If you’re thinking of getting into photography or already are and would be photographing corporate headshots for some office officials as they roll into the new year, it’d be nice to take the following points by Dan St Louis into perspective so you can avoid these mistakes and get the best headshots for your clients (and of course, start the year with a bang).
Mistake #1: Not scoping out the location beforehand
A quick five-minute trip by your client’s office can guarantee that you get access to the best conference room or office space for your headshots. If you don’t stop by, there’s always a risk that you won’t bring enough light blockers and/or will get stuck in a room that’s too small. It’s worth it, 100 percent of the time, to do a quick scoping visit beforehand. Your client will appreciate the extra effort.
Mistake #2: Not sending a reminder email to participants
Your job is not to be a “photographer” — it’s to deliver an end result. You need to be doing everything in your power to facilitate a successful outcome. That means getting a list of participants and emailing or texting them the day before and the day of your shoot. If you don’t put in this extra effort, some employees will undoubtedly show up unprepared.
Mistake #3: Not blocking light contamination
Offices are special places. Chances are, 90 percent of your client’s office locations won’t have beautiful, natural light to work with. As a result, you’ll need to bring studio lighting. However, the combination of studio lighting and fluorescent office lights can make for nasty, yellow-tinged headshots. It’s fort-building time. Creating a studio environment when you don’t have access to a windowless room.
In every studio on-site delivered, I bring a gym bag full of old mobile backdrops. When in a pinch, I’ll throw these bad boys on the windows to control light contamination. A little bit of ambient light is OK, but nothing should be directly hitting the side of your subject’s face.
When in doubt, you can also turn off all lights and push your setup into the corner of the office.
Mistake #4: Not using a grey card / white balance issues
Similar to what we discussed in Mistake #3, every office is different and requires resetting your white balance for ambient light. While shooting in RAW will allow you to adjust the white balance at your computer later, getting natural skin tones while “eye balling” color balance is both a waste of time and likely inaccurate.
In my experience, it is extremely difficult to individually nail the white balance after you’ve been sitting at your computer editing for 4 hours straight. Your eyes lose the ability to judge colors effectively.
Your clients will absolutely notice the difference.
Mistake #5: Not coaching the subjects
Every single participant needs to receive a brief 30-second training on how to get the most out of their headshots. They need clear instructions on how the session will play out, and an explanation of some keys to success. Your photography may be perfect, but if the participant feels uncomfortable, the photos will suck.
A little coaching can go a long way to making subjects comfortable with your process.
Mistake #6: Too few photos of each subject
Too many photographers embrace the “shut up, sit down, smile, get out” headshot-factory style process, which includes three to five photos. These types of experiences are usually delivered by photographers who are under a crunch from clients who want to get a massive amount of headshots taken during a short time.
While it’s tempting to cave to a client’s original request (particularly if they’re considering other vendors at different price points), you have a duty to properly inform clients that you’ll need several photos of each employee in order to get them something the employee will like. I wouldn’t take less than 20 photos of each employee.
At a bare minimum, make sure every participant gets a couple photos from either side of their face. If they wear glasses, let them do some with and some without.
Mistake #7: Not retouching every headshot individually
Yellow teeth, acne, and stray hairs stick out like sore thumbs. Perfect professional headshots can be ruined with batch editing that doesn’t take care of teeth, hair and acne. Even if the client doesn’t want to pay for airbrushing, I’d still offer this service for free.
You don’t want your brand associated with any bad photos, ever. Period.
That’s a wrap! If you fix these top seven mistakes mistakes when taking office headshots, you’ll be way ahead of 90% of other photographers. If you have any questions or just want general advice, feel free to email me at dan@headshots-inc.com.
About the author: The Tips above were compiled by Dan St Louis, owner and head photographer at HeadShots Inc, a San Francisco-based photo studio focused exclusively on professional headshots for individuals and companies. You can connect with him here
