If you’re a new photographer who does business headshots and other corporate portraits, may I offer some brief advice? I just spent an hour looking at a few dozen Toronto law firm web sites and most of them had poor quality business portraits.
Individual Business Portraits
(Several of the the links below go to stock picture sites. These sites are filled with exactly what NOT to do for corporate photography. Yes, stock photo sites do have some really good images but there are also many horrible photos.)
• Never use the hands-in-front-of-crotch pose for men or women. This just looks silly. It’s what soccer players do when they line up against a free kick.
• Don’t use the hands-together-on-desk pose like they’re a student. The subject will look childish and passive.
• Don’t use hand-on-chin or chin-resting-on-hand. These make the person look hesitant and indecisive.
• Minimize the use of the arms-across-chest pose. This pose sometimes can’t be avoided but don’t use it for an entire office of people because it will look very odd. Plus, if the arms aren’t crossed correctly, and many people get it wrong, the person will look awkward or defensive.
• Rarely should a person be posed sitting behind a desk. You’re not photographing the furniture, you’re photographing the person. A desk is a barrier between subject and viewer. But posed in front of a desk means the person is “out in front” and ready to take charge.
• A businesswoman in a skirt or dress should never be posed sitting on a desk. In fact, no one should be sitting on a desk. It looks childish.
• It’s no longer the 1980s so don’t pose someone as if they’re talking on a phone or typing on a keyboard.
• Be careful about including paintings or other artwork in your portraits. It can be a copyright infringement if the artwork isn’t entirely incidental to your picture. And in a controlled portrait, very little is incidental.
• Your subject should look competent, confident and trustworthy, not arrogant, defiant or mean.
• Some people, like high-ranking executives, should not be photographed with toothy smiles. A big smile suggests the person is seeking approval. A closed-mouth smile is more assertive.
• It’s tough to do portraits of many people from the same office and not have all those pictures look repetitive. If you photograph each person standing in front of the same window or leaning on the same wall, the pictures will look repetitive. But if you shoot each person in front of the same photo background, it won’t be noticeable. Detailed backgrounds draw the eye, plain backgrounds don’t.
• If you photograph a number of people from the same company and each portrait is very different (e.g. very different lighting, pose, etc.), then you will have inconsistent portraits. This will be very noticeable and jarring to the viewer if the images are published on the same page.
Inconsistent portraits look sloppy, send mixed messages and make the company look unorganized.
But sometimes you may have to do different portraits. In this case, you should strive for portraits that have a uniform style.
Group Portraits
Groups portraits are always tough and it gets more difficult as the group gets bigger. For really large groups, the main problem is finding a suitable location. Pre-plan and pre-scout and good luck.
• For larger group portraits, bring a step ladder even for a photo inside an office (i.e. never stand on their chairs or desks). Hotels, convention halls, warehouses and factories often have large ladders you might borrow but check first. Tall ladders always require safety precautions on your part.
• Lighting a large group is about spreading light far and wide. You don’t need artistic light, you need even light. Very large (silver) umbrellas feathered across/over the group work well.
• If a large group is to be photographed indoors against a plain background, you might consider photographing them in small groups and then compositing the images together. If you enjoy a challenge, large outdoor group portraits might be shot as a multi-image panorama.
• Smaller group portraits look better when each person is posed slightly differently. Pose each person separately and give each person something to do with their arms and hands. Don’t just tell them to “stand over there and look this way.”
• A portrait of a smaller group may require head or face swaps so that everyone has a good expression. This isn’t really necessary for large groups where each face is very small in the image.
• For full-length group shots with some people sitting, be aware of how people’s clothes look when they sit. Hemlines ride up and suit jackets bunch up. If you use soft chairs or sofas, make sure no one sinks too far into the cushions. Sofas almost always look bad in corporate portraits because there’s no elegant way for several people to scrunch together. Seated people may need to have their knees posed properly.
• Every photographer hates doing a group shot that looks like a sports team photo with everyone lined up in rows. But sometimes it can’t be avoided. Make the picture and move on.
