Headshots and editing process

Headshots and the editing process

                  

                                                                  Before the editing process on Photoshop                            After the editing process on Photoshop

I spent a bit of time before and after having my headshot taken, looking at what makes a good and bad headshot. I found that a pose that isn't facing directly towards the camera is the most acceptable as it makes you look approachable and friendly which is sought after by employers. I am quite a friendly person and so I wanted to convey that through my photograph by smiling at the camera. It is important to match your headshot with your brand and who you are as a person so that you won't be fooling the people who are contemplating hiring you. It is also good to keep the backdrop simple.

I edited out the logo on my clothes using the patch tool to make my photo look more professional. I also used the patch tool to cover a few blemishes around my face to make my skin look clearer. Next, I used the blur tool on the shinier parts of my face to dull the brightness slightly. In the original photograph, my under eye bags are quite severe, and so I used the patch tool to cover up the discolouration, then used the eyedropper tool to pick a colour closest to my skin tone beside my eyes. I made sure to turn the opacity on the brush down to make it look more subtle and realistic, then coloured over the deep creases underneath my eyes - this made me look a lot less tired.

I wanted to make myself look more lively, and so I used the eyedropper tool on the lightest part of my eyes, then used the brush tool with a low opacity and went over my iris to make them appear brighter. The reflection from my glasses made my pupils appear green, and so using a grey-ish black tone I coloured over my pupils. I used this same technique for my lips which looked pale in the original photo - using the eyedropper tool on the pinkest part of my lips and then colouring over them with the brush tool on a low opacity. Again, I used this method on my eyebrows to make them seem less sparse as they were in the original photo.

Finally, to make myself appear overall more full on colour, I went into the adjustments tab under image on Photoshop and chose hue/saturation. I increased the saturation by a small amount to bring some liveliness into my skin and to remove any dullness both in the backdrop and on my person.