A Practical Guide to Headshots for Magicians
By Andi Gladwin - Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Every year when working with professional magicians for our conventions, we find ourselves increasingly frustrated that even the very best magicians don't have great headshots available for us to promote their performances. As we find ourselves thick into the organising of The Session and Magifest, we thought it would be useful to everyone to have a guide of what photographs all performing magicians should have available.
There's losts of advice out there on choosing the perfect headshot, and so this guide focuses specifically on the practical side of headshots—how many you need, where to display them, and technical tips for maximising their impact so they can be used effectively across your online and offline presence.
How Many Headshots Should You Have?
The aim should be to have photographs in three categories:
Personality Shot: Great headshots don’t just show what you look like—they show who you are as a magician. Showcase your personality—a headshot that reflects your unique style, whether it’s mysterious, quirky, or comedic.
Action Shot: A mid-performance photo of people reacting to your magic says so much: where you work, the type of people you work for, and how you dress mis-performance.
Professional Headshot: Depending on the type of shows you work, a clean and professional photo taken on a neutral background with a friendly yet confident pose is always useful.
Where to Place Headshots on Your Website
We advise having a separate page on your website that includes all of your photographs. This way, you can link the people who book you directly to it and they can choose the image that best suits their event.
Ensure that you offer downloadable high-resolution headshots and, if possible, include a photo with a transparent background. It's best that you do a great job of cutting out the image so that the booker doesn't do a bad job of it!
And be sure that you credit the photographer and that you own the copyright of the photos. Depending on your deal with the photographer, you might not legally need to credit them, but in my mind, it's the respectful thing to do regardless.
File Management Tips
Avoid generic names like IMG_1234.jpg. Instead, use descriptive filenames, such as: andi-gladwin-magician-professional-headshot.jpg. This helps search engines find it (in case people are looking for photos on image search engines) and helps clients quickly identify your photos in their downloads folder.
Use JPG images for good quality and small file size and PNG images for images with transparent backgrounds. Resize the images for optimal loading speed (e.g., 1200px wide for full-page use, 400px wide for smaller images) but have a link to a high-resolution version that people can download.
Where Else to Use Your Headshots
The ugly truth is that if people can't quickly find your photos, they'll go straight to your social media. Therefore, use a consistent headshot across platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) to ensure that people find your professional photos over your trip to Salou in 2003.
That brings me to my final tip: update your headshots regularly. If a booker hasn't met you before, they won't know which photos are your latest and (as has happened to me in the past), you'll turn up to a show only to notice that you have been promoted with a photo of you looking 15 years younger!
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