Kobo ReWriting Life - 47 - Lauren Lang & Professional Author Head Shots

0:05Lauren Lang: Hey, writers, you're listening to the Kobo Rewriting Life podcast, where we highlight an episode from our backlist that will bring you insights and inspiration for growing your self-publishing business. I'm your host, Tara Kremen, director of Kobo Writing Life. This week, I'm bringing you back to 2017 with this great interview with photographer Lauren Lang. Lauren tells us about what makes a great author headshot. And look, I get it. You'd rather be writing your next book than worrying about getting your picture taken. But you do need a good author headshot. Readers want to be able to see who they're connecting with through your book.

0:44Lauren Lang: So I hope this episode gives you some inspiration to update that headshot. Hi, this is Mark LaFave. I'm here at Superstars Writing Seminars 2017, and 17 and I'm with Lauren Lang. Lauren, welcome to the podcast. Hi, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. As I said in the introduction, Lauren is a photographer and she's been here working with the Superstars attendees, getting them professional headshots because that's a key element for the business of being an author. Lauren, tell me a little bit about your background. You were in journalism, you were in television and then you migrated into photography.

1:20Where did, How did you get into this? Mark, I'm so happy to be here today. I did begin my career in journalism. I started in Davenport, Iowa. So if there are any listeners in the Quad Cities, hello, Quad Cities. I started with an NBC affiliate out there because I love to tell stories. Okay. I wanted to write, and I wanted to incorporate video storytelling, or visual storytelling, I should say, into what I was doing. Journalism provided that outlet for me. So I did that for seven years. I went through Albuquerque and finally ended up in Denver, which is home for me. And I finally decided that video cameras just weren't enough.

1:57I needed more cameras in my life. So I picked up still cameras and I began as a hobbyist seven or eight years ago shooting wildlife, which is a particular passion of mine. And it grew and grew and morphed and morphed and just turned into this octopus that finally led me to say, you know, I believe I could do this professionally. So two years ago, I launched my own company. I own and operate Jacobin Photography based in Denver. And that's kind of my background and how I made the jump into telling stories in multiple visual platforms. Well, that's interesting. There's a couple things you said there that I want to go back to.

2:31The first one, and I can't help this joke. You started off in wildlife photography, and there's some wild authors out there too. So there's a natural transition, particularly at the Kobo reception party. But okay, that was just a bad joke. The visual storytelling, I find that really, really intriguing, that that is one of the things that drew you into that. I'd like to see a parallel between telling stories with moving images to the stories that you do tell. That picture is worth a thousand words. The stories that you tell as a photographer, how has that difference been for you? Visual storytelling, whether you're doing it with a video camera or a still camera, to me is a challenge I've always relished.

3:14It's a special gift, I believe, to be able to make someone feel something through one still image or to have them watch 30 frames of video in one second and have them react to what they're seeing. There's a very limited amount of time to cause that emotional reaction before you lose your audience's attention. And in today's world, with so much media out there, you really have to be quick about it. so I love trying to get people to feel something when they see an image and to me it's very very important that they do have that emotional reaction you also said something that made me wonder the visual capturing the emotion capturing that it's not all that different than what a writer is doing when they're when they're putting words on paper and trying to you know pull out emotions from their readers.

4:12Do you find the different kinds of photography, do you find it easier in some ways? So when you're actually posing people as opposed to a candid photography? I love candid photography, especially at events here like the Superstars Writing Seminar, because there is so much emotion. I love catching people laughing. I love catching people interacting. I call it catching people emoting, really. And it's any emotion. It doesn't matter. There's a payoff there for me as a photographer having that image of you having a good time or enjoying yourself whatever it may be I don't think it's that different than what you do as an author because you're still telling a story the basis is the same authors force people to create images in their minds okay so that image can look like anything you want it to look like and that's the beauty of the written word.

5:09For me, it's that challenge of, can I catch that single moment in time when you're smiling? Now, when you're posing people, because you asked about that, it's a little bit different because it's inherently unnatural. No one stands in front of a camera for 10 minutes or several hours, depending on your photo shoot, smiling or making one expression. That's just not how it works in real life. So in order to make that look real and natural. As a photographer, I have to emote to you. So I am getting you to tell me your story. Why are you here? What do you need these for? How can I help you professionally?

5:48And that's the basis that I like to start on with my clients and with any author that I work with to get them to tell me what it is they need so that I can advance their personal story or help them advance their personal story in an effort to get their stories out to the world. So you're trying to, even though they're there in an artificial situation, probably nervous because most authors are introverts. Oh yes. And not used to being in front of a camera, but behind a typewriter. Oh yes. And you're trying to trick them. I mean, you're trying to comfort them and ease them almost like the dentist who knows you're nervous and does everything they can to ease your mind.

6:28So you're trying to get them into the right mindset. So they just feel relaxed and talking about what they do. And that's a genius. I didn't even notice you were doing that when you were taking my pictures. That's, that's amazing. And I try to be very subtle about doing it because the interaction has to be real. Right. I have to really care about what you're doing with your life. And I really have to care about helping you in your career. And I do, I care about it very much with all of my clients and weaving your personal story say you're my client weaving your personal story into my photography shoot does help me get you to relax because you can talk about yourself that's an easy topic you know what you're doing and you know what you're excited about in your own career right and when you're excited about something what do you start to do your eyes light up you start to smile right you begin to be open your body language changes and as a photographer, that's the switchover point for me where I'm starting to look and say, okay, I need to get a camera up to my eye and start taking some photos because this is the real you.

7:30It sounds like you have to have an incredible amount of empathy and pick up on those nuances and those subtle differences. You can see when a person has changed from becoming like the stone faced, I'm not going to show any emotion, I'm too shy, just suddenly feeling relaxed and actually letting that inner heart out or letting that inner feeling out feels like. And it is, you do have to be very perceptive and you do have to watch people and you're looking for physical reactions. As I mentioned, you know, there are a few that immediately spring to mind, but even if there are people that just aren't comfortable in front of a camera, and there are many who just hate having their picture taken, talking to them still makes them a little bit less wooden and they still have a positive experience with a professional photographer, even if they're still uncomfortable with the process.

8:22And to me, that's very important that everybody has positive interactions with photographers because we are kind of scary and we are intimidating and we walk around with these big lenses and shove them in your face. That's not really that pleasant. Okay. So imagine an author is going to get their headshots done and they don't get the privilege of working with an amazing person like you, what is a trick that an author could use to try to ease themselves into that proper mindset? So they're getting ready, they're getting ready to prepare. Are there things they could do or things they could tell themselves that might help them in that way?

8:58I think there's a lot of things that you can tell yourself to begin easing yourself into that mindset. I think the first thing that every author needs to understand is that if they are doing this seriously and they intend to publish. They intend to sell their work. They have to have a headshot. Okay. And for a lot of people, it ends there. Oh, this is something I have to do. Right. I want to move people beyond that mentality into this is something that I can have fun with. So when I see authors and when I work with authors, I want them to mentally prep themselves by saying, this is for my fans.

9:33Even if you don't have fans quite yet, you're getting there and you're taking the steps to get there. So when your fans see you, you want them to recognize you. You want them to know who you are. So when you smile at them like that, they know it's real. They know that's you. So that's what I would tell authors is to have a conversation in your head with yourself and say, this isn't just for me because I need it. This is for the fans of my work. These are for the people that I am going to give my work to. Okay, that's awesome. Thank you for those tips. Now, I want to actually talk about, because the reason I wanted to interview you is I think it's important.

10:09We're here at Superstars teaching writers about the business of being a writer. And that simple thing, whether it's on your website, whether it's something on the back of your book, the inside jacket if you have a hardcover, that author photo. And I'm curious. I believe it's important for authors to have a professional author photo. what are some of the things that you've seen where maybe it didn't work out quite so well because the author just grabbed the picture from their high school yearbook or they cropped themselves from a family photo at the wedding or something like what are the things that you've seen that are do not do is for for authors trying to to get those you know author author shots there are a lot of missteps that people take not just with author photos but with professional headshot photography in general.

10:59Okay. One of them, you've mentioned several already, using photos that are old. And I know that you loved yourself when you were younger and you loved the way you look and you've aged a little bit. Some of us had hair once too. I understand. Well, and the things that people are self-conscious about do tend to be physical issues that can occur as you get older. You are you. and that's what I like to tell everyone is this is what you look like. Yeah. And I want everyone to have the self-confidence to believe that they are beautiful. So have new photos taken. I've heard all different kinds of recommendations as to when you need to update.

11:39I think everyone should update when that photo no longer looks like you. If someone meeting you for the first time could not recognize you from the professional photo you're using, you have a problem. Okay. I've heard recommendations that people should update as often as every two years. That may be too frequently for some people. And if you still look like you in that photo two years later, okay, keep using it. Like Dick Clark, for example, could have used the same photo for 40 years because the guy didn't age. Pretty much. And that part's okay. As far as other missteps, I think people, as you mentioned, do take photos that are not high enough resolution.

12:18I'll put it that way. iPhone photography, there's some problems with trying to use an iPhone image as a professional headshot for several reasons. iPhones have great cameras. There are people out there that do all kinds of gallery showings and professional art showings with them. There's nothing against them. However, if you don't know how to light yourself, an iPhone photo may not be a good idea for you because lighting is obviously very important in photography. If you can't get a high-resolution image off of that cell phone camera phone, it's probably not going to print well if it's on a physical product.

12:51And it may or may not display well on the web, depending on how large you intend to make that photo. So anytime you are looking at photography, you need to keep the end result in mind. How many places is this photo going to end up needing to go if you're the next George R.R. Martin? Chances are a lot. So you need a multi-purpose, high-resolution image. The other thing that I see people do that is kind of a misstep is they don't necessarily present themselves professionally. So you need to be dressed however your author persona looks. Okay. And that's what I would tell people. You need to be recognizable to the general public and your fans.

13:30So if you usually wear a hat or if you have some sort of special something that makes you you as an author, incorporate it. Okay. pictures of you in jeans and a t-shirt aren't necessarily going to be as recognizable if you look drastically different out of uniform than you do in uniform. Fair enough. Okay. That's kind of cool. So I'm going to, I'm going to, this is purely selfish me wanting to get some great information because I write, you know, urban fantasy, horror, dark fiction, thrillers, and I've had people suggest that maybe I need to be, you know, look dark or moody or pensive. And I mean, that's different from my Kobo persona as the happy guy who hangs out with authors and wants to see them succeed.

14:13I also hang out with a six-foot skeleton Barnaby. Would it make more sense for me to just have Barnaby with me at all, like my skeleton there, to show people that that's the kind of stuff I write? Or instead of looking straight on the camera, are there different poses where I'm, you know, I don't know. Are there things different genre authors might want to do to capture that essence? I think it really depends on what you write. If you stick to one genre religiously, right. And that's it. That's all you write. I think that's just fine to incorporate that into your professional photo. For example, here at superstars, I offer a variety of photo backdrops for the authors.

14:55I have some that are specific to genres. I have a romance backdrop. That's a happy, pretty garden. I have an urban fantasy backdrop that is a cityscape at night. I have just a generic library backdrop for people that write in multiple genres. Exactly. So if you, however, vary from that genre and you write, say, fantasy and you dabble in sci-fi here and there, or you believe you may move into horror at some point, I would probably go with a more generic photo in case you're asked for it suddenly. And you asked about mistakes a little bit earlier. Yes. I'm going to bring that one up as a mistake.

15:32Okay. It's a mistake not to have a headshot because when you have to take one suddenly, it may not represent the best you. Right. So say, for example, you have written religiously in sci-fi, but all of a sudden you sent out this short story to another market and lo and behold, you have been accepted. Fantastic. Congratulations. Now they need a headshot. And you've got a fantasy backdrop as your headshot trying to scramble to get that taken first of all it's a pain in the butt but second of all if you can't get it scheduled you are now using an inappropriate photo that doesn't really represent you okay fair enough so that's what i want authors to think about when we talk about genre specific photography now if you want to do something with lighting that can make you dark and moody i'm okay with that okay but it really it isn't about me or my opinion at the end of the day.

16:21It's about you, your editor's needs, print needs. So you need to make sure that you are working professionally with whoever it is that is requesting the photo to ensure that you have the right image for them. Okay, that was cool. Thank you so much. When an author is looking to get an author photo done, are there things they should look for when hiring a freelance photographer or are things that they should look for um in terms of in terms of finding the right fit is is it like you know editors and authors sometimes it's the right fit for these people to work together is that a thing that authors can can use you know the relationship is not dissimilar actually the first thing i would tell you about hiring any photographer, whether this is for your personal wedding, for your professional headshot, for your children's, you know, school photos, because you didn't like the way they came out.

17:22It doesn't matter which type of photography it is. You need to look at their portfolio. And that seems like a no brainer. However, if you run into a photographer that doesn't have a website, that doesn't have a form of social media, especially in Instagram in this day and age. That's where photographers gravitate to. That's a lack of professionalism on the photographer's part. So you need to be aware of that. Your friend and neighbor down the street that kind of has a good camera, they may take a really nice picture here and there, but they need to be able to take very solid, consistent images.

17:59So I say a large portfolio, and it doesn't even have to be big, but a portfolio that shows consistency among the images gives you a better idea of what you're going to get for your money. And it also shows that they can deliver something that's usable to you and that you're going to be happy with. If you want to ask for referrals, I don't get very many people that ask for referrals from past clients as far as I would like to call your past clients. I do offer referrals on the website I use to bid my freelance work. I have reviews just like on Amazon. Okay. So it's, once again, not dissimilar from how you choose the next book that you're going to read.

18:37Okay. So I would look for reviews, just like you would on any product. And finally, you need to make sure that you match with your photographer's style. You may love their work, but if they're light and airy and dreamy and very fantasy and whimsical, they may not fit with you if you're a dark horror writer. Right. Looking for a photo where half of your face is black and you can only see this one eye and it's red. You know? Yeah. So keep in mind that when you're hiring a photographer, you're hiring them for the work that they are showing you in that portfolio I mentioned that you wanted to look at.

19:11Okay. So make sure that that portfolio matches with the image that you have in your head of what you want to look like. Okay. That is awesome. Thank you so much. Now, are there any other things that authors should be aware of? any uh any last sort of words of advice or wisdom with relation to author photos actually i have several and i'm going to reference a study and this study is put out by photofeeler.com and this study talks a lot about expression and that's the one thing that we haven't touched about in photography as far or professional photography once again whether you're an author or whether using this photo other places as well the study looked at competence likability and influence And those characteristics were determined by headshot photos that these people looked at throughout the course of the study.

20:04Okay. So the study found that there are certain things I'm going to go with, for lack of a better word, that people do in photos that either make people like you more or like you less. Okay. And one of the things that drives A, it drives photographers crazy, but B actually made the participants in the study like you less was covering your eyes. So I would say it is. And that's a very common one. You need to make sure that you always take sunglasses off. Things like that. Hats that, you know what I mean? They cover your eyes. They cast a shadow. You need to remove those. Okay. So people need to be able to see your face.

20:43They want to know what you look like. Okay. And as I continue through looking at this study, this is a photography term. You may have heard it. It's fairly widely known, even outside the photography community. It's called squinching. Squinching is basically squinting your eyes very slightly. It's not, you're not totally squinting so that you can't see. The idea is that it kind of makes you more competent, likable, and influential according to the findings of this study. Really? Now, I address that. I actually do not have people squinch. Yeah. What I do instead is I have people smile. And I'm going to move on to smiling in just a second.

21:23But when you smile, you naturally squinch a little bit because your eyes get smaller. So smiling, on the other hand, was the biggest difference in likability that this study found. Smiling with teeth made you significantly more likable and relatable to people than photos where you're smiling with your mouth closed or where you look serious. I do tell my clients that smiling with teeth is a good idea. However, when you smile with teeth, if you look fake or comical, people realize that it isn't real and it isn't you and then your likability drops. So you need an actual real smile. Okay. And that can be a challenge for a lot of people.

22:12And I'm not telling you that you have to smile with teeth. If you're physically unable to or you're just not comfortable doing it, smiling at all is better than not smiling. Okay. So I'm not comfortable with an open-mouthed grin. It feels artificial or fake. Then a smile itself is better than nothing. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And it's smile. Even a small smile is better than no smile at all. And that was kind of the most interesting thing that I found in regards to this study. The last two points that I'll make are that style of dress are very important. So I've mentioned several times that you want this to be professional.

22:48And they found that professional dress made a huge difference in how people were perceived as far as competence and influence. Okay. So wear a blazer. And they even said the more formal you are, the more competent and influential you look. So you don't necessarily have to wear a tie. Once again, you have to be comfortable. And that's the most important thing to me as a photographer, because if you're physically uncomfortable, nothing as far as facial expression is going to look real. You're just going to look uncomfortable. Okay. So be comfortable, but do consider professional dress, please. And the last one is the setting.

23:22And this is actually very interesting in this study because there was no difference anywhere. Really? None whatsoever. It doesn't matter whether you have a professional portrait taken indoors against a backdrop or whether you have it taken outdoors in sunlight. Garden of the gods or something. Exactly. As long as it looks professional and you are professionally lit, people reacted exactly the same. Wow. So you can have your photo taken wherever you'd like, as long as you're professionally lit, you're dressed professionally, and you smile, and you don't cover your eyes. That's a fantastic way to conclude the interview.

23:57Thank you so much. Let our listeners know where they can find your photography website, etc. My photography website is jacobinphotography.zenfolio.com. I'm also on Facebook, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Instagram. I try to be on every platform possible, but come find me on any of those because I would love to interact and offer any advice that I can or any help to people that are struggling with getting their headshots taken. That's fantastic. Thank you. And we will include links in the show notes to all of those sites provided that you can slip them over to me. Thanks so much for doing this, Lauren.

24:32You're very welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

24:35Lauren Lang: Thank you for listening to the Kobo Rewriting Life podcast. If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe. It really helps us out. And follow us on socials. We are at Kobo Writing Life on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Blue Sky. This episode was hosted by Marc Lefebvre. Editing is provided by Kelly Robotham, and our theme music was composed by Tearderker. If you're ready to start your publishing journey, sign up today at kobo.com slash writing life. Until next time, happy writing. Thank you.