide if I were right for the role. In those days, I didn’t know from wardrobe. I wore t-shirts, shirts, cocktail dresses and “cutsie” outfits that I had no idea were good or bad, and a lot of them where WHITE!!