Fast Food Friday: For Professional Photographers

A few weeks ago I had an idea to start a new series of short posts, each one with a point to help you raise the bar on your presentation for your website or blog. Fast Food Fridays are meant to plant the seed for ideas to fine-tune different components of your presence as a professional photographer. Today is the fourth in the series, and each one hits a different aspect of your business.
 
Here's a challenge I don't understand. If you're a professional photographer why would you share anything but your very best headshot on the Internet?

So many of have horrible headshots. Bad selfies, grab shots of you cropped from other images, or irrelevant photographs of you with your family, pets -  anything but a professional image. If you're expecting people to trust you to capture and create beautiful photographs then why compromise on your own portrait?

This week I'm on a cleanup campaign! While we're still in the "slow season," take the time to get yourself a decent headshot! Contact an associate and have some fun upgrading each other's portraits.

​Let's clean up this one part of your presentation to the public!

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Raising the Bar on Your Headshot

• You're a professional photographer, so stop using that horrible illustration silhouette that Facebook and  Twitter provide. Use a professional looking headshot and also show your best work in your banner images.  
• Make your headshot the best it can be. Stay away from grab shots in lousy light, blurry images and images that don't portray your skill set.
• For your "About" page on your site, show at least two shots...one, a portrait of you and the second one of you with a camera in your hand. Personally, I love a shot of the photographer taken off his or her right shoulder from slightly behind. It should show the photographer, the camera and in the background a subject being photographed just slightly out of focus. Remind people of what you do for a living.
• As family portrait photographers, many of you like to share an image of you with your family. That's fine, but make it a great image your target audience can relate to. The same applies to pet photographers with their dogs and cats - share an image that shows your skill set.

This is so easy to fix, but it has to start with you thinking through the message you want to present. As an artist, you need to show yourself in the same light and quality as the work you're suggesting a client hire you to capture.

Photography helps people to see!
Berenice Abbott

Make your headshot the very best it can be and give people a sense of your skill set and passion for quality and the craft. Help them see who you are as a skilled artist.

Missed any of the past Fast Food Friday specials? Just click on the thumbnails below.