portraits

It’s the photographer not the price

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If you’re about to hire a photographer then remember that you get what you pay for. Low price always gets you low quality.

Business headshots never cost anywhere near $15 each no matter what the volume. Expect *at least* quadruple that amount for a high volume shoot with minimal editing.

When you hire a photographer, you’re paying partly for the photography and partly for the photographer. The experience and quality of the photographer directly affects the success of the photos. Pictures do not create themselves nor do cameras create pictures.

If one professional is saying they will do the work for $100 per hour and another is quoting you $200 per hour, your instinct shouldn’t immediately jump to the one offering the lowest price.

As an example, maybe the higher-priced solution has the learnings from a 20 year career vs. a 5 year career, to help you avoid more known pitfalls that you don’t even see coming. Or, they have helped 20 clients succeed in similar situations, vs. 2 clients succeed . . .

– George Deeb, Forbes

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Campaigning for Attention

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Ontario has a provincial election in two weeks. But this election seems to have far fewer lawn signs and billboards than in the past. Many (most?) campaign signs don’t have a picture of the candidate.

Perhaps having fewer campaign posters is a result of cost-cutting. Fewer lawn signs and billboards but a lot more robocalls. Or maybe candidates are relying more on social media.

Why don’t all candidates use a business portrait of themselves? Is this also because of cost? A sign with a colour photo requires four-colour printing but a plain lawn sign is usually just a single spot colour. Or maybe people don’t vote for a candidate but rather they vote for a political party so a business headshot might seem unnecessary.

But not using a candidate headshot is an odd place to cut costs. Many studies over the past 35 years have proven that a good headshot will earn more votes. The lack of a business headshot also greatly reduces the amount of attention a candidate (and their lawns signs) will get.
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Composition Wise and Whys

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There are many online photography tutorials offering technical tips and advice. Much of this information is simplistic and superficial.

For example, when doing a portrait, they’ll tell you not to have harsh shadows on the subject’s face. The problem with information like this is that it isn’t scalable. It’s more beneficial to have information that you can use in any type of photography no matter what your subject matter.

Why do people look at pictures and how do they look at pictures? If you can answer these two questions then you can scale this information across any type of photography.

This post is long but the concepts are simple. Spoiler alert: this isn’t really about photography but rather it’s about human nature and how we perceive things around us.
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Selfie Science

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A scientific study released a few days ago confirmed what every portrait photographer has known forever:

If you take a picture of someone from very close up, it will distort their facial features.

Sadly this fact is not well known by people who take selfies which apparently is the number one cause of distorted faces. Some of these folks are going to plastic surgeons and requesting surgery to correct their distorted facial appearance.

Boris Paskhover, an assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Department of Otolaryngology who specializes in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, frequently was shown selfies as examples of why patients were requesting surgery to make their noses smaller.

Researchers have named this horrible disfiguring issue as . . . wait for it . . . “The Selfie Effect.”

Dr. Boris Paskhover worked with the computer science department at Stanford University to develop a mathematic model to explain why noses look bigger when photographed close up.

Their mathematic model determined that most selfies are shot from a distances of about 12 inches which makes a nose look 30% wider. But, and here’s modern science in action, if a photo is shot from at least five feet away then the nose will look normal.

The researchers concluded that selfies are a public health issue. So please, for the sake of your health, hire a professional portrait photographer especially for your business headshots and other important portraits. Your nose will thank you.

 

Get a Head of Yourself

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What’s the number one way to boost your professional presence?

Get a good business headshot.

This proven piece of advice was recently repeated in The Globe and Mail’s career advice section:

Chris Brown, director of talent solutions for LinkedIn Canada, says numbers prove the value of tidy headshots – profiles with images get 20 times more views. Conversely, profile photos with distant shots, cartoon avatars, and photos with pets may decimate your chances of attracting a potential employer.

The same has been said about the business headshots on a company’s About Us or Contact Us page.

How do you choose a good business portrait photographer? Look at the photographer’s own portrait. If their business headshot is missing or is poorly done then you immediately know that’s the wrong photographer. You need a photographer who understands the importance of a business portrait.

 

Visualizing A Better Story

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A potential customer asked for “action pictures” of their employees. What do the employees do at this financial company? They sit all day long and tap away at their computers.

Five weeks ago, I photographed at an office which was an entire floor of employees quietly typing inside beige cubicles. I was also recently at a healthcare company’s warehouse-sized call centre that was wall-to-wall cubicles of employees talking on telephones while they typed on computer keyboards.

Even at a tech company’s office, which is well-known for its fun decor and in-office perks, the employees sat quietly at tables tapping away at their laptops. (This tech company office had no landline phones except for the receptionist. When I stood in this office, the only sound I heard was that plastic clicky sound from keyboards.)

So where’s all the action?
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