Why should I hire a makeup artist for headshots?

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 Headshot Q&A

Well for one, the work that you see in my portfolio, the work based on which you hire me, only looks as good as the lighting I use and the makeup artist I employ! If it wasn’t for the subtle touches of a makeup artist at work behind the scenes, my portraits wouldn’t look as clean, and consequently, you would think twice about hiring me. Having said that, when you do hire me, you expect your photos to look as good as the photos representing the body of work in my portfolio. I can almost guarantee that without a makeup artist, there will be an unrealistic expectation to see your face in a more “finished” light, like the faces you see in my portfolio. Without the whole package (makeup artist included) you might be let down.

I don’t shoot glamour headshots, and there is certainly a market for that sort of look where professional makeup is obviously essential, but even headshots that represent you as you are, need a little help from the makeup department. Why? Because headshots are a sort of business card where you’re selling yourself. They are what I call “the you on your best day”, so they should represent you in the best light possible without unrealistically changing your face. The best makeup artists will never change your face, furthermore, their makeup will never draw the focus away from you. On men, makeup will help even out skin tones, under eye circles, and get rid of blemishes that lighting alone can not get rid of. This in turn saves you money on retouching! In fact, when applied by an expert, the makeup will simply disappear while doing its job. For women, although hard to believe for those of us wearing makeup all our lives, makeup for camera is very different than makeup for every day use. Coverage could seem significantly more than what women are used to, however, colors should be kept light to prevent you from looking overdone. When applying their own makeup, while some women don’t wear enough, others tend to overdo what’s needed for camera. The camera picks up all sorts of subtleties such as mismatched colors, smudges, smears, that a professional makeup artist is aware of and works to prevent.

Last but not least, if you chose to do your own makeup, while shooting, the last thing you should be concerning yourself with is…makeup! Your focus should always be the photographer and his or her direction. Makeup artists are a good idea to have on hand since they will always be there to touch up shine, sweat, caking makeup etc., without you having to think about it.

I was on a shoot once where my client chose to do her own makeup. It happened to be a hot day and her makeup started caking and becoming blotchy. However, the more she tried to blend it, the more blotchy it became. Basically it was a disaster because her focus was pulled from the shoot and her makeup wasn’t doing the job! The foundation she used did not agree with the shooting conditions, something that could have been avoided with a professional makeup artist using professional products. In the end, retouching was her only salvation.

One last note: In the case of severe dark circles, sometimes even retouching can’t fix it fully, unless you don’t mind losing all definition under your eyes and looking like an alien.

Here are some samples of my long time, loyal, favorite client, Tim Wadhams. Sorry Tim!

These photos were taken at different times and they are samples of some serious under eye bags! Tim has no makeup in the headshot on the left. He does have makeup in the headshot on the right. Both photos are NOT retouched so that you can get a realistic idea of how much makeup can help in a more severe case.