I’ve been getting more and more people requesting corporate headshots and portraits for their company’s management team.
Even small business owners understand the need for good portraits - especially people who are building a business around their personal brand. Good photos help your current and potential clients connect with you.
Ask yourself…
Do your photos help you build relationships and establish trust with your target customers?
I also have been getting requests from entertainment industry folks (actors, singers, personalities, etc) for portraits that they can use for submitting to different types of castings, for their websites, and for their social media usage.
Here in Los Angeles, there are sooo many newbies with entry level cameras claiming they can take your headshots for a bargain price, smart people realize that not all headshot/portrait photographers are equal.
Ask yourself…
What do you want your personal brand to look like?
It’s kind of like comparing a frozen/microwavable White Castle burger to a fresh Wagyu Beef Burger from a high end steakhouse. There are many options out there, so you must think about what end result you want to achieve from your portraits, and then reverse engineer things so you can pick a photographer. (Let’s face it. Some people actually like frozen burgers from the microwave.)
These are all great things to think about, but let’s be honest. You don’t necessarily need to spend $3000 on a professional photoshoot to get the results you need. You can spend a fraction of that and still come up with pretty good results. For those without a huge budget to get really good imagery, good enough might suffice and achieve the desired results just fine until they get themselves to the next level.
It just depends on how you see your brand.
Not everyone needs to be Ferrari or Aston Martin. There’s nothing wrong with being Toyota.
It just depends on your vision and your needs!
Studio Lighting vs Natural Light
Do you want headshots using studio lighting (or location lighting)? Or do you want headshots that simply use natural light? There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s all a matter of preference.
However, skillful usage of lighting makes the subject of the photo (you) pop off the page (or screen), and that’s exactly what you want if you’re trying to stand out and grab attention of a person who’s looking through thousands of headshots a day, or scrolling through tons of photos on a social media feed.