A headshot has one job: to look like you, on a day you felt good, to the person deciding whether to cast you, hire you, or trust you with their home sale. The trouble is that a casting director, a hiring manager, and a homebuyer are all looking for something different. So the first question is not where to shoot. It is which headshot you actually need.

Start with what the photo is for

Almost nobody does this, and it is the whole game. A headshot for a LinkedIn profile, a theatrical audition, a founder announcement, and a realtor's yard sign are four different photographs. Same person, same face, four different reads. Before we talk about lighting or wardrobe, I want to know where this image is going to live and who is going to look at it. Everything else follows from that.

Acting headshots: theatrical and commercial

If you are an actor, your headshot is a working tool, and it has to do one thing above all: look exactly like you when you walk into the room. A headshot that is glamorized, over-retouched, or five years old works against you, because the casting director feels the gap the moment you arrive.

There are two kinds, and most actors need both.

Theatrical is the grounded, serious look. It reads as a real person with an inner life, someone who could be a lead or a character in film and television. The expression is honest, not blank. Think intensity held in reserve.

Commercial is the bright, warm, approachable look. This is the person in the ad who loves their insurance company. It is friendly and open and it sells relatability.

In a session I light and direct these differently, and I shoot both so you leave with a theatrical and a commercial option, plus variations within each. I know the difference a casting director is scanning for, and I direct your expression toward it rather than hoping we catch it by accident. If you are building a full package, we can add looks that widen your range without diluting your two core images.

Corporate and team headshots

For companies, the value is consistency. A leadership page or a sales team where everyone was shot in a different year, in different light, against different backgrounds, looks disorganized, and people read that as a signal about the company. When the whole team matches, it reads as one confident, put-together organization.

I bring studio lighting to your office and photograph an entire team in a single session, everyone in the same light, the same crop, the same color treatment. It is faster than sending each person to a studio, cheaper per head, and it means nobody is the odd one out on the website. New hire next quarter? I match the existing set so they blend right in.

Founder, executive, and personal brand

If you are the face of your business, your headshot is doing more than confirming what you look like. It is setting the tone for how seriously people take you. A founder announcing a raise, a consultant landing enterprise clients, a speaker on a conference page, all of them need a portrait that signals competence and warmth at once.

This is where a personal brand session earns its keep. Instead of one headshot, you get a small library: the clean formal portrait, a more relaxed version, and environmental frames that show you in your actual context. That range means you are not reusing the same single photo across your website, your press, your LinkedIn, and your pitch deck, which always looks thin.

Realtor and agent headshots

Real estate is one of the few fields where your face is the brand, on the sign, the business card, the mailer, the listing. A homeowner choosing an agent is deciding, in about two seconds, whether they trust you with the biggest transaction of their life. A dated or stiff headshot quietly costs you that.

What works here is approachable and credible at the same time. Confident enough to handle the sale, warm enough to want in your corner. I shoot these to crop cleanly for a sign or a small print, and I can pair them with a short walkthrough or introduction video if you want to stand out in listings.

How I run a session, so you are not worried about posing

The single most common thing I hear is that people do not know what to do with their hands, or their face, or themselves. That is completely normal, and it is my job, not yours. I direct the entire session. Where to put your weight, when to breathe, which way to turn, when to drop your shoulders. You are never left standing there guessing.

The awkwardness people dread comes from being left to figure it out alone in front of a lens. Take that away and most people surprise themselves. When I hand the images back, I want the most confident version of you looking out of them.

How to prepare

Sleep well the night before, it shows in your eyes more than anything else. Bring two or three tops in solid colors so we have options. If you wear glasses, bring them. Skip the fresh haircut the day of, give it a few days to settle into itself. For a deeper wardrobe breakdown, I wrote a whole guide on what to wear for photos that applies directly to headshots.

Beyond that, come as yourself. The best headshots are not of people pretending to be someone more polished. They are of people who got out of their own way for twenty minutes.

What it costs and how to book

Individual headshots start at $325 and include guided direction and three fully retouched images. A personal branding session with more looks and variety is $575, and team sessions start at $750 for up to five people. Acting sessions are built around your theatrical and commercial needs. You can see the full breakdown on the pricing page.

To book, tell me who you are and what the headshot is for, an actor building an audition kit, a team of twelve, a founder launching something, a new agent. That one detail tells me how to light you, direct you, and what to send you home with. I shoot headshots across Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom, in studio or on location, in English and Spanish.