Why Retouch Your Business Headshot

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Your business headshot probably* won’t be hanging in an art gallery but it still has to get favourable reviews. When potential customers visit your web site, your business portrait should imply that you’re confident, competent, friendly and trustworthy.

* Many of the early painted portraits you see in art galleries were, in fact, the equivalent of today’s business portraits. Those paintings were portraits of royalty, aristocrats and other distinguished people. The purpose of those portraits was to assert status and power. Today’s business portraits try to assert a kind of status – that of being a trustworthy business person.

Congratulations, you finally got a new business headshot done. Good for you and good for your business.

But is the photo ready to be displayed on your web site?
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Getting Better All The Time

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New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi (L) argues with home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman in the eighth inning of their American League East MLB baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, 06 June 2010.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

When a photo job doesn’t work out the way you wanted, who do you blame?

If you blame your tools then the solution is to get better tools.

If you blame your customers then the solution is to get better customers.

But if the blame rests on you then the solution is to get better.
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Know When You Don’t Know

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A portrait of juggler John Doyle, circa 1902, by Canadian-born photographer Joseph Pasonault in his photo studio in Cando, North Dakota, (US Library of Congress). Another photo by Pasonault was used in a previous blog post.

True professionals may not know what they don’t know but at least they know that they don’t know.

You may have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect which affects almost everyone. It’s a cognitive bias where those with a low ability at a certain task are more likely to overestimate their ability at that task. But people with a high ability at a task know that they don’t know everything about that task and may underestimate their ability.
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Is Your Website Hurting Your Business?

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Ross Brothers Hardware (L) on Jasper Avenue at 98 Street in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, circa 1890 (Library and Archives Canada). The store was in operation until 1960 after which the hardware store and some of its neighbours were relocated to Fort Edmonton Park.

Today that downtown location of Jasper Avenue and (no longer existing) 98 Street is right across the street from the Edmonton Convention Centre which hosts all sorts of conventions and conferences.

What year is it, 2024? Web sites have been around for over 30 years. So why do some photographers not know how to make a decent web site?
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Retouching Business Groups

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Probably not the best pose for a group of businessmen, circa 1890s. (Charles Milton Bell / US Library of Congress)

Retouching Business Group Photos

A company last week sent me 22 group photos of its employees and asked for a retouching quote. The photos were shot by a professional photographer whose name was in the embedded Exif data. A quick look at this photographer’s web site showed that she specializes in actor headshots and fashion/entertainment events.
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Retouching Wedding Photos

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Textile conservators uncrate Lady Diana’s 1981 royal wedding gown in preparation for a celebration of her life in Toronto, 09 December 2003.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

A large portion of my photo retouching is fixing and polishing business headshots so the person looks their best. I’ve done some commercial retouching where the work was more technical than creative. For examples: placing images onto TV screens and computer displays, changing a company’s logo in its marketing photos, and adding drop shadows to various products. I also retouch photos of completed house renovations.
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Photo Retouching To Fix Bad Photography

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I just finished retouching another batch of business headshots. The customer appears to have hired a professional photographer. I say this only because the Exif data embedded in the photos showed that a pro camera and pro lens were used. But the headshots looked like they were shot by an amateur:

• The photos were shot with an off-camera hotshoe flash in a white umbrella. I know this because the catchlights in everyone’s eyes clearly showed the reflection of a small, rectangular flash, the ribs of an umbrell, and a light stand.

• It was painfully obvious that no posing advice was given to anyone. Nothing but slouchy, sloppy, awkward poses along with some poor facial expressions. None of this could be fixed with retouching.

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