If you’re a commercial actor, theater actor, Broadway singer, opera singer, or a student studying to be any of those, you need headshots so casting directors have a face and a look to go with the name on their audition paperwork. It’s a part of helping them achieve the overall style of their production. You may be brilliantly talented, but if the character calls for someone like Idris Elba but you’re more of a Nathan Lane type, you’re not why they’re looking for and a headshot helps them not waste precious casting time. A headshot also should tell a bit about your demeanor and personality. Some directors will give you an audition just because you look like someone they’d WANT to spend 12hr rehearsal days with.  Performers need headshots.  

These days business professionals are also utilizing pro photographers to capture their image for industry publications, conferences, website content, and even just for linked In. Some of these are super corporate in style-standard Grey or white drop and a straight on to camera shot…, and some of these are on-site images showing them at work, and some are highly editorial portraits that speak to them as a professional in their field.

So. What does it cost to have some guy snap a couple pics for you to print? Should be cheap and easy, right? 

It can be.  Let’s look at what determines the price of headshots. Talk to any actor who had headshots done 10-15 years ago and there’s a good chance they spent $1500-2000 on headshots. I know. Seems a little steep. But digital photography was new, and the cost of technology was still high.  

Nowadays, with amazing technology readily available to the mass public, and not just professionals, there’s an over saturation of photographers in virtually every market. Whether it’s a “guy with camera” (a dude who basically gets into the “business” to shoot sexy women he’d never talk to in any other setting) or the undergrad student trying to make a buck on the side, or the soccer mom w a knack for shooting, or the fashion photographer with 15yrs in the business, they all have access to the same gear.  

There are plusses to choosing a student photographer. They have limited experience and need to learn, ideally hands on through Photoshoots. Their pricing will certainly reflect this and you can sometimes find them willing to shoot for $150 or sometimes 50$ and a home cooked meal. The work often will reflect this as well. Their bedside manner may not have its groove yet, their post-production will often be limited or overdone, their technique not quite honed. It’s not a bad thing, and I’m not knocking this period in a photographer’s life. It’s trial by fire and . Every shooter out there has gone through it.  

There are plusses to the part time photographer too. They have something that takes up the majority of their time, and turn their hobby into a side revenue stream. This means their pricing is likely lower than a full time professional. They’re not fully dependent on shooting for their entire income. You can probably grab headshots in the $200-400 range. But with a pro-hobby shooter, remember their primary job or lifestyle will take precedence to scheduling, professional development, training, post production, or product itself.  

A full time professional photographer is often their own boss. An entrepreneur or solopreneur who hussles nonstop to line up clients, give the service her or his client needs, shoot quality images, and take care of the entire business on the back end. That business requires overhead.  Gear (camera bodies, lenses, strobe lights, steady lights, lighting modifiers, stands, remote triggers, backdrops, backdrop stands, editing computer or two, editing software, etc), then there’s insurance for that gear, there’s liability insurance to make sure a client doesn’t take away his or her home in a lawsuit, there’s overhead for the studio space, cost and process of filing a sole proprietorship or an Llc, website, domain, hosting, online portfolios, printing, accountant, and taxes out of pocket… And then there’s their own personal bills. The same stuff you fund with your own jobs. Rent. Utilities. Transportation. Health insurance. Clothing. Food. 

A professional lives on their work, stands by their work, makes sure their work continues to provide more work and to fund the aforementioned deluge of costs.  It also means, even if you’re a friend, you’re not likely to get “hooked up.” 

When you choose a full time professional shooter, they know what it takes to maintain a successful career and the quality work that comes with it. With a pro shooter, you’re getting a combination of their training and experience and customer service. They should make you feel comfortable and at home. 
Many will run occasional specials with mini sessions or seasonal specials in the $500 range, but you’re likely to average $700-900 on a photoshoot. Also expect to be able to pay in literally any currency exchange possible. I take cash, check, credit card, direct invoicing online, and venmo.  

Most pro shooters have done their due diligence and know what it costs to run their business and therefore how much they need to charge for shoots. This translates to a no-haggle policy.  When you get a quote, it’s the quote, and they’re not likely to change it. The same way you don’t haggle for the price of eggs at the grocery store. That price is set based on statistical research.  

Hopefully this breaks down the fees and why you’re going to spend what you spend. Trust your gut. Go with the shooter that makes you the most comfortable and is within your budget. But remember, sometimes saving up for a photographer who really has the right experience can make all the difference. This headshot is your first impression and needs to say everything about you it can.  

Keep an eye out for the next episode: “4 tips for choosing a photographer” coming up next. And “how to prepare for a photoshoot”  

These days if you have a DSLR, you have a smart phone. But most of the time you’re shooting, your cell phone is in your pocket, and you’re using a tiny little back-of-the-camera reference monitor.  For me, I shoot my run’n’gun video with a Canon 5D Mark III and that little monitor just kills me.

While shooting EDM shows and nightlife, I was sick of sacrificing a shot for the review monitor to make sure the shot was good. It was ridiculous. I didn’t want to put my Ikan 7″ on top of the camera because it’s just bulky enough to be a pain in tight quarters, and I try to keep my budget as low as possible. It occurred to me my phone has a great screen with a solid refresh rate, and there’s no reason it couldn’t be tethered to the camera with an adjustable mount.

I did a little Amazon hunting and a fair amount of Googling, and found little on the topic.  No one makes an app dedicated to DSLR HDMI mirroring (which is ridiculous), so I went after the next best thing: an app that controls your DSLR. These apps offer live view mode (because they weren’t intended to be camera-mounted), so once you link the app with your camera, you have a live-view field monitor.

THE APP:

The DSLR interactive apps don’t utilize HDMI out as I mentioned. Rather, they use USB because they are intended to dialog with the camera and slave the controls as a digital device.  This requires decent hardware support and ample testing since the intended use is on-site professional use. I wanted a minimum 4-star review that was tried and true to app’s features as well. After toying with multiple apps, I landed on DSLR Controller which is intended for Canon cameras and works with Android.  They also have an iOS version. A couple quick notes on the app: I shoot nightlife at 60fps, which means the monitor needs a high refresh rate to keep up. Most apps won’t actually surpass 30fps refresh rate in real-life use, but don’t worry.  You’re not controlling the camera through app, just watching it through the app.  Any lag or skipped frames won’t show up in your recorded files’ playback.

THE GEAR:

This set-up is shockingly simple, because both the app and the camera are designed to talk to each other. Here’s what’s on my rig –

USB Mini Cable

USB C / USB A adapter

Hot Shoe Mount for Tablets and Smart Phones

That’s it.

This hack gets a lot of attention from other shooters as well as amateurs, because it’s so simple and 100% common sense.

Wedding photographers specialize in weddings.  It’s their principal gig, and they have a routine and style for it. I am not one of these shooters.

I have shot many weddings, as favors, because I needed the money, or because I liked the bride and groom, but overall, I do not enjoy being the principal still photographer for a wedding.

I don’t shoot cheese, I don’t shoot for the emotion of the day.  I shoot for each individual moment. I like stills that speak to something different…either a more journalistic approach to the day, or a commercial setup that usually doesn’t fit within the time restraints.  I like a day to location scout before the rehearsal.  I like to take some off-the-beaten-path shots.  If you’re in front of the lens, I’m taking the picture…you’ve been warned.

That being said, there are specific times I do enjoy working weddings, and those are usually when I get to be creative and do what I want, for stills or video (for whichever I’m contracted).  This sounds selfish, I know, but it’s not and here’s why:  a photographer/filmographer is an artist.  They’ve put the time, money, effort, and life-force it takes into honing their craft so they are at the level to be considered a professional, so they have their own style.  You’ve pulled them out of the lineup of how many hundreds of shooters in the area based on their work…so why ask them to duplicate someone else’s?

When I am approached about shooting a wedding, there are FIVE factors I take into account that allow me to have the most freedom within my style and the flexibility to have fun with the event, therefore putting out the best possible product for the day:

1) Do I like the couple as a couple? Basically, do they mesh well, do they have a good vibe together as well as separate.  Remember, we aren’t shooting take after take, we have to get what comes to us.  It’s like casting actors that have chemistry on camera together.  Some couples love each other to pieces but don’t gel on camera.

2) Do I want to shoot the bride? The bride is the focus of most Western weddings, and therefore I know 50% of my time will be working with the bride…in prep, posing, personal portraits, and literally whatever she wants for the day. Is the bride someone I look forward to having in front of the camera?  When you WANT to take images of the bride and she’s comfortable with you doing what you do, there’s an ease/flow/dance to the day that can’t be duplicated, and it shows in the final product!

3) Do I get to be an artist? Are they looking to simply document the day in chronological order and spew out a couple thousand point-and-shoot frames? If so, there are shooters who do that.  Or do they want a shooter who has an eye and a vision for how he wants to portray the wedding and the couple on film?

4) Is the location going to add or detract from the wedding? Again, this sounds kind of jackassish, and this one may be.  But I prefer to have a setting that is, in itself, almost a character in the wedding. It does magnificent things for the imagination and improvisation of vision on location.

5) Is the budget there? Over and over, professionals are haggled with, hassled about their pricing, and weddings are no different. Most professionals worth their salt know that the best business revolves around customer advocacy. We aren’t here to take you for a ride, to empty your pockets and laugh all the way to the bank.  We know what it costs us to do business, to create the best product for you and our portfolios, and thus continue on as professionals with happy customers who recommend us to others.  Therefore, our price is our price.  

If you’re getting married, looking for a wedding shooter, and you’re offended by my above requirements, that’s fine.  That means you’re looking for something else in a wedding shooter and I don’t take that personally.  I’m not here to turn & burn plug-n-play weddings.  

If you’re looking for me specifically to shoot your wedding, whether film or stills, you’ve come to me for a reason, and I’ll do my utter best to honor that.