Portrait Photography Archives

Retouching Corporate Headshots

14th September 2018/in Corporate Headshots, Corporate Photographer London, corporate portrait photography, photography post production, Portrait Photography /by Editor

The pros and cons of retouching corporate headshots and portraits.

Since the arrival of quality software to enable digital photography manipulation we have seen some remarkable examples of what can be achieved and also where it can go very wrong. I believe the main reason there is such a wide range of differing standards with photo retouching is that editors, designers and photographers have varied opinions as to when to stop working on an image. This also applies to clients as they sometimes have a different idea as to how much retouching you should do to their corporate headshots.

In the past we have had clients ask us to do more and more retouching to headshot commissions and we have always tried to explain that less is more and that you should never be able to see where the retouching has been done as that defeats the object. I liken it to the fact their is nothing funny in male baldness but their is a funny aspect to males attempts to cover it up. So our stance is that the viewer should never be able to see where we have retouched the headshot because if they can we have failed as the headshot then has the viewer looking at the retouching rather than the original purpose which was to convey the professionalism of the business person.

A common mistake when working on retouching a headshot is to not keep a reference as to the original and keep comparing as you do the retouching. The original is the starting point and therefore this should be referred back to through the process. Sometimes retouchers only refer back to the last version and the danger here is that if you are submitting it to the client and you are adding/detracting stuff each time the headshot is moving further away from the original and rendering the headshot unrealistic.

You have to take each headshot on the work required and in general we tend to removes spots/skin blemishes and scars. We are very careful to only reduce wrinkles and bags under eyes as these are part of the natural ageing process and a corporate headshot of a person in their 40s or 50s without any skin of their skin ageing can look very odd and therefore unrealistic.

Clients often ask about make-up artists and we tend to suggest that subtle retouching is preferred as it can produce better results than heavy make up especially on men who feel uncomfortable with unfamiliar make-up. We also get asked about airbrushing which pre digital photography was blowing a fine mist of paint over a printed headshot which masked any original skin defects. This process can be replicated digitally but as with the original process you have to be very careful not to overdo it and not allow the vanity of some people to encourage a retoucher to do more than they normally would.

Below are some samples of three retouched corporate headshots that we feel have worked extremely well. The do not look like they have been retouched at all and you could only spot the retouching if you had the original headshots to compare.

Light photo retouching on corporate headshots and business portraits in London

Currently we are including free retouching with all our corporate headshots commissions. We usually request that after the shoot the client selects between 2 to 4 headshots with varied expressions so we can retouch and spend quality time working on the headshots you will use for your online LinkedIn profile photo and traditional marketing requirements.

The difference between corporate headshots and corporate portrait photography.

7th June 2018/in Corporate Photographer London, corporate photography tips, corporate portrait photography, LinkedIn Photographer, LinkedIn Profile Photo, Portrait Photography /by Editor

I have been a corporate portrait photographer for longer than I care to remember and have noticed that over recent years we are receiving less commissions for corporate portraits and more for corporate headshots. The majority of clients require a profile photo on a white background and often their request asks for something simple and without too many studio lights. This gives us very little to work with as they are basically wanting a passport photo but taken on a decent camera. This seems a real shame as a decent corporate portrait can portray your personality and suggest success and professionalism.

The term headshot originated in the US and was originally associated with actors. These were sometimes very creative shots that used lighting and background to create powerful portraits. Early website pages with ‘meet the team’ headshots were often taken against a bright blue or mottled studio background and did nobody any favours. These were often the colourama rolls which studios had lying around and after a while became standard for plenty of large US corporates. To this day I still get sent sample headshots that I need to match which feature these backgrounds.

In the past corporate portrait photography was commissioned mainly for magazines, annual reports and company brochures. People had the perception that this was required for this media but a website headshot could dispense with the quality and creativity associated with a portrait. Their has been a gradual change to using a corporate portrait. We have seen an uplift in requests recently and the understanding that your LinkedIn profile is your professional online CV and the photo will be the first thing people look at.

Here are some samples and we can look at how they benefit the individual.

1. Striking corporate portrait using natural and studio lighting to great effect. Great use of reflections and The City skyline to suggest a confident professional in a modern London office.

2. More subtle corporate portrait using natural light from a side window and a interesting boardroom background. Little hints of modern corporate interior design help show her business success.

3. You could never convey this type of confidence and pride in a basic headshot. The stance and location bring a sense of leadership to the corporate portrait.

4. Wonderful corporate portrait using the office corridor lighting as a diagonal which adds visual interest. The pose again is very relaxed and the individual looks in control and at the top of her game.

5. Informal or reportage corporate portrait photography is visually interesting as it gives a sense of purpose in the working environment. People are focused on talking about their business and therefore look unposed and very natural.

6. The crop is tight which is similar to a headshot but the addition of a subtle outline of St Pauls suggest a young London professional ready for business.

7. We shot this for CEO Magazine and using shapes and lighting this is a good example of corporate portrait photography.

Looking at these samples you have to take into account where they are going to be used. LinkedIn profile photos are very small and therefore a tighter crop is required to feature well. Company websites have enough room and scope to widen their ‘About Us’ headshots and their is marketing potential in being creative with their corporate portrait photography to make the website page of interest to the viewer rather than a standard corporate staff gallery.

Corporate Headshots on a White Background.

19th April 2018/in Corporate Headshots, Corporate Photographer London, LinkedIn Headshots, Portrait Photography /by Editor

The most popular style of corporate headshot with the subject looking to camera with a white background.

For many years we have been capturing these for clients and it is only recently that we have seen a common problem occurring. Shooting headshots with a white background seems a pretty simple set up and it always was in the past. Clean crisp white Colourama and a diffused light to make it nice and blown would give you and the client exactly the effect they were after. The problems now arise with businesses and individuals putting these headshots onto company websites where they assume the white background on the headshot will match with the white of a webpage. The background will retain some element of tone and hue as the digital camera sensor will always try and level out any colour to give an average recording. You cannot get around this even by flooding the background with white light. Now we try to make clients aware of this but it does sound a little daft to the average person who says they just want a headshot on a white background. We always try and establish the end use for the headshot now as we want to prevent the problem before it arises.

In post-production we remove the headshot from the background and add a white web friendly background in photoshop. An easy process once you know how but as with all photoshop work it really depends on the workflow you use. There are a few tools that allow you to do this but some give much better results than others and one thing is for sure there is no way you can automate the process.

We recently did a shoot in London for a company with their HQ based in Hong Kong. When we sent them the original high-resolution images they were very pleased and we mentioned about the post-production work if they were going to be used on a website. About a month later we received an email noting that the Hong Kong office had flagged some problems with the shots as they were showing some marks on the white background and could we check what we had done incorrectly. After looking at the website screenshots we could tell that the headshots had been cut out incorrectly and this was the problem. The photoshop tool they had used was not that accurate and left pixels in on the white area. We have since gone on to do the cutouts for the company and the problem has been rectified. Describing this problem to clients is not an easy task and telling them it will cost extra in post-production to get the right result tends not to go down to well. We now send samples out so that they can see for themselves that you have to go through with the process.

Sample 1. Standard corporate headshot captured in camera with a white background. Technically correct but flawed for use on a white webpage as it is still retaining tone on the background. You would think that the simple solution would be to add more light to the background but this does not work as it starts to bleed through into the edges of the person and messes up the exposure.

Sample 2. Headshot after photoshop post-production. Headshot cut out with a white web friendly colour background added. Clean and crisp and as on this webpage the background matches the white of the webpage.

If you have had this problem or need any more advise please get in touch and we can talk you through our process and improve your companies headshots. Please see also our previous article on tips for corporate headshot photography

International Corporate Headshot Guidelines

5th April 2018/in Corporate Headshots, Corporate Photographer London, Portrait Photography /by Editor

Several of our London based clients have flagged a problem with getting consistent corporate headshots when they are commissioning shoots with their international offices. We have noticed this when looking at our client’s website after we have photographed their London staff and directors. We visit their about us page to see how the headshots have been used and notice that their international offices headshots look out of line with ours and therefore make the page look less professional.

One of our major clients has offices in nearly every major city and when revamping their corporate website asked us to come up with solutions to this potential problem. We decided the best way forward would be to create a style guide which could be sent out to photographers and could be followed with the minimum of photographic direction. This is an important part of the process as we are often approached by US clients asking us to photograph their London staff and we receive a very detailed brief from their US photographer.

This might seem straightforward but often these briefs contain specific lighting makes, types of reflectors and degrees that the subject should be looking at the camera, the chances of finding several international photographers all with the same set up or with the ability to shoot in a different many to which they are used to working are pretty slim. We suggested that if we looked at the photographers portfolio we will be able to tell if they can shoot in a style we can suggest. A good photographer should be able to look at a sample photograph and be able to mimic the lighting and pose. With this in mind we drew up a set of photographic guidelines that we knew the photographers would be able to follow.

International corporate headshots Japan

International corporate headshots India

Our client asked us to select a colour background and then order a large batch so they could dispatch these to each office. This was a good solution but had a major flaw as backgrounds colours change when photographed unless the lighting is identical each time it is photographed. With this in mind we suggested that we could create a background in photoshop and then add this to each international and London headshot to give a perfect consistency to the commission. This has been a successful project with over thousands of international staff now photographed.

Another client has a similar problem but in their case they required the headshot to feature the international city in the background of the their headshots. They had tried to get different photographers to take the shoots on location but they tended to look more like holiday snaps as they were taken at ground level and this created an awkward angle trying to get the height of recognisable buildings in as well. We looked back at some of our London corporate headshots and came to the conclusion that it would be better to shoot in a studio with standard diffused lighting and then drop a cityscape behind each person. We blurred the city view a little to replicate the long lens depth of field effect.

corporate headshot New York

Corporate headshots London The City

Corporate headshots St Pauls

Now we have perfected these methods we sometimes suggest this to our London clients even if we are only shooting in the UK. Reason being is once we have the headshots taken it is easier to add the right background then trying to create the perfect background in camera. We were recently commissioned by an New York corporate photographer who had a financial sector client who had an office in London. The photographer sent us over samples of the shots they wanted us to match and we asked if we could shoot some backgrounds at the offices and add them later as this gave us greater control.

The shoot was planned over the space of a day in February and we were concerned that the style they wanted, which was headshots with office views across the city behind them, would be hampered by the short daylight and poor weather at that time of year. They were adamant they wanted to keep it real so we shot as they required only to have our fears confirmed and we had to add some backgrounds in post production.