Another Headshot

This time a wee trip down to Dunbar to take some pics of K. I always prefer to take actor's headshots in their own home, or a place they are very comfortable in, especially if, like K, they are a bit nervous about the whole thing. Difficult to know exactly what the right thing to do is these days in terms of background as I've seen quite a few current headshots that use a 'real' background (albeit usually A little out of focus) rather than the flat white of a studio backdrop. But more of that later.
Anyway, K and I had a good session and she got a little more comfortable in front of the camera as we snapped away, changing hair style and the colour of her top as we went. Need to work through them all to pick out a shortlist for her, but on a quick look I liked this one - a bit of a smile but not too much.
Which was all well and good as we returned home in the sunshine for a late bread and cheese lunch, with bread from the excellent community-owned bakery in Dunbar. L had been out exploring while K and I were taking the pictures and bought a very nice multi-seeded loaf. However, after lunch I discovered that another actor whose headshots I took recently had already been to get another set. It turned out his agent had sent him to a specific photographer to get a new set done (in the studio with a plain white backdrop it appears, a least from the one I have seen so far) having been unimpressed with the ones I had taken only last month. Apparently the agent said there was 'not enough life in the expression and eyes and no direction', which feels a bit like a kick in the teeth but is probably just a sign that I need to do a bit more research into my headshot offering to try and see what I am doing wrong. I have been working to the principal that headshots should be as neutral as possible, allowing a casting director to to view the actor as more of a blank canvas, but perhaps that needs a bit more consideration.