Make-up for headshots

[Missy]

Well said, Maxam!

[Big Red]

'If you have these 'flaws' do you want to cover them up or look like a real person to the casting director? Seems to me that the ratio of 'perfect people' working to 'real people' working might be about 5% to 95%.'

I think youv'e got your ratio backwards! This buisness is about creating illusions. I haven't seen many breakdowns that call for a real person with bad skin. You have to maximize the packaging by taking good care of yourself. And where that fails, it would be foolish not to take advantage of other things that could help you look your best.

[luvinactin]

Big Red, I agree. Even though a headshot needs to look like the actor, it needs to look like the actor on a good day.

Many actors IRL have bad acne. Britney Spears, for one, had terrible acne. So did Jessica Simpson. It is amazing what make up can do. Why the heck would someone want to submit a headshot to a CD, showing every single zit they had on the day they happen to get their photo shoot done? Sounds really stupid to me. Touching up acne for a photo is a whole lot different than having your nose ditgitally altered.

[evalexya]

If you can cover the acne with make-up on the day of the photo shoot, then you can cover it with make-up for the audition, and you can cover it when you are on set shooting it. So, why not?

[Nicky]

I was looking at an agency website.... checking out the roster to see how many "me's" they had already. Personally, I think I look only like myself, but anyways.
I ran across some nice headshots of people and then this one stood out. It was a woman seemingly in her early to mid thirties and she was physically attractive but she had very, and I mean VERY, heavy dark eyeliner all around her eyes. It was like BOOM EYELINER!! She has very pretty eyes... but the eyeliner was overpowering them , if you know what I mean.
I'm trying to figure out if she did her own makeup or if a makeup artist did that for her.

I mean, I wear eyeliner on most days.... ranging from a little on the corner of my eyes in the daytime... .to fully lined if I'm going out for the night. I like how it looks. It sets of my green eyes. But I was told that you shouldn't go for the " night out" look in a headshot.

Anyways, my whole point to writing this is...is it better to go for the "natural" look?
I can do my makeup really well...but the "woman with the eyeliner" threw me off a bit.
She got into the agency, so obviously the heavy eyeliner didn't hurt her cause .

That' all I've got to say on the subject

[Michael Coleman]

Your headshot should look exactly as you do when you walk into an audition room.

And to clarify you never "get into an agency." These are business partners that effectively work for you. Unfortunately they are not interested in working for everyone so it may feel like you are auditioning for them but that is not the dynamic of the relationship.

If you want to go eyeliner crazy or eyeliner-less or even something in between -- that is always 100% your choice. Nobody else's. Ever. (There is the caveat however that they may or may not want to work for you if you do things that make it hard for them to get you into rooms).

[montysaurus]

I have had headshots where I did my own makeup, and just recently had ones where I had a makeup artist take care of it. For the love of all that is holy to you, invest in the makeup artist! Yes, look around and see who you like best/who will be able to make you look the best, but seriously, these people are trained at how to put a pile of stuff on your face to make you look good in front of a camera. Even for natural looks, you are still going to end up having it piled on...it's all about what the camera picks up. When I had my makeup done by the artist and I looked in the mirror it was like, "wow, I am wearing a LOT of makeup. I am so not used to this", but when I looked through the photos, it didn't look like that at all...it just looked like me, at my very best. Also, many make-up artists also work retail when they are not doing gigs, so if you head to MAC (or similar store...Sephora maybe?) you are likely to find someone that does freelance work as well...so you can sort of try before you buy. It's always nice to have make-up artists in your network, as you never know when one of you can use the others services