Fairfax Headshot and Business Portrait Photographer
The main objective of a headshot or business portrait is to emphasize your face and your eyes, make you look trustworthy and professional and your outfit can make that or break that. Picking an outfit for your business portrait also has a major effect in how your photographs turn out. This is why you need to make sure that your wardrobe choices enhances your overall appearance.
There are times that individuals tend to think too much of what to wear; Resulting in, being overly dressed. Overly complicated clothing takes focus away from the person and focuses on the outfit itself. These poor clothing decisions causes the photo to look amateurish or unprofessional. Settling on poor attire decisions can really degrade the quality of your business portrait. By stealing attention from your face, your bad outfit can negatively affect the impact of your headshot photograph. It is a smart thought to go through following rules before you pick your outfit for the photography session. Read More
Hiring a professional headshot photographer to take your headshots can be quite expensive. Some people don’t understand why headshots costs are high. All they see is a person with a camera, points, shoots and develops images. What could be so hard with that, that it costs a lot?
What people don’t usually know is that taking good quality photos is a skill. It is developed through years and years of experience and practice. In addition to that, what you are actually paying for is not only the skill. You are actually paying for the equipment and tools that are being used for the sessions. A professional DSLR camera now can cost over $4,000. But taking skilled photos includes a great deal more than just a decent camera. Most expert photographers have purchased their first camera years before they are able to profit in the photography business. Also their consequent purchases of focal points, backgrounds, channels, props, tripods, calibrators, lenses and what not goes on which adds to the costs incurred. Read More
Washington DC and Fairfax Va Professional Headshot Photographer
Have you ever heard of that famous saying “Never judge a book by its cover”? While it may have been applicable once upon a time, it really is not totally applicable in our present time. In a world where glitz and glamor is highlighted in our daily lifestyle, we are often judged. May this be in person or in the photos where we present ourselves; More often than not, people will always have something to say about you. This is why it is really important to present yourself in the most likable light possible. We have a limited time to make a decent first impression so why not make it count by having a professional headshot?
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Finding a great Headshot Photographer
Headshot Photography in Fairfax VA
It’s not easy finding a good headshot photographer these days. He or she must make the client look and feel great and most importantly take amazing headshots! To help you out, here are some pointers and skills to look for when trying to find a great Headshot Photographer.
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Fairfax Va Headshot Photography – Carbon6 Studio
Choosing an outfit for your headshot session can make or break your photo. Great clothing choice can help build your image, accentuate your body type, and put focus on your face and features. Remember that the main objective of getting a headshot is to present YOU in the best possible way. The clothes you wear should not distract instead it should accentuate to make it more effective.
As a general rule for headshots, your clothing should always be neat, clean and wrinkle free. This shows the viewer that you have self-worth. Avoid bulky clothing because they can make you look bigger. Your clothes should fit properly. Clothes that doesn’t fit you well, can make you look sloppy and unprofessional.
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Why it’s important to have a professional headshot on your LinkedIn profile.
I see people on LinkedIn all the time using bad photos for their Headshots. I’m talking selfies, smartphone photos of them sitting at their desk or even their company badge ID photo.
With LinkedIn saying that profiles with Headshots get viewed 7x as much as profiles without and 92% of recruiters saying they hire off LinkedIn, why wouldn’t you want to get a professional headshot. Read More
How many times have you gone to a companies website and their about me page and seen their staff bios along with their pictures and noticed that some are professional photos, some are ID badge photos, some are just smart phone photos of them? It happens all the time and is terrible for brand.
Go ask your web developer what your most popular webpage on your website is outside of your home page. It’s most likely going to be the about us page. People like to see who they are working with and who makes up your company.
Your company Headshots should make your company feel more approachable and also display confidence in your work to your potential client, enough where they reach out to you. If you fail at either, you most likely won’t be getting their work.
So does having mismatched photos show confidence and approachability to potential clients? With new Headshots every year your company will have updated pictures of their staff, none outdated styling, and a modern feel that’s great for branding. It shows you really care about your business and brand, and if a company cares about their brand they will definitely care about doing the best job for their clients.
I get asked this questions all the time. There’s no real right answer for one company so I like to ask the following questions to see if it’s a good time to update your company Headshots.
Are you happy with your previous Headshots? Pretty simple, really. If you aren’t happy with them, well let’s get some new ones done.
Have you added more people to your team or business? If you have new people added on your team and they haven’t gotten their Headshots, well now it’s a good time to do that. It actually might be more cost efficient to go ahead and get your whole team’s pictures done at once because I offer discounts for groups.
Does everyone on your team have the same headshot? If not and you have a bunch of mismatched Headshots, then yes, let’s get your new Headshots taken ASAP! Nothing is worst for branding than having your about me page on your website have a mismatch group of professional Headshots.
Does everyone in your team look the same? Styles change, people’s haircuts, some people grow beards; if anyone has had any major changes in physical appearance, your might want to update them. Having outdated pictures and styling in your Headshots says that your company isn’t modern and innovative, lacking new ideas. Most companies don’t want their brand being seen like that.
Now that you answered those questions, if you fall under any of these categories you might want to get new Headshots taken for your team.
I recently lost out on some work because the client/company wanted to go with a co workers recommendation for a photographer. This photographer happened to primarily do weddings and I asked the potential client if they have seen this photographers headshot portfolio. They said they saw his wedding portfolio but he didn’t have a headshot portfolio but they liked his wedding work and the price he quoted them.
I told them to keep in contact if they need any more work done or wasn’t happy with the Headshots the wedding photographer did. About a month later they emailed me saying they should have just gone with me because they weren’t impressed with the headshots from the wedding photographer.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against wedding photographers, I actually shoot about 25 weddings a year; I have just also shot hundreds of Headshots for many different clients and it takes a long time to get proficient enough to be called a headshot photographer.
Another thing you have to take in account for is the equipment. What I use for my Headshots is totally different than what I use for my weddings. Different lens, different lights, along with a bunch of gear that I only use during Headshots.
Another thing is, as a photographer my job is to be a problem solver. I hardly ever walk into a clients offices and set up my lights and the first picture I take is perfect. Light is getting reflected around from office windows, waxed conference tables, the narrowness of most conference rooms where I end up shooting many Headshots also doesn’t help. But I make do, I work to fix these problems so the pictures come out like the pictures in my portfolio which many of them were taken on location.
So how do you avoid making this mistake? Well first off look at their portfolio to see if they have the types of photos you are looking for and then to make sure if they are any good or not. There’s a few more questions but those are good for starters.
Do you want to look in charge, experienced, better looking, more knowledgeable in your headshot? There’s one thing actors have been doing for years that many people don’t know about and it does all that for them.
It’s the squinch! It might sound silly but it’s true. See the pictures below.
When we squinch our eyes together it portrays confidence. The wider our eyes are, the more it portrays confusion, being scared and frightened. This is acting 101, well maybe 202 stuff. You can even see from looking at photos of actors earlier on in their career and see certain moments where they started using the squinch. This is something they picked up from image consultants and acting trainers. You can clearly see when Brad Pitt learned about the squinch earlier on and his career. For Mark Hammel it looks like he learned about the squinch much later in his career. Either way the evidence is in the pictures and either way doing it will help you look more confident and in charge in your next headshot.
For more does and don’ts on headshot photography, please check out our FAQs and Blog for more great information!
