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Manchester Portrait Photographer | Andy Broadbent
Corporate Headshots are a very popular style of photography and a great income stream for many professional portrait photographer. Businesses need professional headshots for their websites and advertising campaigns, and individuals also require headshots for their social media accounts and having a professional headshot can really make you stand out.
Headshot photography, portrait photographer and actor headshots can pretty much be the same thing as they are generally a close up image of a persons face these images are held up to high scrutiny because there’s nothing much more personal to someone than their face, so when photographing someone you really do have to pay attention to their features and try to flatter them as much as possible. There’s lots of tips and tricks to shooting people but here’s a few tips which will work with a high percentage of people.[/vc_column_text][vc_masonry_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1583070835905-dee653cb-881a-10″ include=”22594,22593,22536″ css=”.vc_custom_1581361967779{margin-bottom: 1.2em !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Portrait Photography and Actor Headshot Tips
Use a large light source from the front
Although ‘flat-lighting’ or lighting from the front is generally less dramatic it will flatten out any skin issues, so if the subject has deep laughter lines, wrinkles or blemishes this style of lighting will makes these features less obvious.
Overexpose a little
The previous tip will help a lot to flatter the average subject and this follows on from it, if the subject has blemishes wrinkles etc overexposing will somewhat hide a bit of detail, even if you plan to bring the images back to a ‘proper’ exposure during the editing process the last think the subject wants to see on the back of your camera is a super high definition image of their face with all their possible flaws razor sharp and defined.
Use a sharp lens with wide aperture
Although you don’t necessarily have to shoot corporate headshots at a wide aperture it does have it’s advantages, again because generally your subjects are ‘non-models’ wide apertures can give the portrait a painterly look and the shallow depth of field can lessen any issues with the persons skin. It’s not beauty photography so you don’t need an image with fine detail across the whole face.
Strike up a friendly rapport
Although this isn’t a technical tip as such it can be just as important as any of the other techniques, generally corporate headshots are a rarity for the subject and as such they are probably not at ease sitting for a portrait with a large camera directly in front of them so it’s a good idea to try and be friendly and laid back to make the subject feel at ease.
Factor in a bit of photography retouching
Whether you are a Photoshop expert or novice it’s worth factoring in a little bit of skin clean-up into the post processing, if you have followed the previous steps you should have a nice clean image and if you do a little bit of healing on any spots or blemishes the client will really thank you for it.
These tips and tricks will work for Headshots for actors, Corporate Headshots and professional portraits or digitals for modelling agencies.
To view some of the portrait photography on my website click the link to my Portrait Photography Galleries.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]