How to Prepare for Your Shoot. Part 2 - Clothing
Part 2 is aimed at actors and talks about how to choose the clothes you bring to your headshot shoot.
The tips in this post and video are all about how to choose the right clothes to bring for actor headshots.
Part 1 covered the things you can do to get your skin looking its healthiest. Getting yourself looking your best is the most important part so go back and watch/read Part 1 first if you haven’t already!
Here are my tips:
Show yourself
Remember that even though you’re an actor and when you’re acting you’re playing a character, the number one purpose of your headshots is to represent you, so start there. Think about how you like to present yourself to the world - what styles do you wear? What makes you feel good? What kind of person are you?
Make sure you bring a few options that represent you at your best.
Casting Types
You’d be surprised how many people get a bit cagey when trying to define their casting type, so if you’re not sure, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Talk to your agent if you have one, friends in the industry, any mentors you might have, and get a broad sense of the kinds of characters you should be auditioning for. If you’re already auditioning for lots of stuff and have a good idea of what you need, that’s awesome. If you’re just going on your imagination of the kind of roles you’d like to play, make sure you keep it realistic!
Then, once you’ve got some broad ideas, take a look in your wardrobe and make some selections that suggest those kinds of character types. I say “suggest” because you’ve got to keep it subtle! You’re not wearing a costume here! It still has to fundamentally be you, but just ever-so-slightly edge towards a different side of who you can be.
Lots of people buy new clothes for their headshots if they haven’t got everything they ideally want to use, leave the tags on, and take them back afterwards. Just saying.
Get it sorted
Think about all of this at least a few days in advance. There’s no point scrabbling around trying to find the top you’re after when you have to leave, only to find it crumpled and dirty at the bottom of your laundry.
If you’ve thought about it early, you can get everything clean and ironed ahead of time.
Boring but important
It’s also no good if you’ve ironed your tops but then stuff them in a bag to travel here! Plan how you are going to transport your clothing so it’s still in good condition when you arrive!