Steve, headshot

I've turned our front room into a studio. Well, an occasional temporary studio. Nothing fancy: the room has a bay window and I got some custom-fit blackout blinds made, so I can make the whole room dark at any time of day. Bought a roll of background paper and a stand for it, and a boom for mounting flash heads fully overhead. Everything else is the stuff I lug around from shoot to shoot anyhow. It all packs down and stores away out of sight in less than an hour, so it's not like my wife and kids are being forced to live in a studio 24/7.

Today was the inaugural shoot at Le Studio Whitecliff. My best mate Steve, a professional actor, needed some new headshots for his entry in Spotlight (the actor-catalogue that casting directors use).

An interesting shoot: the expectations and aesthetics of actor headshots are different from regular portraits: the framing is much, much tighter on the face; no-one shoots in profile (even three-quarter views seem rare); the eyes are always into the lens; and the aspect ratio is always 5x4.

I like this shot, although it is way too portraitey and not nearly head-shotty enough. It's square, for a start. And half his face is in shadow. But we ended up with lots of others to choose from for Spotlight. We had a great time. And the studio worked out well.

A really good day.