portraits

Fix your profile

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Business portrait, executive portrait, headshot, social media portrait or profile picture. No matter what you call it, a picture of yourself is important for your business. Really.

For social media, the most important picture is the author’s own portrait. For businesses, both small and large, having online portraits of key employees is very important. Really.

People trust what (and who) they can see more than what (and who) they can’t. A profile without a photo is like a day without sunshine. (Okay, I made up that last bit but hopefully you get my point).

From an Inc. Magazine article titled Fix Your Profile Picture:

Your profile picture is about branding you and the business you own. Are you handling it that way?

(. . .)

Invest the money in a professional photographer. Profile pictures are a booming sideline for many professional photographers. Hire one. It should cost about $200 depending on where you live and what you need specificially [sic].

(. . .)

Update your picture every couple of years.

 

Enhancing corporate image

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While browsing through the corporate site of Canada’s largest newspaper chain, a few things stood out:

• The corporate site uses free WordPress blog software. On one hand, this makes the site look very current and easy to read. But at the same time, it screams “we’re using a free WordPress blog” because it looks exactly like a, uh, WordPress blog. (Or maybe that’s the point?)

• The site has no pictures of its directors, just text.

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What’s in your photo closet?

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The start of a new year is a good time for a company to re-evaluate its existing business photography and consider updating the pictures. Just as every school has a “picture day” at the beginning of each new school year, a business would be smart to do the same at the start of each new year.

Like a loaf of bread, business headshots go stale after their “best before” date. While we may like to use a 12-year-old portrait from when we had fewer wrinkles and less grey hairs, the shelf life of a business portrait is, perhaps, about two years. There’s a reason why most annual reports require new executive portraits each and every year. Maybe it’s time to show your customers that your president now has a tie made this century?
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Annual Report Mistake

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Earlier this year, the director of communications of a Toronto corporation requested a photo quote for a dozen business portraits for its upcoming annual report. The organization needed a portrait of its CEO and each board member. I sent a quote for the photography but never got the job.
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Dressing for the part

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Let’s say you’re at a conference. Some people are wearing business formal, others are in business casual, some are dressed in jeans and t-shirt, and a few are in beachwear. Which people do you notice?

Certainly, the folks in beachwear will stand out but probably for all the wrong reasons. People dressed in jeans and t-shirt will always look sloppy next to those in business attire. Business casual never looks out-of-place and is always appreciated. Business formal, which might seem overdoing it, is always admired and respected.
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Portraits that mean business

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Q: What’s the difference between an Executive Portrait and a Business Portrait?

A: About $500.   (It’s an old joke but sometimes it’s true. Read on.)

Business Portrait:

This is usually a head-and-shoulders photo against a plain background. Eye contact with the camera is important and a bit of a smile never hurts. A plain background, while not absolutely necessary, won’t distract the viewer. It’s also easy for any other photographer to duplicate a plain background in any future business portraits of other employees, should the need arise.

This type of portrait should never look like a passport picture, a driver’s license photo or a family snapshot. On the other hand, depending on the company, a business portrait doesn’t have to be a serious suit-and-tie picture.
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Photo license is common sense

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Got a phone call from a business, here in Toronto, looking to hire a photographer. The caller said that they’ve never hired a photographer before and admitted they weren’t sure “how it works.”

The company wanted executive portraits for its web site. Business portraits are the most common request that a corporate photographer gets. There are many uses for such pictures and smart businesses like to update their photos every couple of years or so.

I suggested the best way to do the photography, how the pictures could be delivered and then gave an approximate cost for the required usage. That last bit, about the price depending on the usage, caught the caller by surprise.

Aha! Licensing.

 

Here’s the deal about licensing:

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