The business side of photography
Photo retouching of business portraits isn’t just about the person’s face. Retouching can also fix clothing mishaps such as a crooked tie, a loose collar, wrinkled clothing, a missing button, an open zipper, a twisted pocket flap, etc.
Clothing mishaps aren’t a big deal in personal photos but they shouldn’t be ignored in a business headshot. If it looks like the person doesn’t care about their appearance, then how much do they care about their job?
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If your business photos don’t function properly, retouching might be able to fix them. Otherwise you’ll have to replace them with better quality images.
Business headshot photography has been part of my business for about 30 years. Over the years, I’ve learned that some companies understand the function of business headshots and some don’t.
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This is another view-from-my-office photo.
Yesterday I was exchanging e-mails with a photographer who shot a commercial job two months ago. The photography has been completed, the photos have been delivered, and the customer has paid. Two months ago. His customer is using the photos in transit ads. The photographer asked if he should now charge more for this usage.
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There have been only three times when I had difficulty getting paid. All were in the mid-1980s when I was just starting out:
1) My first corporate customer was a very small pharmaceutical company. The company wanted the photos shot on transparency film because the images were for a slide presentation. I asked if they also wanted prints. No, they did not want prints, only slides. The job was done and the slides were delivered. The customer refused to pay because I did not deliver prints.
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How long should you save image files after they’ve been delivered to the customer?
A photographer should inform customers about their photo archiving policy. How long will you keep the photos? Can a customer depend on you, for years to come, to redeliver the photos? If you promise to archive photos but you lose them, can a customer sue you?
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This is another view-from-my-office photo.
Right now, most Canadian photographers will be doing their annual income tax. Some business expenses are not deducted in full but instead they are depreciated over time. Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) is used to depreciate the value of photo equipment, computers, and other business purchases that have continuing value.
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Many professional photographers know how to achieve results like this and it isn’t difficult. If your business headshot with eyeglasses doesn’t look like this then your photographer failed.
A company this week asked to have its business headshots retouched. The photos were shot by a cheap photographer.
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