The Importance of the Headshots

Imagine a birthday cake without colors and designs, it could be very delicious, but you are probably not going to buy it because it’s lacking the eye catching effect.  The same applies to your website, business card, brochures and social media pages, you need to leave a great first impression and photos are the best way to do that.

The type of photos that can be used differ from one business to another. In corporates and big businesses with lots of employees, you cannot use the headshots of all the employees on the website, but you can use photos that represent your work place and the activities at the location. When it comes to businesses with less number of key employees such as First Class Escrow and NourTarziInc you need to use the photos to build a personal relationship with the business and the people behind all the work. Let your clients know who you are, what you do and become familiar with your face. So when they meet with you later, they feel that they already know you. When a client is referred to you by another person, the introduction is usually hard. The first thing the client would do is to visit your website, trying to explore you and your work. Then, they will connect with you to start the communication.

When clients contact me to do their headshots, I try to get more information about what they do and their business, to discuss with them where and how to get the best headshots. There are different factors for a good headshot, depending on their business, we discuss whether it is going to be indoor or outdoor. For realtors, I always suggest to do the photoshoot at a natural place. The main reason is that realtors’ work is mobile and people love the blurry green background, Rance Cooper -a successful realtor I worked with- photos is a great example of this type of photography.

Do I always recommend the outdoor photoshoots? No, as I mentioned earlier that it depends on the type of business. Agile Em is a technology based company in which Dina Producitons worked with its founder Adam. We agreed to do the photoshoot at their office, and we were so happy with the result we got.

Another example of technology services company is Palatable Promotions. Eric, the founder, wanted a formal headshot with a white background and another one to show Eric’s personality. The first one is a close up shot, while the other one can be used with the tagline of the company, and Eric was so relaxed and loved it.

However, outdoor headshots can be done for a technology based businesses, as we did for Nasser the founder of 8 Gates Technologies. I don’t like to stick to the same style for every type of business, and I like to treat every client with a different and special way.

Now, do I get the final result just from shooting with my camera? of course not.

After the photoshoot I get to the next stage which is editing using Lightroom and Photoshop from Adobe. The amount of editing varies for one photo to another. I do retouches for the background, the skin, the brightness of the eye, Change the exposure and crop the photos to the size my clients need. Some of them are going to use it on the website, social media profiles, as a cover for social media and they might print it on their business card. There is a number of options and needs for retouching the headshots.

If you would like to know more about retouching, refer to the blog How to Edit Photos Taken in Bad Lighting.

Dina Productions offers photography services in Southern California, including headshots photoshoots at your office.

For more headshots samples please visit the gallery.