065Angela WEB

I am wondering what is your opinion on Actor's headshot.

Can she use a portrait with a tear or should she chose a regular portrait

without tears?

During her session my client was speaking about her Grandmother who

offered her love and safety.

Nice portrait, good work!

Ringo,

This is a very intense and emotional image!  Upon enlarging it, I looked first at her cleavage (well, I'm a man and can't help it!)  Then I noticed the several drops of moisture on her left breast (picture right) and scanned upward to realize that she was crying - trickles of tears dropping down her face, moist eyes.  Then I read the caption.  Nice capture of an emotional moment!

I have a tendency to over-analyze things, so I came up with the idea that there needed to be more picture space above her eyes - show more hair, put those emotional eyes in an even stronger position.  But that would either make the picture awkwardly vertical or cut off the brief but important lower black part of the costume. Probably you have found the optimum compromise.

Jerry Matchett

This is a beautiful  portrait no doubt but I don't see how the tears fit in ?

Really very fine, the crop the composition and the tears. Beautiful the expression and the model. Bye.

As a headshot, I don't think you'd want one with tears or cleavage. I, too, am a man, although a gay one and I'm therefore not all that into cleavage but it's also the first thing I noticed. I don't think you want an actor's head shot to do that.

If you do a similar one without the tears, which I'd recommend, I'd crop it higher to show her neck but not her chest and I wouldn't crop so severely on the top of her head. I'd also do a little better on the lighting. The shadows on her face feel like dark smudges and you want a head shot to be either cleaner or I've seen some that are more dramatic, with more old-style Hollywood lighting. Her eyes are great and her hair is very nice as well, though I don't quite know why her hair has turned black against her black blouse. That feels a little odd to me.

If it weren't a head shot, I wouldn't mind the tears, but I'd feel it was too tight, both on the sides and on the top. If it's a head shot, you'll probably want to keep to a more standard aspect ratio, usually 8x10.

For me, this is an illustrative portrait that cast the viewer as the bearer of tragic news to this young lady who was just about to leave for a party (thus her dress choice).  Many, if not most, headshots are tight cropped or head-and -shoulders vertical view of the person's head showing shape, facial features, serious or an expression at just the beginning of a smile.  The pose may offer some dynamic line of the shoulders but the lighting is mostly 3/1 ratio.  A headshot is descriptive of the face but does not aim to tell a story.

I understand the general consensus that this isn't a traditional headshot, which is one of the reasons why I added to photo.net, the other reason is that she was crying when describing her GrandMother's influence, it was real.  I added this headshot to the cover of my facebook page because its different.  Unfortunately, most people lose sight of the image, when they see it - thinking that it would be a one dimensional image.

Thanks,

Carlos

"Headshot", which you labeled it, has given it that one-dimensional purpose. If you had presented it as just a portrait, I think you'd find it being more well-received. The comments were on the photo as a headshot (at your request), not on the photo per se. Certainly if you hadn't mentioned headshot, I would have no problem with the tears or the cleavage. In short, I don't think the viewers are choosing to react one-dimensionally. I think you asked us to do that and we are obliging you.

This shot makes a lovely portrait but as head-shots go, they are (or were) to my understanding to be of the head and shoulders. I think it's a great portrait with nice detail, tones and expression and would perhaps serve better as part of her portfolio but not to be considered as a head-shot. Lovely work and very well done. Thank you for sharing. :)