I’ve spent years honing the way I shoot headshots, and now have a straightforward approach that works for most businesses and almost all locations. It’s a simple and replicable formula that I’ve created, that doesn’t take long to set up, works to show off people at their best and provides crisp, clean photos. Some good examples are on this page.
A good headshot looks simple, but like all things that are minimal in construction, every element needs to be spot on. And that takes a lot of hard work to get right. There are no written rules for headshots, but over the years I’ve figured out a set of guidelnes that I tend to follow for best effect; to keep the emphasis on the face; creating a great expression; maintaining great eye contact; not cluttering the frame with distractions; getting the subject to subtly pose their body into the frame. Around 75% of my business portraits follow this formula.
Sometimes, however, people want something a little different; and my job as a photographer is to create what clients want, not to impose my own vision. A case in point are this series of profile pictures for a local law firm, Jefferies Solicitors. The marketing department wanted images where the staff were looking past the camera, out of shot, not directly into the lens. That suited their in-house style; and I wanted my photos to fit in with what they already have online and complement it. While I presented both colour and black and white versions of the photos, I’ve just shown the monochrome versions here. There’s something I rather like about the combination of black and white and looking off-camera – it reminds me of the style of the screen portraits of the stars of the Hollywood era of the 30s and 40s. Perhaps it’s something I might develop further as it’s a look that would suit some brand styles well.
What’s interesting is to see how such a little change makes a big difference to the final image.
Until next time ….
