How to Decide How Many Headshots You Should Get

As an actor in Los Angeles, you must constantly give yourself an edge over your competitors and one way to do this is by featuring headshots with several different looks on your casting site. At the minimum you should have the standard commercial and theatrical shots but it's also recommended to have shots with two to four extra looks in order to showcase your versatility and the range of your personality. There is no need to print out your shots as you can put them on your casting site and submit them to casting directors by email.

Commercial vs. Theatrical Shots

When you are starting out as an actor, it's essential to hire a professional Los Angeles headshots photographer to take both your commercial and theatrical shots. In commercial shots, you must appear warm, friendly, and trusting. Clothing with soft, neutral colors and even bright colors is appropriate for your commercial shoot. Commercial shots are used to help you land auditions for both local and national TV commercials.

In a theatrical shot, you must look professional, confident, and responsible enough to take on a serious role. Theatrical headshots are used to help you get roles in plays, TV shows, and films. Clothing with subtle, subdued colors is appropriate for theatrical shots. Although you'll submit either a theatrical or commercial shot for parts, it can be to your advantage to have a website where you display a variety of other photos.

Casting Sites/Actor Websites

One of the more recent trends among actors is to get casting sites or actor websites with online services like LA Casting and Myactingsite.com. A website that features your best headshots with several different looks can be a highly powerful tool for marketing yourself as an actor. Typically, you would submit just one shot to casting directors that communicates your ability to play a particular role. On your casting site, you can feature several great shots of yourself that reflect your versatility and adaptability. It's a good idea to include at least six unique shots in different looks on your casting site. You can put as many photos as you want on your personal website but the general rule of thumb is that less is more.

As a Los Angeles headshots photographer, I have seen the difference it can make for actors to have a variety of different shots posted on their sites. One of my clients had an LA Casting profile featuring 6 shots of her in different looks. While it's typical for actors to get one call out of 100 submissions or so, this client has found that she is able to get one out of 10 parts she submits her shots for and she believes her success is due to the fact that her site displays such a wide range of shots.

If you get a variety of shots, make sure to isolate the types of shots that work best for certain types of roles. Each image should be good enough to stand on its own as a headshot. If you want character shots that express your ability to play a certain role, there's no need to play dress-up to do it. You can make subtle changes to your appearance and experiment with expressions and poses to communicate your ability to play a specific type of character. The most important thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to headshots, showcasing just a few powerful shots on your casting and personal websites will benefit you far more than displaying several mediocre ones.