Location Business Portraits
What makes them better for many businesses?
Welcome to Well Dressed Interiors with Cathy Rowe
Lets take a look at having a business portrait created on the premises of your business and how the client perceives the image. Most people come to me and choose the studio option for there headshot or business portrait and leave glad they got it done. Because a professional headshot is so much better than one done with your iPhone by a colleague. Sorry that’s another blog post. But are they leaving money on the table, especially if they are going to use the business portrait on their website and not just post it on LinkedIn. The goal of your linkedin headshot is the face of the business, not necessarily to show the business. The goal of website should be to highlight both. Especially if you are a one person show or a group of 5 or less. This is because you are involved in all the day to day operations and this may be of interest to your clients. And, even if they are not that interested, it tells the story of what your business is about and how you make it happen.
Let’s look at the above image and see what it tells us. I see a very put together professional. As you can see her hair is perfect and has a nice approachable pose. Her desk is clean, she is tech savvy(two monitors), she is showing me she has designed some very elegant spaces. All of this reinforces that she is qualified to be considered for an interior design job.
Next we have a primary Business Portrait for LinkedIn or other social media. The image below is a great image for this purpose. Here is what makes it so great;
- It is clean and has very few distractions from the face. In fact you have a hard time not looking at her face. You will find as you look at it you eye always come back to the face.
- The background is in her office. This adds more interest to the image than just a solid color back ground.
- Color harmony works, the skin tones and book case tones work will together and are warm tones. The salt and pepper hair color works with the black shirt
- Minimal Retouching; a clean natural face and smile. A fresh look like this is compliments professionalism. And retouching was kept to a minimum, avoiding the porcelain doll look.
- Last but not least, the lighting is fantastic.
One of the reasons I enjoy doing business portraits is the psychological aspect. That is, having a picture convey an image that promotes my clients professionalism and ability to do the job. This is done by a small brain storming session before the business portrait is created. I ask a number of questions about what my client wants from their headshot / business portrait and how they think that would best be accomplished. Even though I do these everyday I don’t know your business like you do. So first, I listen. Next we talk about how we are going to convey your business in the portrait with lighting, background, wardrobe, pose and expression. This is where the best friend or selfie fails. By not having the skill set to make all of these parts come together you may end up with a much less impressive outcome. As they say “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.” As professionals we know this to be true. Yet, while many make planning part of everyday in the office and in their profession, they don’t know what to include in their plan for a great business portrait. So let me assist you with my expertise to give you something that works for you and your business. Robert Akers Photography a master photographer serving Southern Maine for more than a decade.
