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Headshot photographer london

Faceless portrait

by Ally May 17, 2019

So, here I am, back on track with my 52 week photo challenge, and this week’s theme is Faceless Portrait.

For someone who likes to photograph people and faces, a faceless portrait seemed like a bizarre challenge, but I was ready to take it on. I did have a few ideas run through my head, but this one was my favourite right from the beginning.

While there are many elements to a portrait, the face is by far one of the most important! So I knew I had to replace it with something that would stand out just as much.

As soon as I met Pavlina, and I saw her beautiful hair I knew that she would the perfect model for this photo challenge, Isn’t her hair just stunning?

From a technical point of view the challenge was pretty simple. We were in the studio at the time of taking these shots, so it was pretty easy to use the same et up, although this concept would look just as good in any environment.

I had an old photo frame where the glass had shattered, and I had kept it, for years … I knew that one day it would come in useful. I asked Pavlina to hold up an empty photo frame in front of her face. I then took a few shots with her facing me.

I then asked Pavlina to turn around and I took some photos of her back, from the same angle and with the same settings, keeping everything as similar as possible to the previous set up.

I am by no means a Photoshop champion and I use very rarely for this type of editing. For this project I used layers and then deleted the image inside the frame, revealing Pavlina’s hair. And tadaa …

Pretty easy and very effective.

I really enjoyed this challenge, and it was really refreshing to think outside the box to try to create something different. I might even attempt some of my other ideas later on this year. Keep an eye out!

May 17, 2019

My photo challenge

SOOC – Straight out of the camera

by Ally March 29, 2019

Phew … you have no idea how great it feels to be taking and editing photographs of people again! Don’t get me wrong, I have throughly enjoyed trying different things, finding new settings on my camera I never knew existed, and generally having fun creating images I have never done before!

But it’s also nice to be back on known ground! Doing what I enjoy, and what I know I am good at!

This week’s challenge was Straight Out Of Camera – or for us geeky photographers out there – SOOC.

There was a time, not that long ago, where all photographs were straight out of camera! You would take your film camera with you, shoot some photos, take the film to Boots, and then collect your Straight Out Of Camera photographs a few days later. You just had to hope you had used the right settings, and the right film …

There were no Instagram filters, no quick post processing in Photoshop or Lightroom, and certainly none of these cute dog nose, bunny ears kind of Snapchat filters to have fun with! More on this, in Tuesday’s blog!

Ok, with some high end photo labs, or if you had your own dark room and were a master at developing photos, there was some processing you could do … but it doesn’t even begin to compare with the amount of digital manipulation we have available at our fingertips nowadays!

Do I edit my photographs? Of course, I do! I’m not a huge photo editor … but I will regularly adjust levels, exposure, sometimes white balance. I will fix small defects and might run a gentle soft filter over some of my images, especially for ladies. Men with perfect skin just look weird! Sorry, guys!

Here’s an example of how my edited photograph would look, compared to the Straight Out Of the Camera one just above.

Is it hugely different? I don’t think so, but I definitely prefer the edited version!

Knowing that I would have to publish photographs that were completely unedited, did get me thinking a lot more about my photo composition, about the light available, and about the background!

I was very lucky to work with Pavlina, who is such a fabulous model! We took lots of different photos for a few of my forthcoming photo challenge themes, so you’ll get to see a bit more of her in the next couple of weeks!

After our photo session, Pavlina and I went out get a coffee at a nearby independent coffee shop – Common Grounds. If you haven’t been before, I highly recommend it! It’s in Little London, just by the entrance to the carpark behind M&S. They make some of the best coffee in town … and cake! Try it out!

So we took a few more photos over coffee.

I love these photos … but I have had to resist the urge to re-touch them. And that’s not because I don’t like them, but because, I don’t feel like they are my work! What I have come to realise is that post-processing my photographs in a particular way has become my signature … in the same way perhaps as a clothes designer would sew their label at the back of a dress.

What do you think? Do these photographs look the same as all my others? Or can you tell there’s something quite different about them?

Let me know by commenting below, or on whichever social media platform you happen to have seen this on.

March 29, 2019

Headshots

Headshots – what to wear

by Ally March 12, 2019

Some of you may remember my blog last month, written in collaboration with Vicky Booker, about headshots – and what not to wear to your headshot session.

If you enjoyed last month’s blog, you’ll enjoy this one even more – because it’s all about what you should wear to your headshot session, and how to look your best in your photographs. After all, your headshot image is often the first impression you make, and as we all know, first impressions really do matter.

So here, we go back to our lovely models, Louise and Inci, but this time they have been styled by Vicky and they are wearing different clothes – ones that you would expect to wear for a personal branding photoshoot.

Here’s what Vicky says:

The most important thing is to wear something that represents YOU and your personal brand – in other words, what you and your business stand for. If your business is in holistic therapy working with children, for example, a sharp black tailored suit and white shirt is not likely to give out the best signals to potential clients. Similarly, if you want to pitch your business in the corporate world, a casual hoodie isn’t likely to cut it! Obvious extremes perhaps, but the key is to go for the best version of your true self.
In terms of the actual outfit, I always talk to my clients about “The Power of 3”. These are the three key style elements that when you nail all three at once, will mean you are looking and feeling your absolute best – essential for your photoshoot.

Power 1 – Colour! The colours we wear can make a massive difference to our physical look (and our emotions and psychology – but that’s a whole other blog!). When we wear colours that are in harmony with our natural colouring – our hair, eye colour and skin tone – it makes us look healthy. Our eyes shine bright, our skin looks more even and fresh, and any natural shadows or lines appear minimised. Who wouldn’t want that?

In last month’s blog Louise was wearing soft shades, but notice how the blue top in the next photograph really emphasises her beautiful blue eyes.

Power 2 – Fit! your outfit should fit your well – sounds simple, right? But in reality, finding clothes that fit really well can be tricky. Off the shelf pieces aren’t made to specifically fit your body lines, scales, proportions, leg length, etc. In a profile shot – things like neckline are important as this is what you’ll see most of. Take into account your face shape and shoulder line when choosing your top.

Also in last month’s blog post, we saw Inci wearing a strapless top. Once the photo had been cropped, and you could no longer see the top made her look like she was wearing nothing at all. Just wearing a different top makes all the difference.

Power 3 – Your Personality! If anything, this one could be the most important. This is what makes two friends with the same colouring, shape and size, try on the same outfit and one looks amazing and one it just doesn’t work for. This fascinates me! It’s great we can reflect our personality through what we wear – in fact our clothes are part of how we communicate with people. And with your photoshoot outfit, this is going to communicate with your potential clients, so make sure it’s “you”!

If you’d like to find out more, Vicky is currently running some style workshops in her studio. You can book your space here.

And now that you know what to wear and what not to wear … well, it’s time to book your headshot session. Give me a call by clicking on the button below, or just send me a quick email.

Call Me

March 12, 2019

My photo challenge

Blurry photograph or art?

by Ally March 8, 2019

When you ask and pay someone to take your photograph (be it a LinkedIn profile or a family photograph) you expect to receive images that are perfectly in focus and not blurry. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what most of my clients expect.

Being able to take photographs that aren’t blurry through movement or lack of focus is one of the first things you learn as a photographer.

So to unlearn it and deliberately go out to capture blurry photographs has been somewhat of a challenge – an exciting challenge at that! Photographs are still images, so to try and portray movement through a medium that isn’t naturally aimed at this was quite inspiring.

As soon as I knew this week’s theme would be movement, I knew that I wanted to photograph movement through dance. Don’t ask me why! I would love to say that this concept was born from my big love for dance or ballet … but apart from a year of ballet lessons (if you can call it that!) as a young child, and throwing some moves on sticky nightclub floors as a teenager, dance and I haven’t really got an awful lot in common.

And yet, something attracted me to this subject.

Ruth is a beautiful and extremely talented dance graduate who needed some photographs for her dancing portfolio, so she could apply for some jobs in the industry. So we quickly booked in a date for a photoshoot.

I made sure that Ruth left my studio with plenty of great, in focus, not blurry photographs for her portfolio. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have probably seen Ruth’s headshot I posted yesterday. It’s one of my favourites! (If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you totally should. Just click here!)

Throughout the session, we also made sure that we turned off the flash and took some beautiful blurry photographs to convey the expression of movement through dance. And I am over the moon with how they came out!

The light coming through the window was ideal, and Ruth’s red dress was perfect for this, with the sheer fabric creating some beautiful effects.

For those of you who like numbers, here are some setting figures for you. My usual camera settings when using flash are f6.3 at 1/125th of a second. To capture the movement, I knew I needed to slow down the exposure time quite considerably, so I set this to 1/20th of a second. I also turned off the flash, as there was plenty of natural light coming in for such a slow exposure time. I did however drop my aperture to f2.8.

And so here are the results!

So, in answer to the question is this just a blurry photograph or is it art? Well … I’ll leave it up to you to decide!

I’ve made up my mind already!

With huge thanks to Ruth, for being such an amazing dancer, and for being game to my crazy idea, and for repeating a dance move over and over and over again until we finally got it right in camera! You’re a star!

March 8, 2019

Headshots

Sue’s headshots

by Ally February 26, 2019

Have you ever wondered what happens during a headshot photoshoot?

Today’s blog is about a real headshot photo session with a real person. If you’ve been wondering what happens during a photoshoot, and what to expect, this is the blog for you!

Sue is a marketing professional – she is the director of SBL Media, a fantastic marked company based in Worthing.

Here’s some info about Sue and her company, in her own words:

We work with business owners across the UK to help them find reliable sources of new customers. In practice, that means we’re helping them to make sense of their marketing data and know what works and what needs improvement. We then deploy marketing tactics, such as web design or edits, pay per click advertising, lead generation, brochure design, book publishing and more to test how to make their marketing more effective. “

Sue knew that her profile picture needed some updating, and she was referred to me by another previous client. She got in touch and we booked a date and time for her headshot session. We also had a chat about what kind of job she does, the image she is trying to get across through her photographs, what clothes she should bring with her, etc.

As a director of a marketing company, Sue’s photos needed to look professional, but also fun, to illustrate both her creative and her friendly, fun side.

Most of my headshot clients take a little while to relax, get used to the studio environment and enjoy the photoshoot. This was definitely not the case with Sue whose photos were fantastic right from the start!

This is one of the first photos we took …

My aim is to get the more professional photographs done first – the kind of portrait on a light background you would find on a corporate website. They may not be your favourite, but inevitably they are the kind of photo you will be asked for at some time and you’ll be glad you have them.

Once the professional outfits and photos are done, it is time to have some fun, and take some less formal but still professional looking photographs – ones that reflect your business and your personality.

Sue had brought with her some smart casual outfits with her too, and we decided to take some natural light pictures as well as the studio ones.

If you were ever worried about having a headshot photo session, here are some more images of Sue to prove just how much fun they really are!

Here’s what Sue says about her photoshoot:

Ally immediately put met at ease. I’m a marketing professional, but that doesn’t make me confident in front of the camera, in fact I hate having my photograph taken. I never expected to laugh as much as I did – it was genuinely good fun and the results were spot on.

In just 90 minutes, we photographed 4/5 outfits, had a blast and a few days later I was able to send Sue 40 images for her to use on her LinkedIn profile, website, press releases and other social media platforms.

So if you too are thinking you need a new headshot, and are feeling inspired by this blog – give me a call!

Call me

February 26, 2019

My photo challenge

Skyline

by Ally February 22, 2019

And my opinion on the new Body Worlds exhibition in London

My theme this week’s photo challenge was Skyline, and I must admit I was feeling pretty uninspired bu it … so uninspired that I kept putting it off for ages!

As you know, I find it hard to get excited about photographs without people in them. I did eventually pull myself together and managed to get a photo of a Skyline, and what better place to do it than on a trip to London?

This week is half-term so Max and I headed off to London to see the Body Worlds exhibition at Picadilly Circus. It’s a fantastic exhibition! As you walk through, it’s easy to forget that the exhibits you are looking at were once real people, with real lives who simply chose to donate their bodies to science. They have been turned into real works of art!

After having looked in depth at all the parts of the human anatomy, tried CPR on a dummy and taken our blood pressure (Max was worried he was going to loose an arm!), it was time to head out to capture the London skyline.

As a portrait photographer I am very ill equipped for any type of landscape photography. Those keen landscape photographers out there will be appalled to hear that I don’t actually own any ND filters and that on this occasion I didn’t even take my tripod with me … it’s too heavy, too bulky and we had a lot of walking to do around London. So when it came to actually taking the photos, I had to improvise!

We were heading along the South Bank towards the City of London, when the sun appeared from behind the clouds and bathed the buildings in the most beautiful golden hour light!

Without a tripod and an ND filter, I dialled my aperture to f/22 and my ISO to 100 and started taking photographs with different shutter speeds. Even with these settings, I still wasn’t able to use a shutter speed long enough to blur the water, but that was ok. The light was so amazing, that I think my not-so-blurry water can be forgiven … Can’t it?

I cropped it out almost completely in this photo and made the sky a feature. I love the different typed of clouds in this photo.

We carried on walking and waited around until it got darker, so I could get some what I would call “classic” London skyline shots. My exposure is getting longer and the water is getting blurrier, but this kind of photo just doesn’t inspire me!

We soon got cold, and we got bored and we decided that we had taken enough photos of the London skyline so we went to YO-Sushi and get some dinner before our train back home.

Once home, I decided to play around with some of the photographs, and following last week’s blog about black and white photography, I wanted to see what the image would like in monochrome. I must say, I quite like it! What do you think?

I guess the aim of this challenge (which I set myself, so I only have myself to blame!) was to go out there and try different photographic techniques that I wouldn’t normally use. This week’s challenge definitely did this. It got me thinking about apertures (I don’t think I had ever used f/22 until now), about location, perspective, and way of trying to make your camera steady without a tripod!

As much as I felt uninspired by it, I have learned a lot from it, and I even kind of like the photos … Now I am off to buy some ND filters. Don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly converted to landscape photography, but apparently I need one for Week 33!

February 22, 2019

Headshots Uncategorized

Headshots – what not to wear

by Ally February 11, 2019

Some of you may remember my most unflattering photograph last month, when I deliberately gave myself a double chin. You don’t? You can check out the blog here. But for now, it is February and therefore time for another headshot tutorial blog.

Recently, I teamed up with the fabulous Vicky Booker to work on a collection of blogs about headshots, and how to make sure you look your best in your professional portrait. We took some bad photos to illustrate what not to do, and then some pretty awesome photos to show you just how fabulous you can look with a bit of make up and the right clothing.

Vicky is a fabulous stylist. She can advise you on what colours suit you best, how to do your make up and what to wear. If you haven’t yet popped along to one of her workshops, you really should. I’m already booked on one in April and I can’t wait.

Would you like to come along? Click here to book on to one of Vicky’s workshops.

Meanwhile, this series of blogs is for you.

In today’s digital world, a professional headshot is essential … Your headshot is your business card, your brand and your first impression all rolled into one. Whether you are self-employed, employed, a blogger, a vlogger, a business owner – a good professional headshot is a must.

Today’s blog tutorial is aimed at the ladies. Don’t worry, gentlemen, we will have blogs for you too.

So here goes: What not to wear to your headshot photo session.

Vicky says:
I hate giving “rules” and telling people what they should and shouldn’t wear – BUT there are a few guidelines that if you choose to follow, will mean you’ve got one up on those who don’t give much thought to this important area.

Avoid wearing something that’s vastly different to what you would normally actually wear. Just because it’s a photoshoot, doesn’t mean you try and look like someone else. Interestingly, a lot of women fall into this trap on their wedding day …!
Be careful of wearing too much make up, or as above, different make up to what you’re used to. It can look a little overdone or false. When people meet you in real life you do want them to recognise you after all!
I love accessories and jewellery, but again the ‘less is more’ mantra can be useful to have in mind here. You want your profile picture to really show you; too much adornment can be a little distracting. Of course, if you business is selling chunky jewellery and scarves, then by all means add a little product placement!
Super low cut tops! You may want to show off your assets and good for you. But people will make a subconscious judgement when they first see your profile picture. So if you don’t want them to be distracted, keep cleavage to a subtle hint. And if you’re wearing a strapless top, it can look like you’ve got nothing on at all – especially if the photo gets cropped by the media you are using. Take a look at our lovely model above, and you’ll see what I mean.
Something in a colour that doesn’t suit you. In the photo below, Louise is wearing some lovely soft and light shades, but they don’t really do much to emphasise her amazing bright blue eyes and red hair. She’d look much more “alive” in stronger warm shades – perhaps a lovely emerald green or warm red. Colours can cast shadows on our face and highlight any imperfections, so wearing one of your best colours will always naturally give you a lift – perfect for your photos.

If you’re struggling to know what colours and styles will suit you and your personal brand best for your photoshoot (or in general!) then get in touch with Vicky to find out more. Vicky is currently running some style workshops at her studio. To find out more please visit Vicky’s Facebook page or her website.

And when you’re ready to book your headshot session, give me a call.

Call me

February 11, 2019

My photo challenge

Love yourself first!

by Ally February 8, 2019

My theme for today’s challenge was Love … quite unsurprising in view of the fact that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Have you bought a card for your Valentine this year? Or are you a last minute bunch of flowers from Tesco’s kind of person?

Or maybe you don’t celebrate a Valentine’s Day at all … and that’s ok!

Because the kind of love I want to talk about today is self-love! Love yourself first! Self-love is essential for our mental health, our wellbeing and for any healthy relationship. As RuPaul says “If you can’t love yourself, then how in hell can you love someone else?”

When was the last time you said kind words to yourself? When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and you saw beauty? Kindness? When was the last time you stopped and felt the love around you? When was the last time you felt grateful?

This photo idea came into my head while scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration … but what I had found was the complete opposite. A lady was sitting in a subdued position while some negative words had been written on her skin in Sharpie. Now, I totally understand the concept … but it did make me feel like it was reinforcing self-loathing rather than encouraging self-love.

So I decided to do the opposite!

I did toy with the idea of either using myself as a model, or an actual model for this … but I didn’t want the object of my photograph to have an identity. Because I wanted each and one of you to be able to identify with it …

So one afternoon, I walked into the New Look store in Chichester, with my business card and asked the girl behind the till if I could borrow one of their mannequins for a couple of hours, for professional reasons. Needless to say they were slightly confused, but very accommodating, and I can’t thank them enough. Five minutes later, I was walking home with a mannequin under my arm, and I only bumped into a couple of people I knew. I tried to pretend I was completely normal …

I also decided to use a slightly different lighting. When I photograph people, I often use my Westcott Apollo Orb light box, but on this occasion I wanted to see what would happen if I bounced my naked flash off the white wall behind me. It’s a technique you might use when your flash is attached to the camera to avoid the harsh shadows of direct light pointing at your subject. Also, a technique I hadn’t used since I started using light boxes over 4 years ago. So it was a bit of an experiment, but a very successful one at that!

I love the white on white image, it is by far my favourite! But since I had a mannequin in the studio, I figured I’d try it on the black background too. What do you think? Which one do you prefer?

So from now on, let’s all try to make an effort to be kind to ourselves, be more loving, more forgiving, accepting ourselves the way we are. Let’s look at ourselves in the mirror and tell ourselves, how lovely we are, how happy we are, how brave, worthy, sexy, joyful, pretty, unique and loved we are.

Love yourself first!

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day for Thursday!

February 8, 2019

Headshots

Jack’s headshots

by Ally January 29, 2019

When you hear the word headshot, do you automatically think of a LinkedIn picture of a business man or woman? Or do you think of an actor headshot?

When I first started photographing headshots, I thought my target market would be the business men, the entrepreneurs … and of course, a lot of them are. But I also photograph a rather large number of actor headshots, and they are so much fun!

Jack came into my studio a little while ago with his younger sister Evie for some photos for their acting portfolios. what I particularly like about working with talented young actors is their enthusiasm and excitement. They have endless amounts of energy and are adventurous enough to try different set ups, even if they might not work.

From the first photo I took, Jack was a natural in front of the camera. He knew when to smile and when to look moody. Posing came naturally to him!

Jack was not only great in front of the camera but behind it too, when he doubled up as my assistant. His sister Evie has beautiful long hair, and we wanted to give it an extra dimension by making it look like it was blowing in the wind … hair dryers are great for this. So Jack helped out with this too! I think he quite enjoyed it.

I asked Jack to tell us a bit about what made him decide to go into acting and what he liked about his headshot session:

The reason I came into acting was that from a young age I was always brought up in the way of watching shows in London or at the Mayflower and I always thought to myself how amazing it would be to stand up on that stage and do what they do, experience what they experience … that thrill of the warm loving audience getting ready to watch what you have practised for so long, perfecting to get this far. When I was 8 and driving to my cousins who lives in Eastbourne, I said to my mum: “Mum, I really want to do what the people do on stage.” and my mum said “You want to do acting.” I said “Yes, acting. What do I have to do to start?” And she replied “I’ll sign you up to a drama club.” I was over the moon, I remember all this in the finest detail, every single thing of that conversation. I joined a nearby acting, singing and dancing club called StageCoach where I practised all the skills of becoming the best actor. This is where my passion for acting really kicked off. I joined the Chichester Festival Theatre and got my first agency at the age of 10. When I was in Year 6 I did my first show (101 Dalmatians) and made so many friends and I have been fortunate enough to do the Christmas shows ever since then.

When I entered the room to do the photoshoot I felt overwhelmed with excitement. I couldn’t wait to get in front of the camera and have a great time. That hour was so fun, we had great laughs, and Ally took some incredible photos. I can’t wait to do it again the future.

At the moment I have nothing planned for acting as I’m waiting for some auditions, but I would love to try some modelling and to be able to work in front of the camera on a short film to see what it is like. I’ve always liked to try so many new things and this has been of great help to me, as well as allowing me to add more things to my CV, which is great!

Since this photoshoot, I have had the pleasure of watching Jack on stage at the Chichester Festival Theatre a few months later as part of the cast for Sleeping Beauty, the Christmas production by the Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. If you saw the show, you will no doubt agree, it was different and great at the same time. The Chichester Observer reviewed it as “Bursting with talent, huge on imagination and visually stunning.” And Jack was amazing in it …

The acting world is a tough world, but Jack is already making his mark on it, and that is really great to see. I am looking forward to seeing where his next acting adventures will take him …

If you also have a child at home who would like to try a career in acting or modelling, and they need those ever essential headshots to get started, send me a message or give me a call. You know where to find me!

January 29, 2019

Headshots

Does my chin look big in this?

by Ally January 15, 2019

How to avoid having a double chin in your photos

You’d be surprised how many people enter my studio and within the first few minutes, say to me: “Can you get rid of my double chin?”

Even more surprising is that actually, none of these people even have a double chin.

So why the fear?

I guess we’ve all been, at some point, caught off guard, in an unflattering pose and ended up with a photo of ourselves where we might appear to have a double chin. It has certainly happened to me … Which is even more frustrating since I spend a large proportion of my days telling people how to pose, and how to position their chin.

In my history of photographing people I have heard a multitude of ways to reduce the so-called double chin. One involved a complicated pony tail (which I imagine would be quite difficult if you have short hair!). Another suggested to have someone literally hold the skin of your neck back and then photoshop their hand out of the picture (sounds so painful and a total photoshop nightmare). Or, the one I have heard the most is to put your tongue to the roof of your mouth. The latter is probably the easiest, but not my favourite, as I think it distorts your mouth and makes you look like you’re talking.

So here is my method, which I have shamelessly copied from the amazing American headshot photographer, Peter Hurley!

I call it the Chicken Neck!

The chin and jaw are a very flexible part of our face and it is extremely easy to either give yourself a double chin or to show a beautifully defined jaw line. In the first photo, I have a glorious double chin, all because I have pulled my chin back, reducing the space between my chin and my neck. Not flattering at all!

In this photo however, I have extended my chin forward, and then brought it down a bit, therefore stretching the skin under my jaw and chin. I now have a beautifully defined jaw line.

Here are the photos from the side, just to give you an idea.

Double chin

No double chin

My photos above are slightly exaggerated, of course, to showcase my point of view. It is in fact a very subtle posture move, with incredible effects. And if you don’t believe me, check out all the famous actors and celebrities when they walk on the red carpet … and suddenly you will notice them doing it too!

Because, just like you, they are also afraid of the double chin!!!

So if your LinkedIn profile picture is not up to date, or if you think you have a double chin, then send me a message or give me a call and we can have a chat about portraits, headshots, or personal branding photos, all without any extra chins!

January 15, 2019