Why most headshots are bad
Search "headshots Salt Lake City" and you will see the same photograph a thousand times: grey backdrop, shoulders square, teeth showing, light from two softboxes at 45 degrees. It is technically competent and completely forgettable. The people in them look like they were processed rather than photographed.
A headshot should look like you on a day when you are confident and slightly amused. It should have real light with a direction to it. It should be a photograph someone might describe, rather than one they scroll past. That is a small distinction that takes about an hour to achieve, and it is the whole difference.
Three kinds of headshot I shoot
Actor headshots
Utah has a working film and television industry, a large commercial market and agencies in Salt Lake City that submit talent regionally and to Los Angeles. Casting directors flip through hundreds of headshots at a time. Yours needs to look like you (not a retouched fantasy of you), show your type clearly, and have life in the eyes. I shoot a commercial look and a theatrical look in one session, natural light or studio depending on your type, and deliver files formatted for Actors Access and Casting Networks. If you are new and your agent has given you a list of what they want, bring it.
Executive and founder portraits
For company websites, funding announcements, board decks, conference programmes and press. These lean toward a portrait: more environment, more attitude, often black and white. I can photograph a whole leadership team in a morning at your office in Salt Lake or Lehi with a consistent look. Consistency across a team is harder than it sounds and it is the thing people notice on an "About" page.
Professional profile headshots
Attorneys, physicians, realtors, consultants, therapists, academics. Anyone whose face is on a website where someone decides whether to trust them. Forty-five minutes in the studio, two or three looks, a handful of finished images. Efficient, but still photographed rather than processed.
How the session goes
Come with two or three tops in solid colours, nothing with a logo. Hair and makeup as you would wear them to something important; a makeup artist can be added if you want. We spend the first ten minutes talking while I set light, then shoot. I direct constantly, show you the back of the camera, and adjust. You leave knowing you have the shot rather than hoping.
Proofs within 48 hours. Choose your images, and retouched finals follow within a week. Retouching is by hand and light: blemishes gone, stray hairs gone, you still look like you. Files come in print resolution, web resolution and square crop for LinkedIn.
Groups and teams
For companies I bring the studio to you. A consistent background, consistent light and a schedule of eight to ten minutes per person means a team of twenty is done before lunch. I have photographed teams for tech companies in Lehi and Draper, law firms downtown and medical practices across the valley. Ask for a team quote.
Pricing
Individual headshot sessions are the most straightforward thing I price and the pricing page gives a clear range. Team rates are per person and drop as the group gets bigger. Actors: I know the budget reality and try to keep it accessible.
Questions I get asked
Forty-five minutes to an hour for an individual. Two hours for an actor session with multiple looks. Eight to ten minutes per person for a team at your office.
Solid colours, no logos, necklines you would wear to a serious meeting. Bring two or three options. For actors, bring what your agent asked for and one thing that feels most like you.
Lightly and by hand. Blemishes, stray hairs and under-eye shadows are softened. Your face stays your face. Casting directors in particular need to recognise you in the room.
Yes. For teams of five or more I bring a mobile studio to your office anywhere along the Wasatch Front.
Proofs in 48 hours, finals within a week of your selection. If you have an audition or a launch tomorrow, tell me and I will do what I can.
