Maybe you thought finding a good photographer will take a lot of time or all photographers are the same. But wait, since your neighbor calls themselves a photographer, you think hmm that’s good enough. Let’s see…cheap…quick…convenient…perfect!
Did you have one of these photographs below with bad lighting, terrible posing not to mention the unprofessional background?
A non-professional headshot says a lot about the person. Oh yes, a picture does say a thousand words.
The benefit of choosing a true professional photographer (not your neighbor, babysitter or coworker) is you will know you are getting a top quality headshot that portrays the image you want the public to see.
Here are some tips:
• Clothing Matters. Choose clothing that that portrays the kind of business you are working in. Potential customer/clients and prospective employers (maybe even a future date) will expect this.
• Location Matters. This means you can’t use that picture of you hamming it up at the last Kentucky Derby party. Sorry, that just doesn’t cut it. One of our professional backgrounds in our studio always works nice or an environmental location free of people and unwanted distractions. You should always be the center of attention of Your headshot.
• Posing Matters. Another reason a true professional photographer is a must. Scott will take several photographs of you in a variety of poses that are best for you.
• Lighting Does Matters. You have probably seen plenty of bad headshots. For example the subject is too dark or too light. Skin color almost non-existent or a nice color of orange. The lighting a so harsh that the cheeks and forehead are just bright white spots. The lighting is coming from above and the subject has eyes that look like a raccoon. We’ve all seen this so please don’t make the same mistake as others. Our headshot shows you in the perfect light.
Now that you are getting the idea of what to do and what not to do let’s include some more.
• A Selfie does not qualify as a headshot. We have all taken a few selfies in our lifetime and others that’s a few million. I know that the lighting in our cars looks good but that’s all that looks good. Just go ahead and hit the delete button if you are thinking of posting it as your latest and greatest headshot.
• The Mugshot. Oh yes, how many times I’ve heard that a coworker volunteered to take a photograph of the subject backed up against a wall. Here we go with all must have’s for a good headshot mentioned earlier in the bad category. The mugshot photo has a bad background, bad lighting (raccoon eyes), bad posing, bad clothing and so on. It’s just plain bad!
• Party Shot. A picture taken at the backyard barbeque with a red Solo cup in hand or with another revelers arm around you. Oh yes, this is when you see a published headshot with someone else’s shoulder in the picture and of course the face is blotchy and the eyes are glassy red.
The moral of this story is just because you think it’s a good picture of yourself does not make it a good headshot. Remember you want to portray your best possible self.