Last August I had the good fortunate to do headshots for Brendan Hutt of Promethean Theatre Ensemble and Idle Muse Theatre Company. Brendan’s current headshots still work well for him, but he’s had a few updates to his look lately and wanted to do a few new ones to expand his range. For example, he’s clean shaven in the headshot he’s using, but now he has a beard. He also wanted to do a headshot wearing something a little dressier. Options.
Brendan and I have known one another for countless years, by which I mean to say that I’ve lost count, but I’m guessing it’s about sixteen years. I’ve photographed Brendan in many shows, and we’ve gathered, gamed, and feasted together for time out of mind. Thus, doing a headshot session together was natural and easy, and we made hundreds of portraits.
Culling the Choices
“How much do you prefer me to narrow them down?” I asked Brendan. “Are you the type of person who wants lots of options, minimal options, or would you like me to pick?”
“Just leave out the blurry ones,” Brendan said.
So I got rid of the blurries and anything I wouldn’t have been happy to edit.Brendan is an excellent actor and subject, which meant that he nailed hundreds of great, nuanced expressions and an overabundance of choices to go through with his agent.
Bastards and Schlubs
I always say my two types are bastards and schlubs. Those are the modes I think of myself in. It’s a good spectrum to be operating in. There’s a lot there.
Brendan Hutt on type
In making Brendan’s portraits, we tried several different looks. In the end, we settled on a commercial look, a casual look, and one in between, where Brendan wore his glasses. We swapped out backgrounds as much as we changed wardrobe pieces, taking our time as we shot. Brendan is a master of nuanced expressions, so we had a seemingly infinite variety of options for each look. Some were warm and friendly, some were intense. We made the looks to supplement what Brendan already had, and when we were happy with what we’d made, we moved on to some fun experimental shots.
As a side note, during the editing/retouching phase, fixing the folds on Brendan’s textured shirt made me feel like a space wizard with sorcerous powers.
It Must Not Be Denied but I Am a Plain-Dealing Villain
I think I have a particular affinity for underplayed menace. That would be so cool. Cold and collected and more than capable of doing real harm in that way that doesn’t need to be showy.
Brendan Hutt on playing the villain
Since this was a session about expanding Brendan’s range, I wanted to make sure we played against type as well. When I asked Brendan what sort of role he’d most love to play, he told me he’d love to delve into some more villainous roles. I thought there was some space to play there, outside the normal parameters of the commercial headshot, so we made some images to show off Brendan’s dark side. For this we used, well, a whole lot of darkness.
We had a ton of fun in the last part of our session, and the way we lit Brendan created a very different look from the headshots we captured at the start of the session.
It was excellent working with Brendan, as it always is, and I’m grateful to him for spending the afternoon with me in service of his amazing talent!
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