The retouched photo still isn’t the best business headshot, but all the flaws are fixed and the photo is very presentable.
Business headshot photography has been part of my business for about 30 years. I’ve learned that some companies understand the purpose of business headshots and some don’t.
Business headshots are not for you or your company. The portraits are for your customers because the photos have to send a specific message to them. This message is created with a combination of literal hints (e.g. choice of clothing, grooming style) and implied hints (e.g. facial expression, body language). These hints can be emphasized with good photography technique.
Those who don’t understand the function of a business headshot often assume it’s just an expensive passport photo. But the only purpose of a passport photo is to show what you look like. A good business headshot shows who you are.
Business Portraits Build Trust
The purpose of business headshots is to build trust with potential customers. People do business only with those they trust.
You build trust by first humanizing your business. This is why you have business headshots. But this alone isn’t enough. The portraits must show that you’re friendly (i.e. have a smile), you’re approachable and trustworthy (i.e. eye contact with the camera), and you’re competent (i.e. nicely groomed with healthy skin). All of this has to be wrapped in high quality photography (i.e. good lighting and pose).
If something is wrong with your business portraits or they don’t function effectively, you might have the photos redone. But this may not always be possible. The other option is to use retouching to fix your portraits.
Retouching Rescues Bad Photos
Portrait retouching can remove blemishes and oily skin, minimize wrinkles and dark circles under the eyes, remove stray hairs, add hair to fill in small gaps, add highlights to hair, brighten eyes and teeth, add or move catchlights in the eyes, remove extra catchlights, make skin tones more even, and correct brightness, colour, contrast and sharpness.
Photo retouching can make you look better, which means you’ll appear more attractive, which means you’ll be more likeable, which means people are more likely to trust you. This is a built-in genetic response. When someone looks at us and smiles, it means they’re not a threat and we can trust them. If we trust them, we can approach them.
Take a look at your current business headshot. What is it saying about you?
If it’s not saying the right things then your portrait either needs to be replaced or it needs to be repaired with photo retouching.
More information on my photo retouching services.
