Looking for edgy headshot?

[Ozzie]

Had a family at the beach last night for sunset portraits and the mom wanted me to take a headshot. She tried to describe a edgy headshot that is supposedly common amongst model headshots and I didn't have a clue. She said the cropping was tight and off to the side?



Please feel to copy/crop to demonstrate as needed. Comments and critics most welcome.


Pssst, yes I'm new here, first image post. Lotsa to learn

Ozzie

[David_L_Brown]

This is the closest thing I have that might be what she was wanting.

Hope this helps, David

[Ozzie]

Nice work David. Thanks, too late for something like that. I guess I should've been more specific, what I really need to know is there a way to crop my image to make it look trendy or edgy.

Ozzie

[RonC]

Here is what I did to give you one idea of what could be done.
Rotate image, crop, smooth skin, sharpen hair, eyes, mouth, darken image.

[racket4life]

Ron hit it on the head--I was going to offer a little tilt and he beat me to the punch. Great work Ron....

[David_L_Brown]

Okay then, here's a try at your image.

[RHWeiner]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

She tried to describe a edgy headshot that is supposedly common amongst model headshots and I didn't have a clue. She said the cropping was tight and off to the side?

Yes, others have done some work on your image to give it 'something else' but while the crops/rotates are interesting 'edgy' images start with the model's pose and facial expression. Her expression right now says "Good looking woman/mom" which is not bad but what you might want to try is...
-get higher than your subject so you are looking down...cleavage is a bonus.
-get model to lower the chin and look right at the lens. This shift of the head causes the whites of the eyes to show under the iris...bedroomy eyes.
-get model to tilt the plane of her shoulders so the line across the shoulders is not horizontal.
-get model to tilt head away from tilt of shoulders
-The smile should be a hint, not so toothy.

You want her to give you "edgy attitude" in her pose....then enhance it with your cropping and placement.

[srwatters]

Here's my version of the 'edgy' headshot...

[Ozzie]

Thanks guys for all the comments. With those comments in mind, I've processed another image from the same shoot. Better or worse? Unfortunately, I'm not in total control of my shoots yet, and often let my customers "cheese" for their portraits.......ugggh bad habits are so hard to break. I don't have a single close up of her that doesn't show the teeth.

Anyhow, Ron I like what you've done with the image and in keeping it on the vertical format. On the attached 2nd image I rotated it, cropped, gaussian blurred the skin at about 3.0 on separate layer. Unsharp masked the eyes and hair, burned the lips, whitened the teeth and side of the eyes and lightened the center of the eye.

Now, is all this PS work typical for a headshot? I thought (don't really know) the image was to convey what the model really looks like..........no? I obviously like the processed image better.

David, I like the horizontal format and will offer that to her, it is nicely offset.

RH thanks for the sage advice, I will try to remember that the next time, of course Scott images really helps me remember Looking down at the cleavage, a bonus Seriously, this lady is usually conservative with her dress and it a product model (right term?), she models, rings, earrings, etc on tv so I'm not sure I'd get the chance at a image like Scotts. BTW, gorgeous image Scott.

RH believe it or not tho, camera height was near the top of her head, maybe even a tad more. She is quite tall and I was on my tip toes and on a rock to try to get a higher perspective to keep some beach homes out of the background. I had her leaning heavily on her rear foot and tilting her head towards her forward shoulder to put her in a femine pose but I think I was blowing it because of the camera angle. Gosh its so much easier in a studio.......or at least it seems to me.

So here is a different image of her;


Ozzie