The Secret Sauce of Good Headshots

The secret sauce of getting great portraits is in your head. If you are comfortable with who you are and the way you look (whatever may be that adjective you use for yourself secretly) it is easy to get great portraits and headshots that you love.

Through years of photographing people, I noticed how people worry needlessly and endlessly about their chin, nose, forehead, their hair or lack of it, their head being disproportionally big or small compared to their body (the list is endless). But how you think you look is not a fact, just an opinion. If we can learn not to worry too much about these minute details, we can be happier. That attitude of acceptance is the secret, an open secret.

Others may have opinions about how you look, but most people don't care about the flaws you think you have, at least not as much as you think because they are preoccupied with their own flaws. Even if they do, it doesn’t matter, it changes nothing for you.

A few people may criticize you for your physical flaws that you have no control over, you didn't opt for - they are just pushing your buttons, to influence your emotions. Learn to ignore them.

Knowing this you will be at peace. Ignoring this you will suffer endless anxiety.

But this mindset alone may not be enough – for some it is. But if you want to look polished and have the best version of you in your portrait you need to prepare.

Importance of Preparation

Why Prepare? What Happens If You Don’t?

Good photos are a result of thoughtful preparation both by you and me, the photographer. If you don’t prepare, you may not get the portraits as you expected, as intended. Even if your intention is to be authentic, that needs to be a conscious choice not a justification for lack of preparation, not a narrative to tell others.

If you are well prepared, you will feel confident and comfortable and that shows in your body language.  Otherwise, you'd be feeling insecure and struggling to hide things you don't like, your inner voice nagging, pulling and tugging at you...it feels miserable.

Some people turned up totally unprepared – either because someone else asked them to get a headshot really quick (they didn’t have their skin in the game) or because they thought preparation was not necessary. Some of them put too much trust in Photoshop.

A gentleman, (senior partner in a law firm) turned up with 4-day old stubble despite being told to groom 2 days ahead. After I delivered the headshots, his assistant called to ask me if I can photoshop the stubble away? My answer was a 'no!'.

Lesson learned: if a client is not prepared, postpone to shoot.

A lady, (founder of a startup) tried her hand at dying her hair and doing her own makeup, nothing wrong with it but she wasn't adept. Her forehead and ears were stained with the hair dye and she smeared her lipstick over her upper eye lids for eye shade. Foundation (that was two shades too light) was visible even when the photo was zoomed out. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t do much about it without making her skin look airbrushed (which she didn't want). She said nothing – either she internalized that that's how she looked or silently blamed me.

Recall how you felt when you were wearing a nice suit/dress that you look good in. It is the attire that made you feel good, feel confident and happy, right? Psychologists call this feeling 'Enclothed Cognition'. Researchers noticed that volunteers wearing lab coats and stethoscopes behaved like doctors, even though they weren't doctors. Those who dressed like the police behaved like police and started wielding their batons. (Ref: You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely)

You CANNOT feel confident in a shoot while wearing worn-out, ill-fitting clothes. A piece of attire which has seen the inside of a washing machine two dozen times is fit for donation not for a photoshoot. Put on the best attire you got, groom the best you can as if it is your wedding day, don't slack off or cut corners, put your best foot forward! If you are in doubt as to what can be fixed and what can’t be fixed in Photoshop, please check with me - don’t assume anything.

A photoshoot is an act of self-care, self-love, totally legitimate, totally deserved. Give it all you can.

Give it enough time

It only takes 125th part of a second to take a photo. But obviously that’s not enough time to get you a portrait. Because many things need to fall in place for that and it takes time to do make sure, they do. You need to look and feel comfortable, try and see what works best. Hurrying through the shoot is a very bad idea. You are putting the photographer to stress test and setting yourself up for failure – meaning you won’t get the results you were looking for. You need to give it time and be patient.

Please don’t plan anything big on the day of the shoot – that will stress you out.

A gentleman client wanted outdoor headshots for himself and his wife (both practicing chartered accountants). They turned up 1 hour late for the photoshoot carrying 3 suitcases and their 4-year-old son. It was a hot and humid July day and his shirt was drenched in his sweat after one-and-a-half-hour cab ride from Noida – it was a small cab so he had to put a suitcase in his lap the whole journey. He was planning to catch a train to Amritsar after the shoot (from old Delhi station) - that means a 1.5-hour cab ride from Gurgaon ahead of them. They were eager not to miss that train and anxious to get the photoshoot over with. This is the best recipe for ruining a photoshoot and surely that's what they did.

They were understandably tired, stressed, anxious, grumpy, uncomfortable and consequently didn't cooperate with me. The child was upset that he wasn't in the photos. They all resented me for asking them do this and that. I wish I didn't take up that shoot. I blamed myself for not writing a blog post like this, warning them beforehand like I am doing to you now.

Another family has a wedding to attend after the shoot - to which they turned up late after a shopping trip following a return trip from Agra. As if that wasn’t enough, they just slept for 3 hours the night before. Everything that could go wrong did, issues compounded. She couldn't stand owing to back pain and we had to hurry through the shoot. He was happy with the photos but I wasn't with the shoot. I don’t put myself in stressful situations, I don’t want you to do it too.

If you need to travel on the day of the shoot, schedule the shoot for some other day or leave a big buffer between the shoot and your travel. If something comes up and as a result you can’t give enough time, I am happy to reschedule the shoot.

Please don’t think of just getting it done quickly - that'd be a disaster in making.

Sometimes there is no option but to get through with it - when that's your situation, accept that you are NOT setting yourself up for best possible outcome; adjust your expectations downwards for I am no magician with a camera.

It’s just you and me, we don’t need a director

If you are planning to get anyone else along with you, please note:

• You are welcome to bring one, exactly one other person if you like. However please note that I can't entertain or accommodate more than 2 people (including you) either inside the studio or outside, there's not enough space for that.

• Please bring him/her ONLY if that person tends to be helpful and supportive. People who tend to be critical will make the situation stressful and confusing for everyone.

  • Please brief them not to take on a director role. I DO NOT take creative direction from third parties while shooting.

  • Please give them all the information about pricing and process. 3^rd person bargaining/haggling is not a good vibe, please tell them to just be supportive and leave everything else to you.

You engaged me for a reason

I understand you have certain idea how you want your photos to be, share them with me, I am happy to hear your thoughts and ideas. But if you need to make it happen for you, you need to take my suggestions, work with me. In the same manner that you trust a doctor to prescribe you right medicines, you need to trust me to do the right thing for you. I am invested in my work many times more than any of my clients because this is the only thing I do; I do this for a living. Each portrait I produce adds or subtracts from the reputation I painstakingly built.

A few clients thought they knew, they were adamant about certain ways of posing, certain ways of composing my shots and they were not as happy as they could be had they followed my lead. They thought they knew better about how they look good. They do, in a mirror not in a photo – now they know.

Please work with me, cooperate with me in giving you good portraits.

I hope these notes are helpful. Thanks for reading!