The colour of business portraits

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Are you superstitious?

What happens if a black cat crosses your path? Does the colour red lead to good fortune? Will wearing green bring unhappiness? Does white cause bad luck?

Have you ever turned green with envy, felt blue with sadness, become red with anger or turned yellow and ran away? Why is a red car sporty, a black car elegant and a yellow car fun? Would you prefer medicine pills that are green or pink? Does yellow taste sweet or sour? Does blue feel hot or cold?

Every colour seems to have symbolic meanings and these can vary from one culture to another. But are these meanings based on superstitions and stereotypes?
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Still Life and Portraits

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Still life photography is making pictures of inanimate subjects. Portrait photography is the opposite; it’s about making pictures of animated subjects. Yet the photo techniques of the two are the same.

What separates still life photography from portrait photography is that the former is still while the latter should have (e)motion.

A still life is about the photograph but a portrait is about the subject.

In a still life, the photographer is visibly important. But in a portrait, the photographer should be invisible.

It took me a long time to understand this.

 

If it sounds too cheap

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A Toronto-based mining company just found out that if it sounds cheap, it probably isn’t a bargain.

In February this year, a mining company requested a quote for business headshots of six executives for its new web site. I quoted about $1500 which might be average for a job like this. The company replied that it had “decided to go in another direction.”

A few days ago, the same company e-mailed to ask if my February quote was still good.

Before replying, I went to the company’s web site and saw six business portraits. The photos’ EXIF data revealed that these were shot by another Toronto photographer in late February, about two weeks after my quote was turned down.
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The Death of Customer Relationships

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Most larger companies outsource their customer service to the Internet. Got a question or problem? Use the online user forum, online help pages, online chat or search the company web site and hope you find something. The customer is pretty much forced to self-serve, self-diagnose and self-fix their problem.

This reliance on the Internet allows companies to cut costs. But outsourcing to the lowest bidder, in this case the Internet, pushes customers away. It kills personal interaction and eliminates customer relationships.

No customer relationship => no customer loyalty => no business.

Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.

– Jeffrey Gitomer

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Photographer or psychologist

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A portrait photographer’s primary job is to make their subject feel good about themselves. Sure, you also have to do flattering photos. But if the subject doesn’t feel confident about themselves, they won’t like the photo results.

Why wouldn’t they like the finished pictures? They might think their nose is too big, their jaw is crooked, their eyes uneven, their hair not right, their smile not good enough, or any of a hundred other things.

People don’t see themselves the same way as other people do. This is partly due to lateralization of emotion: a photograph shows the real us and not the reversed mirror reflection that we’re used to.

It’s also due to expectation and hope. We expect to look as young as we feel. We hope to look like a movie star. We expect to look better than average. We hope no one can see our flaws.
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Original photography for social media

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Recently I produced a number of photos for a sporting goods retailer to use on its social media channels. The company doesn’t do too much hard selling on social media. Instead it offers fitness tips and tries to motivate people to exercise more.

This retail chain uses a lot of original photography and video to get its message across. And that message is that the retailer cares about its customers’ fitness and well being.

Some companies make the mistake of using social media for advertising. But for long-term gain, you should be showing customers that there’s more to you than just selling product.

Help your customers use and enjoy your products. Cheer on your customers. Otherwise you’re just another store.

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Placebo Photos

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Most companies want to use custom photography because they know the importance of being authentic. But instead of following through, they’ll use cheap stock pictures since they think these photos are just as good.

We like to believe in our decisions. We want to think that we make smart choices. So we always try to justify the decisions we make. If you use cheap photos for your company’s marketing, you might think:

“At least we have pictures on our web site!”

“Other companies use cheap stock pictures so they must work.”

“We saved a ton of money by using cheap stock pictures, so we made a good choice.”

A cheap stock picture is just a placebo. A sugar pill. It’s a substitute for the real thing. Placebo photos only provide a psychological benefit to you. They do absolutely nothing for your customers.
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