Headshots

 After looking at all the tips researched in the previous post, I finally felt ready to begin producing my own headshots. I wouldn't be behind the camera, and therefore couldn't control all the tips I researched about, but there were still some things I was able to control during the shooting.

For my headshots, I ensured that my hair looked good and not overly messy or in my face, as to not block out any of my important facial features. Furthermore, I chose to wore my green hoodie rather than my red hoodie, as I felt that it better matched my eyes and general 'tone' better. I also attempted to keep a neutral but positive expression during the shoot and tried to keep my eyes lively. However, this was partially difficult as my photographer was quite a bit shorter than me and therefore required me to squat down whilst my photo was taken, resulting in a bit of discomfort which I believe is visible in some of my rejected headshots.

Below are the headshots that I decided not to use.

This one is very close to the one I ended up deciding to use, and I believe the only reason that I didn't decide on using it was because the other one came first in the download I received. I've got a neutral expression that still appears positive, a clean background and no ridiculously bright colours that distract from my face. Furthermore, there's a clear sense of 'me' within this picture due to the casual clothing I'm wearing that I'd wear on any normal day.

Yet again, this one is quite similar to the one I chose to edit and produce into my final headshot. In this one, however, you can see that I'm scrunching myself inward a little more than the previous one, due to the fact that I was forced to squat down. Therefore, I decided not to use this one in favour of the first headshot which appeared more natural.

This has pretty much the exact same issues as the previous one, although the camera also appears a little closer to my face. Whilst my expression is still fine and my general appearance suits a headshot pretty well, I feel that the scrunched appearance of my head and neck detracts from the overall headshot and therefore left me wanting other options.

This one is my least favourite headshot, because I was caught trying to hold in my laughter from the people behind the camera, as they were laughing at how awkward I was squatting in the middle of the corridor for the image. The expression appears less neutral and slightly scrunches my face even more than the rest of my body, making me appear unlike how I usually do. Therefore, I decided to not use this headshot.

The final headshot that I decided not to use, mostly because of some annoying shadows that fell across my face during this image due to my glasses. There wasn't much I could do about it across all my photos, but I believe it's more noticeable within this image and therefore makes this one less keen to be used as my professional headshot for CVs.

In the end, I decided on the below image for my headshot. It had everything I felt that it needed in a headshot, including a neutral expression and a decently natural pose along with no bright colours that distracted from my face. Furthermore, this headshot had me looking as I usually do on a day-to-day basis, making it useful for showing potential employers what I'll look like before they hire/interview me.

Here's my final edited headshot. As you can probably tell, it still has that annoying shadow from my glasses that stretches across my face although I couldn't edit it out without it looking unnatural (the shadow makes it obvious that the glasses are actually there). In terms of what edits I performed, I have increased the saturation of the image in order to make it appear a little brighter and more energetic. I also did quite a bit of airbrushing on my face to remove a few of the more minor issues I had, such as some spots and facial hair that I didn't want present. I also used airbrushing to colour out a lot of the gray hairs within my hair, although I now feel that may have been slightly unnecessary.

In general, I kept my final headshot very close to how I normally look with a few minor edits to make myself appear slightly more presentable whilst still not drastically different from how I actually appear.