1. Wear solid colors Opt for clothing in solid, neutral colors such as black, navy, or gray. These colors tend to be more professional and will not distract from your face in the photo.
2. Avoid patterns Patterns and busy prints can be distracting in a headshot, so it’s best to avoid them. If you do choose to wear a patterned item, make sure it is small and subtle.
3. Dress appropriately for your industry Consider the industry or profession you are in and dress accordingly. For example, if you are in a creative field, you may have more flexibility with your clothing choices. If you are in a more traditional industry, it may be best to stick to more classic, professional attire.
4. Choose well-fitting clothing Make sure your clothing fits well and is not too tight or too loose. Ill-fitting clothing can be distracting and take attention away from your face.
5. Wear simple accessories If you choose to wear accessories, keep them simple and minimal. A watch, a pair of earrings, or a simple necklace can add a nice touch to your headshot, but avoid wearing multiple loud or busy pieces.
6. Keep your hair and makeup natural Only you know what’s “natural” for you. Concealer is your friend. Sunscreen is not (it’s shiny under the lights).
7. Dress for the occasion Consider the purpose of the headshot and dress appropriately. If you are taking a headshot for a professional website or LinkedIn profile, you may want to dress more formally. If you are taking a headshot for a more casual event or social media, you may have more flexibility with your clothing choices.
In the end, you want your headshot to say something. It’s your first impression. Is it for a dating sight? Dress like a first date. Are you a in sales? Dress like someone I would be happy to take a meeting with. For example, in my headshots I typically just wear a faded, button-down shirt because I want to convey a casual, friendly person. A friend. I try to convey my personality in my headshot because people tend to like a photographer who is open and friendly since they are usually a little nervous to begin with.
Head over to the Contact Page and send me a note. I’ll get you on the schedule right away. You’ll have an online image that will make you look great for years!
Replacing the background on a professional headshot can be tricky if it’s not done right. Fortunately, Booray Perry Photography does it all the time.
Why Replace a Headshot Background
There are several reasons you might want to replace the background on your professional headshot. The most common reason that I see is that they want to match the headshot to others that have been done at other locations. For example, Conviva has a specific look that they request for all there headshots based on what was done by a different photographer. I travel all over photographing the staff at their clinics and then I replace the background to their specifications
Another common reason is that the client wants a unique background that isn’t available at their location. For example, when I did Abrahamson and Uiterwyk they wanted a variety of styles so we selected from several options:
All of these were shot on location at the office, then I remove and replace the background with something you’ve chosen. It’s a great way to get unique and vibrant headshots without ever leaving your office!
This is a tricky question because when someone says “size” to a photographer, we tend to think of the file size, not the print size. In other words, how many megapixels are in the file. That size determines how big you can print the image and how big it will display on your computer screen. The best size for a professional headshot is “as big as it gets” because once you have a big file, you can re-size it to any size you need for it’s intended purpose.
The Best Headshot Size for Printing
When it comes to printing, the file can’t really be too big. The general rule is that you want at least 300 pixels for every inch you print. So, of you want to print something that is three inch’s wide, the file needs to be at least 900 pixels wide to get the best results. Some labs only require 240 pixels per inch but no one requires more than 300 so that’s become the default standard. Some photographers deliver files that are exactly 2400×3000 pixels which is an 8×10 print at 300 pixels per inch. I deliver the full-size completed file which can vary in size due to cropping but it always at least big enough to print an 8×10.
The Best Headshot Size for Online Viewing
Here’s where it get’s more tricky. If you want to know the best headshot size for viewing your portrait online it really depends on the screen the image will be viewed with and how big it will be on that screen.
For example, my computer screen is 1920 pixels wide, so if I wanted to view an image on my screen and have it take up the whole area it would need to be 1920 pixels wide or else it would start to get blurry. The computer would show the image at a size larger than 100% and that “stretching” would hurt the image.
But no one ever looks at an image like that. Your headshot goes on a website or a social media site and even if you are looking at the website on your entire screen, the image doesn’t take up the entire screen. I have my headshot in all my emails and I’ll bet it’s never seen any larger than 200×100 pixels.
The image can be bigger than you need it to be with no change in how it looks, it just can’t be smaller then it needs to be. An image that is 1000 pixels across looks just fine in a 100 pixel space but horrible in a 2000 pixel space.
So why not just use the biggest headshot possible all the time? Because the bigger it is the longer it takes to load and it slows down your website if the image is three times as large as it needs to be. Furthermore, websites like Facebook have a compression routine built in that will reduce the size of your image to speed things up. The more it has to compress, the more likely your image is affected. Here are a couple of the optimal sizes for online:
Facebook Post – 1200×628
Facebook profile Picture – 360×360
Linkedin Headshot – 400×400
Most image viewers will have a “resize” option in the file menu that will let you change the pixel count on your image.
What’s the Best Crop For Headshots
Now it get’s interesting. We know what size the headshot should be to print it or post it online but how should it be cropped? There are a million ways to crop an image, which one is best for a headshot?
Let’s start with examining how we shoot the image to begin with. Most headshots are displayed in a vertical format. I tend to think of this as “traditional.”
Traditional 8×10 crop
So you would expect me to shoot the same way, right? Nope. I shoot like this:
This is the image exactly as I shot it…
The reason is simple: Variety. When you shoot in a horizontal crop, you can then create whatever crop you need for the final image. You can do traditional 4×5:
Traditional 2×3:
5×7:
1×1 (square):
…and you can also do my personal favorite, a modern horizontal 3×2:
A modern, professional camera captures images that are so big you can cut away a sizable amount and still have an image that is big enough to do whatever you need. This is why I shoot in a horizontal (wide) format… so I can then do whatever I want with the file, depending on the client’s needs.
By the way, if you are wondering, each of these horizontal images is 600 wide. The vertical ones are 400 tall. I’ve just found over the years that is a decent size for my blog posts.
When you hire me to shoot your headshot, don’t be surprised when you are selecting your image to see this big, wide crop. That’s just so we have plenty to work with. Once you have that, you can do anything!
One of the challenges of having multiple locations for your business is having professional head shots and portraits that look the same regardless of where they were done. There are a couple of ways that you can make this happen.
Photograph your headshots all at once
This is probably most popular with companies that are very large and spread out across multiple states. If you have a sales conference or retreat for your staff, bring in a professional head shot photographer and have them photograph everyone. Usually, these events include some sort of formal occasion and that’s a perfect chance to get everyone looking their best. Or, if your desire is for something more casual and fitting with actual day-to-day operation, just do them in the morning before meetings begin… or during lunchtime. A good head shot photographer should be able to do hundreds of people a day. I’ve set up at national conventions and photographed huge numbers of people very quickly and it negates the need for scheduling.
These were all done at a conference during lunch.
Send employees to a central studio
If you have multiple offices in the same city, pick a good studio and send everyone there. You’ll always have consistent head shots that way. It also is usually less expensive than option #3:
Use a location head shot photographer who can be consistent
This is the hardest to do but works great provided you get a good location head shot photographer. What does that mean? Well, it means that you need someone who can go into any office and do head shots that will match the ones done in every other location. Not only do they need to be able to match their own work, they also need to be able to match someone else’s. I frequently am given a head shot done by another photographer and told to match it. It can be daunting but a good photographer can pull it off. Often it means changing the background to match what was previously done.
Sometimes you have to be able to produce the same image at multiple locations
This enables you to get consistent results at multiple locations. These head shots were done in 4 different locations on 2 different days!
Regardless of what method works best for you, be sure that you get a good, reputable head shot photographer in the Tampa area if you want quality, professional head shots. You’ll be glad you did when you see the results.
I’ve been doing Palm Harbor headshots for Angius and Terry Attorneys for a long time. I didn’t do all the headshots on their website but I did quite a few. Whenever they hire a new associate, if they don’t already have a headshot, they send them to me.
One of the great conveniences of having the same person do your headshots is that you get consistency for years. We can replicate the same look for each new employee if needed so that you have a consistent look and feel to your website. I recently had to reproduce a location image in my studio and if you looked at that website now you would never know that one of those images was not shot in the same place as the rest. We can also reproduce a headshot done by someone else. This happens a lot when the “home office” has a particular style they need from the satellite offices.
Another convenience is time. When my client showed up for her Palm harbor headshots it was in the 50’s so I worked fast to get what she needed and get her back to work. This image took less than 5 minutes to produce because I was all set up and ready for her when she arrived.
I did the session at 9a.m., delivered the retouched file before noon and the website was updated before the end of the day. That’s one more thing they can check off their list quickly!
Contact us today so we can give you the professional look that your brand deserves!
I live in Lutz, which is a small town just north of Tampa. You know how it is with small towns around big cities: the big city expands to the point where you can’t tell where the big city ends and the small town begins. If you drive up Dale Mabry Hwy you’ll drive through a couple of small towns and not even know it. Lutz is one of those little towns, no police force, no town hall (I think?).
Because I live here and my home studio is listed as my business address, I show up in searches for local businesses on the map. I’ll be honest, I don’t get as many calls for Lutz headshots as I would like. I sometimes think that small businesses in small towns don’t realize the importance of good headshots. It’s more important than ever because you want to look professional no matter where you are.
Armstrong Forensic Engineers is local to Lutz and I recently did their headshots. I did everything on location, right in the foyer of their offices (they’re located in one of those office parks we have everywhere here that look like a collection of co-op homes). The whole think took about an hour and now they have great professional portraits for their website, email, business cards and anything else they need. They are really on the ball because they haven’t even built their website yet but they have the pieces they need to make it professional and sharp.
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