As an actor, you know that getting professional headshots is critical. If you’re not yet famous, your headshots are your number one calling card for developing your film and TV resume.
It is so important that throughout your career, you will probably be working on your next plan for getting the perfect headshot about 75% of the time.
At the same time, you may be dealing with the problem of the fact that they can cost a fortune to go to top photographers and for women, to also add the $150 to $200 for most hair and make-up professionals.
This post will give you seven ideas for how to make-over the headshots you already have so you can stretch their shelf-life!
Here we go…
The most important consideration to start with is to be sure to work with a great professional headshot photographer. Get the best you can afford and there’s a good chance you won’t have to worry about a Headshot Make-Over any time soon after that.
However, let’s say that for whatever reason, you don’t want to do a whole new shoot, or you’re saving your money to work with a top headshot photographer like Bradford Rogne. I’ve used him and have referred many people to him. He is fantastic for both women and men. And his prices are about mid-range for excellent photographers.
There are a handful of other really, really good headshot photographers, but I mention Bradford because I’ve had him do my promotional headshots multiple times. I also bought my mom a headshot session for one of her major birthdays, so she could have a really Hollywood shoot and look fantastic.
The point is, your best best is to get great photos to start with. But sometimes, you may not have the cash to spend at first, or you may want to add a certain type of shot. Or you may have had a decent photo in the past, but you want to add some new life and freshen up your current photos instead.
To help you with that, this article gives you 7 ways to improve your acting headshots without re-shooting.
If you seriously consider these actor headshot make-overs, this article could save you several hundred dollars and the frustration of having to getting new photo yet again.
If you are not great at photo editing, then you may need to get a photo lab to edit your shots or find a friend to help you do some of these things, but it is still far less expensive than a total reshoot.
Here are 7 ways to freshen up your photos:
1. Change the color of the background.
It’s amazing what a difference it can make if you change the color of the background to a neutral color. It helps keep the focus more on your face.
I’ve reviewed countless actor headshots which had a background which draws more attention to itself than to the actor’s face. I recommend you have a neutral background that complements your face and colors you’re wearing. Preferably the background also gives a sense of depth — which is the photographer’s job to do.
You can change the background in a variety of ways, including by cutting out around “you” and placing that cut-out on ANY background… But it needs to be done very well or it will look funny.
Minimally, you can simply change the background from one solid neutral color to another… Ideally you create or maintain a sense of depth while you’re add it.
Here’s one of the photos I had taken by Bradford. The background is well-lit. I’m not even sure if there is any blurring, but I do know that since it’s an abstract background, I’m not trying to figure out what it is! Also the colors are neutral and add depth.
By the way, I used my own headshot simply due to copyright issues. Not sure what others I could use legally.
2. Change your shirt color to a more complementary color to your skin.
If you’re wearing a shirt that is too textured, too patterned, too bright, or too dark, you (the lab or other expert) can also change the color of that or just tone it down.
I’m not going to try to give a lesson on the technicalities of how to do that, but it’s something you could discuss with an editing professional or a friend who may know how to do this. Given the kinds of photo editing tools that come Macs and even some smart phones. You can also find some free photo editing tools online that you could use. Look on YouTube for how to use some of them.
The main point is that however you do it… just by changing your shirt color, you can potentially vastly improve and freshen your headshot.
3. Soften the lines in your face and the flyaway hairs or tufts.
Too many times, I see actor headshots that have flyaways, frizzies, or a tuft of hair in a distracting place. Those can be edited out in a few seconds.
You don’t have to make sure every single hair is in place, but there are some that look natural and other flyaways that are bothersome. I’ve seen beautiful headshots where a tuft of hair looks like it’s on the girl’s eyelashes, so it practically makes my eyes water! If you have a headshot like that, you may not be able to fix that by editing. But the point is that there are some flyaways that are really bothersome and others that are okay.
I’ve had clients touchup a few little flyaways or skin imperfections just a little bit, and it has made a big difference.
4. If you only had one outfit, take one of the photos and change the color of the shirt.
This one uses the point of #2 above in a different way. Let’s say that you only did shots in one outfit and you want to have a second photo that looks different. Pick two photos that look somewhat different and have the lab change the shirt color of just one of them.
I had a male actor client who had shots in only one T-shirt. It’s all he could afford when he got them. He picked out a commercial shot and a theatrical shot, but even though his face looked different, since the background and shirt were the same, the shots didn’t really tell any more than just one shot. He changed the color of the theatrical shot to be a black T-shirt and it made a huge difference.
If you change the shirt and the background color, it’s like you’ve gotten a whole new shot.
5. Filter the photo with a slight tint to get ride of too much red color in your face.
A very, very common problem with actor headshots is that the lighting is not great. This is one of the biggest reasons to work with a professional headshot photographer — the great ones know lighting. Lighting is the great differentiator on photographers.
When the lighting is not great, there are a variety of problems that show up, such as too much in shadow, flatness to the photo, too bright, too dark, and no depth.
The problem I’m addressing here, which is pretty common, is when there’s too much redness in your skin — that is not appealing.
It’s nearly impossible to correct it and make it perfect, but one way to help it greatly is to add a filter to give the whole photo a slightly different tint. A second choice is to do some spot corrections.
This fix is not as easy and the results are not as great as some of the other points. But the problem of too much redness is so big that if you have it, it’s worth trying to correct it even if the improvement is slight.
6. Whiten your teeth.
This one is a no-brainer… As a professional actor, you know that your “look” is important. You need to look like a Hollywood actor. One way to get that look it is to have white teeth.
Of course, you can use teeth whitener to actually get them for real. But if your teeth are a bit dull-looking or discolored in your photo, then simply have the lab whiten them (within reason), and you’ll be amazed!
7. If the background is too busy, completely erase it and make it one solid neutral color.
Unfortunately some otherwise really good headshot photographers get so focused on the artsy-ness of the headshots they take that they forget that YOU are the subject they are supposed to sell, not their own photography skills.
When they get artistic or editorialize them, sometimes the photographers do funky things with the background, such as go to railroad track for the photo then blur out the background.
To me, the blurriness is more distracting than helpful. They may argue that it puts the attention on you by blurring the background or making it super busy — but to me it makes focus on trying to figure out what the thing in the background is!
This very point is another reason I love Bradford Rogne’s work. He uses backgrounds that have texture and depth (as in my photo above), but yet they don’t distract with their blurriness. They simply complement the actor.
If you have a photo with a blurry background, you might change it to a neutral background color, and I can almost 
guarantee that if your face already looked good in it, you will be blown away by fixing the busy background.
And there you have it… 7 Ways To Freshen Up Your Headshot without Re-Shooting!
Feel free to post a link to your online photos if you want feedback from me or others.
To get more tips like these on actor headshots, check out our Actor’s Guide To Getting The Best Headshots of Your Life.
The tips in this Instant Download ebook can save you literally hundreds of dollars on your next shoot by making sure you are ready to go and you get what you need.