Classic studio lighting on a textured grey ground. This is the setup most companies ask for when every headshot in the directory has to sit together and look like one set.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

A straight studio headshot on grey, lit soft and even so the suit reads sharp and the smile does the work.

Red Tie

A quiet, conversational headshot. The light is placed to flatter rather than sculpt, which is usually the right call when the picture has to work at thumbnail size on a professional profile.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Soft key light on a mottled grey ground, warm enough to keep the skin natural and the pearls from going hard.

Pearls

Headshots are not one size fits all, because people are not. The light and the angle move to suit the face in front of the camera, not the other way round.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Open, friendly and lit to camera-left, the sort of frame that still reads as a person at profile-picture size.

Auburn

Sculpted lighting and a textured background, the traditional business portrait. If a company already shoots in a particular style, that look can be matched from the pictures they already have.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Hard side light against a dark ground with a red curtain behind, the traditional sculpted look kept deliberately theatrical.

Red Curtain

Some portraits carry an office rather than a person. Flat, even light and a formal backdrop keep the attention on the robe and the expression, and the frame prints as well as it publishes.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Even studio light against a flag backdrop, made to sit on the wall of a chambers as comfortably as on a website.

The Bench

An environmental portrait, shot on the light that was already in the room. Standing a subject in their own building says something a seamless backdrop cannot.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Daylight off a bank of tall windows, three-quarter and unhurried, the room left in the frame on purpose.

Tall Windows

The aim with an environmental headshot is that moment of immediate engagement, the subject looking up as you arrive. Available light, usually with a little strobe to open the shadows and put a catchlight in the eyes.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Caught at the desk on window light, as though a client has just walked in and found them mid-work.

At the Desk

Photographed against white and then knocked out, so the finished file carries no background at all. It is the version to ask for when a headshot has to sit over a colour block, a photograph or a piece of layout.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Flat light on white, shot so the background can be dropped out entirely and the figure floated over anything.

White Knockout

Outdoors, late, with the sun behind and a little fill from the front. Warmer and less formal than the studio, and often the right register for people who sell themselves rather than a company.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Backlit in the last warm hour with the foliage thrown well out of focus, a headshot that does not look like a studio.

Late Light

A team picture has to survive being cropped, printed and posted, so it is built to hold together at any size. Groups are quoted individually once the number of people and the location are known.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

Five in black on a downtown rooftop, shot hard and bright so the group reads as one thing rather than five.

Rooftop

Thirty-odd people, two dogs and one overcast sky, which is the light you want for a group this size. Everybody has to be visible, in focus and recognisable, and nobody should look like they were added afterwards.A business headshot session is $150 and includes one finished image, cleaned up and ready to use. Additional finished images are $25 each, as are white knockouts for layering a portrait over a background.Every session starts with a conversation rather than a camera: where the picture will be used, who has to recognise you in it, and what it needs to say. The take is edited down to a set of proofs the following day, reviewed together at the studio or sent across to you, and the frame you choose is finished and delivered twice, sized for the web and at full resolution for print.

The entire company out on the riverbed under flat cloud, mountains behind, dogs included.

The Whole Company

Glamour lighting done properly is unforgiving and worth it: one hard key, placed high, with just enough fill to keep the shadow readable. It suits performers who need a frame with some theatre in it.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

A single hard source and a deep falloff, the old Hollywood key placed high and close.

Glamour Light

Character work needs a different picture from a straight headshot. Taken outside on soft daylight and finished in black and white, which stops the greasepaint reading as a colour problem.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Full whiteface and a top hat on stone steps, shot in black and white so the paint does not fight the skin.

Greasepaint

A comedy frame, and it has to be funny in the picture rather than in the caption. Shot against black with a rim light so the costume separates instead of sinking into the background.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Hard key with a rim light off the back wall, caught mid-reaction with the phone still to the ear.

Quick Change

Cabaret and character range, lit hard and kept dark. A performer needs more than one frame in the folder, and this is the one that shows what happens when the light stops being kind.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Hard side light on a dark ground, the hat brim used to keep the eyes and the jaw in shadow.

Bowler

Period work only holds together if the hair, the styling and the light agree with each other. Soft key on grey here, because the costume is already doing plenty.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Soft studio light on grey, vintage set from the pin curls down, the fan carried rather than posed with.

Feather Fan

Musicians usually want the instrument in the frame, which makes the hat and the guitar the two problems to solve. Both are handled with the height of the key rather than in the edit.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Black satin, white piping and a guitar, lit soft on grey so the hat brim does not black out the eyes.

Western Swing

It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter. The frames worth keeping tend to arrive in the gaps, once the sitting has stopped feeling like a sitting.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Caught mid-laugh on a brown ground, the frame that usually turns up between the ones that were planned.

Laughing

A headshot is a marketing tool, and its first job is to be a good likeness. The person who walks into the audition has to be recognisably the person in the picture.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Soft, close and squarely lit, an honest likeness with nothing added and nothing taken away.

Character Man

Clean and simple, which is what most casting wants. The background is lit separately so it stays a background rather than turning into another subject.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

Strobe through a large source, close and slightly above, the grey ground kept a stop down.

Lavender

Daylight from a single window, which is where photography started for me and still the light I reach for when a frame needs to feel quiet.A single lighting setting is $125, including the cleanups and the digital copies. A full portfolio is $250 across several setups, for four to six finished images. Additional cleanups are $25 each.Half an hour to talk through the roles you are going out for, an hour in front of the camera, and half an hour to choose. Bring several changes in darker tones with some texture in them, and come as the person who will walk into the audition room.

One window, no strobe, the corners allowed to fall away on their own.

Window Light

Senior portraits work best somewhere the person actually goes. Late light, a long lens and enough room to stop performing for the camera.Portrait sessions are quoted individually. Seniors, families, children and dancers each need a different amount of time and a different amount of room, so the price follows the session rather than the other way round.Studio, garden or on location around Missoula, seven days a week by appointment.

A senior portrait made late on the water, the grass and the current thrown right back.

River Rock

Small children set their own schedule and the lighting has to be finished before they arrive. One source, a dark ground, and something of their own to hold.Portrait sessions are quoted individually. Seniors, families, children and dancers each need a different amount of time and a different amount of room, so the price follows the session rather than the other way round.Studio, garden or on location around Missoula, seven days a week by appointment.

One soft source against black, held for as long as a two-year-old was willing to hold it.

Teddy

Years spent designing theatrical lighting turn out to be useful here. The picture that says the most about a dancer is usually the one just before or just after the dancing.Portrait sessions are quoted individually. Seniors, families, children and dancers each need a different amount of time and a different amount of room, so the price follows the session rather than the other way round.Studio, garden or on location around Missoula, seven days a week by appointment.

Side light off the wings, caught on the ribbons rather than in the middle of the variation.

Pointe Shoes

No strobe, no backdrop, just the window and a quiet half hour. Teenagers tend to relax the moment the lighting stops being an event.Portrait sessions are quoted individually. Seniors, families, children and dancers each need a different amount of time and a different amount of room, so the price follows the session rather than the other way round.Studio, garden or on location around Missoula, seven days a week by appointment.

Daylight from one side, dark everywhere else, an unposed portrait at seventeen.