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Business portraits on social network sites

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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 a LinkedIn page is the person’s profile photo. And there’s no reason why this behaviour might be any different on other social networking sites.

This study [link to PDF], produced by a LinkedIn competitor, 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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What’s for dinner?

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Over the past three weeks, I received four inquiries for corporate or commercial photography services.

One request was: “We need a photographer for a conference in Toronto. We don’t have all the details yet but we need your price asap.”

The second: “We are a construction company and we’re looking to have professional photographs taken of an upcoming project. Could you please provide a basic outline of your pricing and what it includes.”

The third: “We’re looking for a photographer for tomorrow from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM. What do you charge?”

The fourth request, to cover a corporate event, included only the date, time and location. When I phoned to ask for more information, the public relations person said she couldn’t give out any details, she didn’t know what pictures they wanted and she didn’t know how the pictures were going to be used. But she needed a quote as soon as possible.
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Photography Fees Explained

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When estimating and pricing photography, commercial photographers base their price on the combination of a creative fee (also called a photography fee) and a licensing fee (also called a usage fee). Some photographers will list these two fees separately while others will combine the two into one number.

The creative or photography fee depends on the complexity of the assignment, the time involved, the photographer’s talent and experience, and the photographer’s business overhead.

The licensing or usage fee depends on how the client intends to use the finished photography.
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Importance of Business Portraits

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A company logo is very important to a business since it represents that business. Similarly a business portrait acts like a logo for that person. So why do some people use holiday snapshots or other amateur pictures for their business portrait?

An article written by personal branding expert Daniel Schawbel talks about the importance of having professionally produced portraits:

…get the best possible photo of yourself. For if logos are quintessential to commercial brands, photos are quintessential to personal ones. … pictures – when they display a lucky blend of originality, quality, artistic merit and manage to capture the essence of what you stand for – send a powerful message about you and your brand that colors the perception other parties will have of you across the board. Underestimate the importance of a portrait picture at your own peril.

…today even home-made pictures can have astounding quality and do the job for us – at least temporarily. If you ask me, however, I would never recommend trusting such a crucial piece of your personal brand to luck and my advice has consistently been to always engage the services of a professional photographer…

Here’s another article on the importance of business portraits.

 

What’s in a name?

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The Associated Press (AP) is launching its new entertainment picture agency. 

Just what the world needs, another picture agency cranking out more of the same, commodity, entertainment photos and producing even more celebrity worship. (Yes, I sometimes shoot the same entertainment pictures and I plead guilty as charged.)

The advantage of taking pictures of the famous is that they get published.

– US Photographer Elliott Erwitt

But that’s not the fun part.

AP is using the name “Invision Agency”.

Dictionaries define invision as: want of vision, without the power of seeing, lack of vision. It’s also a synonym for blindness. The word invision is related to the word invisible but it’s obsolete in the English language.

Did AP really mean to use the word envision?

 

Some information about knowledge

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A company recently hired a Toronto corporate photographer to do an executive portrait of its president.

While watching the photographer set up his camera equipment, the company’s communications manager asked, “Did you know that the sensor in your digital camera is just like a solar panel? Both convert light into electricity.”

The photographer answered, “That’s interesting information.”

As the photographer positioned his lights and made a few test flashes, the manager said, “The xenon gas in your flashes is also used in laser eye surgery.”

The photographer replied, “That’s interesting information.”
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Monkey Business

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When a car has a leaky tire, the problem is obvious and the solution is simple. The car owner could shop price to find the cheapest, reasonably competent “grease monkey” to make the repair. (Grease monkey is an uncomplimentary term for a low-end car mechanic.)
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