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acting portfolio pics
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…not a very famous actor (well, at least not yet!)
Last week I got asked to try some pics for an actor who wanted some shots to send off to agencies and the like. He already has quite a bit of acting experience in amateur productions and even two small roles in a couple of movies.
To be honest, we didn’t really have much idea about what a typical portfolio looks like. He thought the main thing was really just to give a good idea of looks – a small portfolio of about 10 shots, preferably some indoors and some outdoors.
I’ve pasted some of the pictures below. We took most of them in his kitchen and back garden….
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too many images to comment on…..
1st: focus is on nose not eyes
2nd: DOF too shallow
3rd light too harshIMHO
Best of luck
Sean
These are great shots Ellude. A staged shot sets up an unreal expressions sometimes but your model seems at ease.
I might have included a couple of black and white frames with lowlight for a moody feel. Or maybe use glasses for a serious approach. I would probably remove the logos from the clothes, boss and nike, and maybe the blemish from number 5.
Good use of different point of view too. I’m sure your actor was happy with this lot. My fav is the last one! :P
Some good variety Cliff. The classic 10″ x 8″ B&W headshot is still what I get asked for, In the USA, they have colour spotlight headshots, I think it’s starting to change this side of the Atlantic.
Si
Too many images – but overall the effect is very positive – the model seems very at ease with the camera which is a
huge plus.(BTW, he could lose the Boss cuff label in No. 4)
Best of luck!
Michella – some good points there, don’t know if he had glasses but that would certainly have been a good idea to get some different looks. And I can’t believe how I missed seeing that Boss label! Can only imagine that he must have been wearing a new jacket and had forgetten to cut it off!
I suppose being able to look natural in pictures is part and parcel of being an actor, and he was certainly at ease and very easy to work with. Early on he mentioned being interested in taking part in athletics. I suggested doing some jogging pictures, and although he hesitated a bit at first about putting these in a portfolio I thought it helped to add variety.
Perhaps you are right about doing some pics in black and white. I was thinking the casting people would want shots that give a good impression of how the person actually looks, hence stayed with colour, natural light shots (I did use a reflector in some, but kept the flashgun in the bag).
Simon – Think you might be right about doing at least one black and white shot, and I’ll try converting one. Afraid I’m not sure what ‘colour spotlight’ pics are!
Regarding the number of pictures, I think actors are asked to email a small portfolio of pics in for casting sessions. We thought around 10 would be a reasonable number and should give a fairly accurate impression of how the person looks.
“I suppose being able to look natural in pictures is part and parcel of being an actor, and he was certainly at ease and very easy to work with.”
Don’t do yourself out of the credit for this Ellude! It’s important in portraiture. When the subject doesn’t relax, they won’t display confidence when posing. Without confidence, how can you produce good portraits? Consequently, a lot of effort should go into this. Pat yourself on the back…
The number of pictures comment is less to do with the portfolio and more to do with getting C+C on this site. Unless you were hoping some of us would hire the model??
If you get more info it would be good to share it, maybe we could have a sticky somewhere about portfolio preparation.
Sean
Cookster – with a portfolio, I guess my thinking was to provide a number of pictures in various settings and places in order to give a more accurate impression of the person. More pictures (within reason, of course) = more information = more accurate impression.
Didn’t really expect anyone to comment on them all – I put numbers on them so people could say ‘this one doesn’t work’ or ‘this one needs…’ etc. Personally I don’t see any single image posted as being particularly outstanding, but hope that together they might convey a sense of what the subject is like – which is what he wanted. As for you hiring him, I think that’s unlikely unless you happen to be a film or TV director!
I also wondered how the running pics would look in an actor’s portfolio. Ended up with about 20 running shots that worked reasonably well but thought perhaps one was enough to include above.
Here were some of the other possibilites….
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There is a lot to comment on here…
I like the running pictures, perfect model for those.
But, I’m not sure the white t-shirt is doing anything for them,
something with more colour would have been better, I think…Red maybe, or orange. Maybe less baggie pants too, just kinda doesn’t look right.
Not sure if that’s helpful…
Sinead
ellude wrote:
Simon – Think you might be right about doing at least one black and white shot, and I’ll try converting one. Afraid I’m not sure what ‘colour spotlight’ pics are!
The casting director (or whatever they’re called) need one photo to look at on two occasions in the casting process (so I understand).
On initial selection of a shortlist. They just look at the headshot normally.
Once they’ve narrowed it down, they’ll look through portfolios.
At the final selection they’ll have the photos on the desk (one of each contender) and see how they look with the other actors (think about a film where there is a closeup showing great emotion as 2 actors look into each others eyes.
So the key shot is the “Spotlight” shot.Si
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