Why Should You Get A Professional Business Headshot?

TLDNR Key Take aways

• Your Business Headshot is your first impression to people who want to hire you, work for you, and work with or collaborate with you.

• The most important thing to consider when hiring a photographer is their work. If you care about your image, price and other factors should not be considered if the work isn’t great.

• Hire a business headshot photographer who will photograph you in a way that fits your style with custom setups. A preset lighting/backdrop setup they use on all their clients is not what you want.

• Look at the details: Good lighting and good image retouching are key.  Bad lighting and retouching can kill an otherwise good image.

Why Do You Need A Professional Business Headshot

Your headshot is your introduction and first impression. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are often where people go to find employee prospects, employer prospects, and people they want to work with or collaborate with.  Chances are you’ve done it, but most people will Google someone they are considering working with.  Your business headshot will likely be the first thing they see.

Your headshot will give other people a glimpse of your personality and style so your professional headshot should be representative of the visual style and persona you want to reflect.

If you have a company or business, a custom business headshot is important for a cohesive brand and company identity.  If you have multiple employees, it’s important everyone’s headshots have a unified look while showing each person’s individual personality.

What To Consider When Hiring A Professional Photographer

There are many things that you can consider when looking for a headshot photographer. You can look at reviews, but reviews don’t necessarily mean anything (although I do have more 5 star reviews than any other headshot photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area). We’ve all been to that 5 star restaurant that was horrible. You can look at price, but if you’re looking for a low price you can expect the quality to be low as well since you typically get what you pay for. There are many reasons why price should be your last consideration given that over the life of the image the price difference is likely pennies a day. In reality there is really only one thing to look at when hiring any photographer, and that is their work.

The most important thing are the images.  If you don’t think the photographer’s work is great then don’t hire them based on price, reviews, or because someone else you know used them. Your professional image is too important to trust a photographer who’s work you don’t love.

Just look at the work; Do all their images look the same?  That’s not a good thing because then your image will look like everyone else they’ve photographed.  You want a photographer who can shoot in a variety of styles with a variety of lighting setups and make your images look even more unique with a variety of retouching and post production styles.  You want a photographer who won’t just feed you into their studio setup and churn you out like every other person they shoot.

If you look at my portfolio you will see a wide range of lighting, looks, emotions, and post production styles.  I do what’s best for my client’s personal style or company brand, not what is easiest for me to get people in and out of my studio with minimal setup or effort.

What Details To Consider

Once you’ve narrowed your business headshot photographer choices down, compare the work.  Look at the work side by side.  Look at little details you may not necessarily notice right away.  Look at the style, expressions, variety, and lighting.  Look at the retouching; does it look real?  Does it look natural?  Is it well done?  Do people’s skin look fake or waxy, teeth look too white, or do their eyes “pop” unnaturally?

I realize not everyone may notice the intricacies of lighting and image retouching, but once you know what bad lighting and bad retouching look like it’s hard to miss.  I see it all the time and cringe.  This is why I make sure my images are the best they can be starting with the lighting during the shoot all the way to the natural but detailed retouching on the images.

What Next

Once you’ve decided to get new professional headshots, it’s always helpful to provide the photographer with examples of work that resonates with you and fits the style you’re after. I always recommend my clients send me reference images from my website or from the web so I have a better idea of what they’re looking for.

But what if you don’t know what you’re looking for? That is very common with many people i work with and there is nothing wrong with that. I always work with my clients to help define a look and style that fits their company’s brand or personal identity. When you hire me to do your business headshots you don’t need to worry about having all the answers. I see my job as a collaboration between myself and my client to create an image that will fit their style and be unique for them rather than having a headshot that looks like every other headshot out there.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss how I can help you get a great new professional headshot feel free to contact me any time.