Friends don’t let friends use iphone pics for their business headshots! It’s a call I’ve received many times over the years as a professional photographer, “John, can you please retouch this shot for me???” And so it was today, when my good friend and professional voice actor, Joanna Stadwiser (affectionately known as She-Stad) texted me about retouching the shot on the right (above). I asked what it was for (vaguely remembering that we had discussed doing a new headshot for her a couple months back) and she told me her radio imaging agency needed a “professional” headshot for their new website.
“How soon can you be at my studio?” I asked. Well, it turned out her daughter had a fever, so she couldn’t leave the house. “Fine, I’ll be there in an hour”. I’ve shot personal branding and actor headshots for Joanna several times before, and I knew that A - she hates having her picture taken (despite being clearly crazy photogenic) and B - she’s very picky about how she’s lit. She does NOT like studio strobes, but prefers very flat natural light (there are more rules she has, but these will suffice for now). And before you photographers jump all over me, I KNOW you can light someone flat with studio strobes! lol.
Her agency required a simple white backdrop and a basic head and shoulders headshot. I looked around her house for about a minute and found a doorway that would work. I opened my portable white backdrop and placed it behind where I wanted her, grabbed my camera and we were off. I shot a few test images and showed her how amazing she looked to get her to relax and trust that we’d get the shot and get it quickly. Camera in full 10+ frame per second motor drive mode, we shot about 300 images or so in less than five minutes. Was every frame perfect? Nope. Did we nail the shot? Um, yeah, we did! Will she ever try to shoot her own professional headshot again? If she does, she has to answer to me!
By the way, if you’re looking for the second best woman working in voice-over today (my wife, Rebecca Riedy, being the best, of course ;-), then definitely check out http://joannastadwiser.com/. Not only is she beautiful and crazy talented, but she’s one of the funniest people you’ll EVER meet!
If you’re ready to up your professional headshot, corporate headshot, profile pic, branding image, or whatever the millenials are calling it these days, please don’t hesitate to call me at 818-445-7752 or email me at john@johnriedy.com.