The business of photography and retouching
It takes us only a moment to form our first opinion of someone. This first impression will tell us whether that person might be friendly, smart, honest, kind, trustworthy … or not.
Judging a person by their appearance may not always be the best thing to do but it’s something that we’ve been trained to do by our parents and many thousands of years of evolution.
Pop quiz: which of the following people would you trust enough to do business with:
What price would you put on a headshot of yourself – $50? $100? $150?
What’s the value of a business marketing tool that you can use for several years on your business cards, web site, blog, marketing collateral, social networking profiles, e-mail signature, press releases, newsletters and media handouts – $200? $300?
What’s the value of something that will catch the attention of customers, build trust, increase your credibility, make you look important and more competent, and enhance the perceived value of your business – $400? $500? $600?
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Want more proof that business portraits are important?
A 2012 eye-tracking study showed that the number-one thing viewers look at on LinkedIn pages is the person’s profile photo. There’s no reason why this behaviour might be any different on other networking sites.
This study [link to PDF] (Edit 2018: The original 2012 study has been updated and no longer includes profile photos), examined how professional job recruiters viewed online resumés.
The first thing recruiters always noticed was the profile portrait and it held their attention for about 19% of the total time spent on page.
This can be bad news or good news.
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When licensing pictures, commercial photographers must remember that there’s no such thing as “web use.” The Web is a medium, not a use. Photos used online can be editorial, advertising or anything in-between.
Many business clients use photos not only on their web site but also on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. A photographer has to decide whether such use is no longer editorial or public relations but rather a form of advertising. The common definition that only a “paid placement” is advertising may no longer apply.
For a corporate client, its own web site is usually considered marketing collateral and not advertising. All advertising is marketing but not all marketing is advertising.
But for a client such as a retailer, is its web site a form of advertising? What about that company’s Facebook or Twitter account?
Perhaps every use on the Web should be priced higher than similar use in print. This is not just for the larger and longer-lasting “circulation” of a web site but also for the increased shift towards advertising use.
Most companies use photography on their web sites, social media, corporate blogs, printed brochures and marketing materials, in-house publications, trade show displays, and probably in several other ways. As such, it’s important that companies have a policy regarding the handling and storage of these photographs.
• By law, almost every picture is copyrighted. Permission to reproduce such photos needs to be in writing. Does a business have written permission for every picture it uses? Where are these written permissions kept?
• Professional photography is licensed for use and rarely, if ever, sold outright. Where does a company keep copies of these licenses and how are they tracked?
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.
The most popular web site in the world is, of course, Facebook. The site with the lowest customer satisfaction rating is . . . Facebook.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index just released its 2011 survey results for customer satisfaction of social media web sites. For the second year, Facebook is in last place. Since Facebook has almost no competition (yet), it has no incentive to be good.
But considering Facebook’s low user satisfaction, its current size dominance cannot be taken for granted in the future. For companies that provide low levels of customer satisfaction, repeat business is always a challenge unless customers lack adequate choices, as in the case of near monopolies. It is possible that Facebook’s gigantic user base in and of itself might provide a certain monopoly protection.
Since a photographer doesn’t usually have a monopoly on photography services in their area, the photographer has no choice but to provide good customer service. This is more important than producing super artistic photography.
Customer service isn’t just about promptly returning phone calls and delivering the pictures on time.
Good customer service includes such things as: understanding the customer’s photography needs, foreseeing and then addressing any potential problems before they become problems, making sure the delivered photographs meet the proper specifications for the required use, suggesting alternative ideas for the photography, and knowing how to properly use all your tools (camera, computer, software).
If customers are not satisfied then the photographer hasn’t done their job. Delivering only pictures isn’t enough.
