The business side of photography
Imperfections and distractions in family photos aren’t often a big deal and can be easily overlooked. But if a picture is going to be printed large and hung on a wall then you might consider photo retouching to fix any technical errors, remove blemishes and enhance the image to look its best.
This is another view-from-my-office photo.
Would you pay $1,000 for a business headshot?
The Wall Street Journal published an article about the value of professionally done business headshots for people seeking a career boost. (This alternative link doesn’t have the photos included in the original article but that’s actually a good thing. The glaring irony of the original article about the value of headshots is that the headshot examples are rather plain or poorly done.)
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.
You can see an adjustable reflector on the left edge of the picture. The darker fabric was lowered or raised in front of the white reflector to control whether light was reflected full length or just on the upper body of the subject.
It may have been lucky that William Notman was born the same time photography was born.
(My last post reminiscing about old pictures.)
One of the many good things about working for a newspaper was the variety of assignments. Each day brought different photography work and each day you met new people.
A few examples:
• I shot an Aerosmith concert on January 6, 1990. That was followed by two hours of standing in January winter weather photographing a late-night fire at the Polish consulate in Toronto.
• On June 24, 1996, I photographed a story about a group of homeless people. My next assignment was at one of Toronto’s most expensive hotels where an International Olympic Committee executive was being feted.
• I photographed Stephen Hawking at the University of Toronto on April 27, 1998. After this, I shot a rock concert by the Deftones.
• My assignments on October 29, 1999, were to photograph the Prime Minister of Hungary and then photograph a real witch (no joke) for a Halloween story.
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There are a few reasons why a photographer will shoot or crop a portrait very tightly:
1) Cut off distractions in the foreground or background. Sometimes the subject themselves might be wearing a distraction like text or logos on clothing, a shirt with an ugly colour or loud pattern, etc.
2) Dramatic effect. A tightly composed portrait emphasizes the person’s eyes and facial expression. An otherwise routine portrait can be made more attention-getting by cropping tightly.
3) Graphic effect. A tightly composed portrait can sometimes produce interesting lines or shape.
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