Is It A Good Idea To Have My Hands In My Headshot?

In a one word answer – no!

As an actors headshot photographer in London I can say unequivocally that having your hands in your headshot is the wrong thing to do. Seeing hands in a headshot generally happens one of two ways, either up close to your face supporting your head or lower down perhaps resting in your lap or across your shoulder. A slight exception to this is the USA where it is more common to see a greater area of an actors body.

Here are a few good reasons why hands should not appear in your headshot:

• Firstly, the whole idea behind the actors headshot is that it’s a photograph of your head and not your hands. It’s meant to show Casting Directors and Agents what you look like. Not what your hands look like.


• Secondly, having a hand close up to and covering part of your face defeats the purpose of the headshot in so much as it’s not showing all of your face. There could be a very good reason for this, maybe you are using your hand to cover a mark or facial feature that you don’t particularly want people to see on first impressions. Possibly you are resting your head too heavily on your hand and are pushing the skin of your face into an unnatural way, either creating folds and wrinkles or stretching your skin thus giving a false impression.


• Thirdly, as I’ve stated many times before the main point of focus of your acting headshot should be your eyes. Having a bunched fist supporting your chin, a pointing finger resting against your temple or the flat of your hand against your cheek draws the eye of the viewer away from the really important part of the headshot – your face and your eyes.


• Finally, hands and pointing fingers are from a different era. Modern headshots especially in the United Kingdom are clean, open and friendly allowing the Casting Director to ‘put’ a character on you. Using a dated headshot makes you stand out from the crowd – but in a negative way. Often the ‘thoughtful or pensive’ look with the pointing finger or the clenched fist give a headshot too much of a stylised look from a different age.


It’s vitally important that your actors headshot makes the right impression in those very first seconds. Your 10x8 headshot is your business card and your main piece of visual marketing so it has to be right. Don’t take any chances when sending out your headshot and hope that you’ll be able to impress at the audition. With a weak or poor headshot you’ll never get to the audition stage.

More info including the '7 secrets of a great headshot' available at www.nickgregan.com