Black and White for Actor Headshots (at least here in the UK) has traditionally been the only option. Spotlight “the home of casting” published a book with ONLY black and white headshots in it.
Now, though it is much more usual to see colour headshots. Spotlight still only shows black and white headshots in its book but the Spotlight website shows a mix of colour and black and white.
It feels to me that the industry is moving to Colour headshots. I think this makes sense – for the vast majority of projects the actor’s the final output will be colour. People will see the actors in full colour, so I think that a headshot that best reflects you – is always the best – colour for me does this better than black and white.
Black and white headshots are flattering, black and white portraits are often my favourites, but for headshots, I feel their time is nearly up.
I work digitally, so I am able to convert images to Black and White. Having worked as a Fine Art Child Photographer – I don’t just hit a button and make an okay black and white image – I’ll be able to give you fantastic black and white images, alongside your colour ones.
Printing a black and white headshot is something that also needs to be considered – some online and high street labs only print grey – no 100% black or white – which for a particularly high contrast black and white headshot might lose something in the printing. Don’t worry I’ll give you some suggestions on where to get your headshots printed. Remember your headshot needs to make that great first impression.