Luke Fontana Photography
Contemporary, engaging headshots with a focus on storytelling and connection
Overview
Luke Fontana creates contemporary, engaging headshots that tell a story and forge an immediate connection with the viewer. His images feel alive and purposeful, drawing the eye and holding attention.
Luke's sessions are focused on discovering and capturing the unique qualities that make each actor interesting. He provides smart, specific direction that helps actors move beyond generic expressions into genuinely compelling territory.
How It Works
He is well-regarded in the New York acting community for his consistency and his ability to work with a wide range of types and personalities. His headshots perform well across theater, film, and commercial submissions.
Sessions are priced between $350 and $500, with retouched digital images included. Luke offers several package tiers to accommodate different budgets and session needs.
Who Uses It
A solid choice for NYC actors who want headshots that tell a story and create an immediate connection. Luke's thoughtful approach ensures each image serves a clear purpose in the actor's marketing toolkit.
Pricing & Plans
Luke Fontana's sessions are priced between $350 and $500, positioning him competitively in the mid-range of the NYC headshot market. Packages include retouched digital images with multiple looks, and Luke offers tiered options to accommodate actors at different budget levels. His pricing is transparent with no surprise add-on charges for standard retouching or digital delivery. For the quality and intentionality of his work, Luke represents strong value compared to premium NYC photographers who charge $800 or more for a similar level of thoughtfulness and craft. His session pricing includes pre-shoot communication about the actor's goals and casting targets, ensuring the session is productive from the first frame.
Pros & Cons
What's Great
Luke's greatest strength is his ability to create images that feel purposeful and narrative-driven rather than generic — every headshot tells a story about who the actor is and what they bring to a role. His smart, specific direction helps actors move beyond safe, default expressions into territory that is genuinely compelling and memorable. Luke's versatility allows him to work effectively with actors across theater, film, and commercial markets, producing images calibrated to each medium's standards. His consistency and reliability have earned him strong word-of-mouth recommendations in the NYC acting community. His website portfolio demonstrates a clear artistic vision while maintaining the professional standards that casting directors expect.
What Could Be Better
Luke's story-driven approach, while distinctive, may not suit actors who simply need clean, straightforward headshots without a conceptual layer. His thoughtful, deliberate process means sessions may move at a slightly slower pace than photographers who prioritize volume and efficiency. Actors who are unclear about their casting type or the stories they want to tell may find his narrative-focused approach challenging without a strong sense of direction. His mid-range pricing, while fair, means the session experience may not include the premium extras offered by higher-end photographers. Actors looking for a raw, unpolished aesthetic may find his purposeful style too curated for their needs.
Our Recommendation
Luke Fontana is an excellent choice for NYC actors who have a clear sense of their type and casting goals and want headshots that communicate those qualities with intention and specificity. He is particularly well-suited for actors who think of their headshots as marketing tools rather than just photographs, and who want each image to serve a strategic purpose. Actors preparing for pilot season or major agent meetings will find that Luke's purposeful approach produces images that give them a competitive edge. Actors who prefer a more spontaneous, discovery-based session may be better matched with a photographer who emphasizes organic moments over intentional storytelling. If you are brand new to headshots and still exploring your type, a photographer with a simpler approach may be a better starting point.
Pro Tips
Before your session with Luke, spend time identifying the three to five character types you are most often cast as or want to pursue, and bring wardrobe that supports each one — this will help Luke craft images with the narrative specificity that makes his work effective. Review his portfolio on his website and identify images whose storytelling quality resonates with your goals, then discuss these with him during your pre-session conversation. Bring wardrobe that suggests character and context rather than just looking nice — a broken-in leather jacket tells a different story than a crisp button-down, and Luke excels at leveraging these choices. Ask Luke to capture both horizontal and vertical crops during the session, as different casting platforms and social media channels require different formats. After the session, select images that represent genuinely different stories and casting categories rather than choosing your five favorite variations of the same look.