portraits

Best Face Forward

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The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) just published a rather silly study with the catchy title of “Perspective Distortion from Interpersonal Distance Is an Implicit Visual Cue for Social Judgments of Faces.”

This study claims to show that “the distance at which facial photos are taken influences perception.” The authors of the study even say they’ve broken new ground. (Every photographer is laughing at this.)

Here’s the CalTech press release and the study. Feel free to read them but the study just duplicates what every experienced photographer, model and actor have known for the past plus-90 years:

• If someone takes your picture with a short lens, the closer they stand to you when taking the picture, the more distorted, or unflattering, the picture will be. (This is well-known physics.)

• An unflattering portrait tends to create unfavourable opinions in people who view that portrait. (This is well-known human behaviour.)

This CalTech study certainly qualifies for a Captain Obvious award.
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Size Doesn’t Matter

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A potential customer asked why a business portrait would cost $500 when it’s only going to appear small on their website.

Up until the late 1990s, companies had no hesitation paying hundreds of dollars (or more) for a business portrait. Back then, the costs of publishing brochures, annual reports, and other print marketing materials were high, so a business portrait was just a small fraction of the overall expense.

Today, with every company having a website, the cost to publish has essentially become free. This zero-cost publishing has led some people to assume that photography should be equally inexpensive. The common question is: “Why should we pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for photos that cost nothing to publish?”
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Mirror, mirror on the wall

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When a corporate photographer arrives at an office to do business portraits, someone will always say, “I don’t like having my picture taken”, “I hope I don’t break your camera lens” or “I never like pictures of myself”.

The reasons for such comments include:

(1) They’ve never had a decent portrait made of themselves.

(2) They’re exhibiting lateralization of emotion.

(3) They’re very self-conscious or self-critical.

Let’s look at each of these three in more detail.

Better Photographer, Better Portraits

(1) This first issue can be easily solved by hiring an experienced portrait photographer and staying away from cheap, amateur-like photographers. You get what you pay for.

A good photographer can produce a portrait that the customer will like. If you know you’ll be getting a good result, you’ll look forward to the photo session.
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The Three-S Business Portrait

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There was a Toronto photographer who did “three-S” portraits. When someone arrived at her studio for a business portrait, which she hated doing, she would tell them to “sit down, shut-up and smile.” She would then proceed to photograph them as quickly as possible.

Most companies know that business portraits are important. When a business hires a corporate photographer to produce portraits of its key employees, these people should be warned that they will be asked to smile. This is not meant to be cruel and unusual punishment.

A smile need not be a big, toothy grin. But a friendly appearance is important and that comes not just from the mouth but also from the eyes.

By having the employees smile, the photographer is following proven science.

A recent study at Penn State University found that when you smile, you don’t only appear to be more likable and courteous, but you actually appear to be more competent.

– Ron Gutman CEO/founder of HealthTap

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A Thousand Words

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More proof about the importance and power of photography especially when it comes to corporate image, portraits and public relations:

Words are about information. Pictures are about emotion. Emotion equals power.

Print folks … like to believe that words matter still. But, mostly, they don’t.

The people who put together TV newscasts, as well as the best news photographers, have known this truism for a long time, but they’ve kept mostly quiet about it. Perhaps they don’t want to hurt the feelings of their colleagues, who still vainly cling to the belief that the written word can move hearts and minds. But the fact remains that for voters, for citizens, words don’t matter nearly as much as pictures do.

– from author Warren Kinsella

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Last-place Finish

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There’s been much criticism, the past few weeks, over some portraits of US Olympic athletes shot by an AFP photographer. Let’s just say these pictures won’t win any medals. 

The pictures can be seen here on the Getty Images site. Some of the pictures are okay but many are definite last-place finishers.

To be fair, these types of portrait sessions are usually done in an assembly-line fashion whether it’s Olympic athletes or players on a pro sports team. A number of photographers, all in the same room, will each set up their own mini-studio. The athletes will rotate from one mini-studio to the next, spending only a minute or two with each photographer.
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Business Portraits On Social Media

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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 LinkedIn pagse is the person’s profile photo. 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 résumés. 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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