Uncategorised Archives - Corporate Photographers London

How To Get A Great London LinkedIn Profile Photo

5th October 2021/in LinkedIn Headshots, LinkedIn Photographer, LinkedIn Profile Photo, Uncategorised /by Editor

If you want your LinkedIn profile photo to show that you are a London professional then the best way to achieve this is to have a London cityscape as your profile photo background. The first way to achieve this would be to simply have your headshot taken with some London landmarks behind you. This is certainly the easiest way but this has several reasons why it can fail to produce a great London LinkedIn profile photo. The great British weather is always a factor and wind, rain and bright sunshine can all conspire to the headshot not working. The ideal weather needs to be a calm day with soft hazy clouds which as we all know can never be guaranteed.

The ideal weather for a LinkedIn profile photo outside with a London landmark in the background.

Another problem is that you need your London cityscape in the background but most areas of London are packed with tourists and business people who are not really interested in keeping out of your way and are more concerned with getting to where they want to be. This means a constant stream of traffic walking between the photographer and the subject. Also, the photographer is unable to set up and studio lighting as you need a permit from the local borough and an assistant to secure the lights. This increases costs and makes the process not viable.

Our solution to getting a great LinkedIn profile photo is that you come to our studio or we bring our studio to your London offices or home. We capture a headshot using our white background and professional lighting sets which gives you a high-quality professional headshot. Follow this process we then add a London cityscape in post-production. We have a photo library of London views around The City and West End and can digitally drop them in behind your new headshot.

Studio LinkedIn headshot captured with professional lighting and a white background

LinkedIn headshot with London cityscape added in post-production

How to pose for your LinkedIn profile photo?

30th September 2021/in LinkedIn Headshots, LinkedIn Photographer, LinkedIn Profile Photo, Uncategorised /by Editor

Tips and ideas on how to pose for your LinkedIn profile photo

This is not the most common question we are asked when receiving a LinkedIn headshot commission but it is the first thing we discuss with the sitter when we begin the headshot session.

If you decide you prefer to stand for your Linkedin headshot then do not follow the advice you were given as a child to stand upright with your chin in the air and grinning at the camera. It is much better to take a less upright pose as lowering the head gives a better view of the face and especially the eyes. We suggest that you stand at a 45% angle to the camera and then bring your head around to look at the camera. This stance makes you look more approachable and less confrontational. The LinkedIn profile sample photo below shows the ideal stance for your headshot.

How to stand in your LinkedIn profile photo

Most of our clients tend to want to stand up for their LinkedIn headshot but some prefer to be seated. We think this is because they feel more relaxed and this can help get a more natural and informal pose. This most common mistake is that when people sit down for their headshot they tend to lean back in their chair. Although they feel more comfortable leaning back has the problem of making them look less engaged and almost like they are withdrawing from the camera. We always suggest that if you are sitting that you should lean forward and this makes you look like you are interested in the person who is viewing your profile photo.

How to pose for your LinkedIn profile photo

When you first stand or sit for your LinkedIn headshot do not be afraid to ask the photographer for any suggestions on how to pose. It is very hard without a mirror to know if you have the correct stance and as you are spending money and time to get a professional LinkedIn profile photo it is worth asking for all the guidance you require to get a great headshot.

Further suggestions on how to get a good LinkedIn profile photo.

How much does a LinkedIn profile photo cost in London?

13th July 2021/in LinkedIn Headshots, LinkedIn Photographer, LinkedIn Profile Photo, Uncategorised /by Editor

If you are looking to improve your LinkedIn profile photo and have decided to hire a professional headshot photographer the first question will be how much does a LinkedIn profile photo cost? On average you will be looking at £100 to £200 plus VAT. Prices vary as there are plenty of different headshot services in London.

We can suggest some different options and the pros and cons of paying more or less for your headshot.

London photographic studio. This option allows you to visit a LinkedIn photographer and capture a wide variety of poses and expressions. You can take a change of clothing and have your profile photo taken with different backgrounds and using different lighting techniques. This will be the most expensive option as you will be paying for the photographer’s time and studio space. On average your session would be 30-60 minutes.
London office. Hire a corporate headshot photographer to come to your business premises and bring their lighting and background equipment. The photographer can set up in your meeting room and they can photograph 10 people within an hour session. This reduces the LinkedIn profile photo cost to each person as you are only paying for a fraction of the studio booking. You will not get as wide a selection of headshots to choose from but you will end up with a high-quality profile photo.
London location. This would be the most affordable option for London professionals. Arrange to meet the LinkedIn photographer at your choice of London location. Maybe you want to be photographed in a certain area of The City or in front of a West End landmark. The photographer will have a minimum kit with them but will still have a high-quality portrait lens. Your session should last around 10-15 mins. The downside is that you are open to whatever the British weather might decide to do.
Post-production services. LinkedIn photographers will have different packages on offer so find out prior to your booking what Post-production services are including in their costs. Retouching and airbrushing can really improve your Linkedin profile photo. Subtly removing spots, scars, saving rashes and reducing wrinkles and bags under eyes. Some photographers offer to change background colours and add different cityscapes to clearly show that an individual is based in London.

London Studio Profile Photo

LinkedIn Office Profile Photo in London

LinkedIn London Location Profile Photo

LinkedIn London Background Profile Photo

John Claridge’s East End Photography

11th December 2017/in Uncategorised /by Editor

We are now posting the photography and articles that interest and inspire.

This was posted back in 2012 on the excellent Spitalfields Life featuring the remarkable images captured by John Claridge.

East End Photography by John Claridge

The window on the top right of this photograph was John Claridge’s former bedroom when he took this astonishing portrait of his neighbours in Plaistow – Mr & Mrs Jones – in 1968, on a visit home in his early twenties. Once, at the age of eight, John saw a plastic camera at an East End fun fair and knew he had to have it. And thus, in that intuitive moment of recognition, his lifelong passion for photography was born. Saving up money from his paper round in the London Docks, John bought a serious camera and recorded the world that he knew, capturing the plangent images you see here with a breathtaking clarity of vision. “Photography was a natural language,” he assured me, when I asked him about taking these pictures, “This was my life.”

“My father was a docker – everyone worked in the docks, did a bit of boxing or they were villains. My dad went to sea when he was thirteen, he did bare-knuckle boxing, he knew how to rig a ship from top to bottom, and he sold booze in the states during prohibition. I used to get up at five in the morning to talk to him before he went to work and he told me stories, that was my education. People say life was hard in the East End, but I found the living was easy and I loved it.”

With admirable self-assurance, John left school at fifteen and informed West Ham Labour Exchange of his chosen career. They sent him up to the McCann-Erickson advertising agency in the West End where he immediately acquired employment in the photographic department. Then, at seventeen years old, John bravely travelled from Plaistow to Hampstead to knock on the door of Bill Brandt to present one of his prints, and the legendary photographer invited him in, recognising his precocious talent and offering encouragement to the young man.

“I used to meet my mum after work in the Roman Rd where she was a machinist, and you couldn’t see the next street in the fog,” John recalled, when I enquired about the distinctive quality of light in these atmospheric images. At the age of nineteen, John left the East End for good and at the same time opened his first studio near St Paul’s Cathedral. It was the precursor an heroic career in photography which has seen John working at the top of his profession for decades, yet he still carries a deep affection for these eloquent haunting pictures that set him on his way. “My East End’s gone, it doesn’t exist anymore,” he admitted to me frankly with unsentimental discernment, “These are pictures I could never do again, I don’t have that naivety and innocence anymore, but seeing them now is like looking at an old friend.”

East End Photography by John Claridge