Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 800, ƒ/1.4, 1/160

Today I had a lot of fun helping a young actress build her portfolio. Her mother wrote, ” We need to get some Headshots done for my daughter’s acting webpage. She is an actress and has an agent here in Atlanta.”

You can see the young actress Kalyn Wood on her Facebook page here.

They needed four different looks. So we shot for about 4 hours and had some fun. The Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4D was my choice for the headshots.

Sometimes I would white balance the modeling lights and not use the flash like in the photo above. I did this so I could shoot at ƒ/1.4. She is considering using this as the big photo you first see landing on her page. It makes sense because the horizontal format will work great on the webpage.

I think she did a great job of bringing some significant variations of expressions to create those different looks, and then I tried to light the photos to match the mood we were looking to produce.

We could get a completely different look by just changing some clothes and hair.

For this photo, I talked to her about the character Anna Bates in Downton Abbey.

For this photo with the red background, we talked about The Evil Queen/Regina Mills in the ABC series Once Upon a Time.

Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 200, ƒ/8, 1/160

In this photo, I can easily see her as one of the Pretty Little Liars cast.

What is essential to know is that it is much easier to have something in mind together that you are creating than to pick up a camera and start shooting. Together we got some great images, but we both had to be on the same page.

She had to bring expressions and clothing for each of the shots. I had to light and compose the photos to help create that mood.

If you know anyone wanting to build a model or acting portfolio, send them my way, and we can have some fun creating something together.