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.

 

What’s in Your Photo Closet?

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The start of a new year is an ideal time for a company to re-evaluate its business photography and consider updating its images. Just as schools have a “picture day” at the beginning of each new year, businesses should do the same.

Like a loaf of bread, business headshots can go stale after a while. While you might be tempted to keep using that 12-year-old portrait from when you had fewer wrinkles, the shelf life of a business photo is typically about two years. There’s a reason most annual reports require fresh executive portraits each year. Perhaps it’s time to show your customers that your president owns a tie that’s not from the last 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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You’re at a business conference. People are dressed in a variety of ways—some in business formal, others in business casual, some in jeans and t-shirts, and a few in beachwear. Which group catches your attention?

The people in beachwear will certainly stand out, but probably for all the wrong reasons. Those dressed in jeans and t-shirts will appear sloppy next to those in business attire. Business casual always looks appropriate and is universally appreciated. Business formal may seem a bit over the top, but it commands respect and admiration.
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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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