Years ago, before the whole digital photography revolution, mostly actors were interested in getting a great headshot photo to put into their portfolio when applying for jobs. But those days are long gone, today every professional deserves to have an outstanding professional profile picture. They can use them on Linkedin or other professional social media, on their personal or corporate websites as well as their resume.
Headshots vs Portraits
There is a really thin line between headshots and portraits. A photograph taken of a person’s face is the entire focus is what we call a headshot. A headshot can be taken from different angles and is usually used professionally. A headshot only contains a single person who is the primary focus. Isn’t that the same as a portrait thought? Almost. Some people might use these terms interchangeably. The major difference between the two is that a headshot includes just the face and shoulders of the subject while a portrait can include the entire body.
So when talking about business headshots in Toronto we might use a combination of both to achieve the best result. We can keep the classic look of the headshot and experiment with background and adding more people to the shot. It’s great to have many options available to you since you might want you use different photos in different cases.
Background for Business Headshots Toronto
It’s always great to experiment. We recommend sticking with classics – black, grey or white. These work for most of the people that work in different industries, such as lawyes, bank employees, software developer, marketing specialist, manager etc. You can also play with colourful backdrops if you work in a creative fields, like musician, designer, visual effects artists etc. A great I idea would be to use your office as a background to emphasize that this is business headshot. If you shoot at wide open aperture the background will be nicely blurred but will still keep some features, so that the viewers can understand that there is an office or a restaurant in the background.
Lighting Business Headshot
There are two approaches to lighting a business headshot in Toronto: using daylight – sun is a great light source for your portraits or using flashes. There is no rule of thumb for this, it’s all about creativity, depending on what kind of look you want to achieve. This is something that you have to discuss with the photographer beforehand. Keep in mind that not all locations will allow you to use daylight and not all looks can be achieved with it etc. The best way is to provide some examples to your photographer, you can find some inspiration in his portfolio or look for examples on Pinterest or Google Image Search. Keep in mind that some light setups might require additional equipment and time to set up so it might increase the price of the photoshoot.
If your office is bright enough you can just use the sunlight and maybe experiment with adding flashes to soften some shadows or adding that pop to your photos.
If you want more of a classic business headshot we suggest you to pick between 3-way lighting or Rembrandt lighting. Let us quickly go through both of them and show examples to help you understand this easier.
The first one is 3-point lighting that includes a keylight (also known as main light), a fill light (to fill in shadows on the other side) and a back light to separate the subject from the background.
The second option is more dramatic and works best with men, because it adds more contrast and highlights harsh facial details. This generally doesn’t look good on women’s headshots. You can achieve this look with a single light and use a reflector to define the amount of light on the other side of the face.
Cheap business headshots in Toronto
You get what you pay for. Don’t go for the cheapest photographer you can find on Kijiji. There is a reason they are cheap – they are either a beginner or they don’t have enough gear and skills to provide high quality photos. There is a saying “Poor Man Pays Twice”, you don’t want to waste all that time to be disappointed with the result and end up paying again for a good quality headshot.
So isn’t there a way to save some money on a professional headshot in Toronto? – There is, but you have to look for it and it might not work best for your schedule, but why not to try. Here is a solution – some photographers offer discounted prices for their headshots when they shoot in bulk. For example, 1 headhot might cost you $100, but if you can do 2-3 shots in the same session, you can get 2-3 looks or change clothes. This way you will have to pay less for photos since the photographer spends less time with you for each photo. Also, some photographers offer headshot sessions for multiple people at the same time. In this case you will only get 5-10 minutes with the photographer, but you will get the same high quality result. So if you’re confident and know how to pose – why pay more?! You can find some of those sessions on Kijiji or Meetup.com.
Business headshots for employees
This subject is overlooked at so many companies these days. Digital world is transparent. And you potential client can do a pretty deep analysis of your company with just their laptop or smartphone. Have you noticed that all respected law firms or doctors offices have professional headshots on their website in the “About Us” section or page. And if you open their Linkedin page you will see the same situation. These people understand that clients want to work with professionals, they are spending their hard-earned cash at this place. Think about it, would you trust your case to a law firm that has some guy mentioned as a senior lawyer with photo taken during his college days at some party? We thought so too.
That’s why if you’re serious about your business you should invest in a professional business headshots in Toronto. If you think that you’re going to end up pay a lot of money for a portrait for each employee? Well we have some good news for you. The best solution is to experiment with the first person that is being taken picture, lock the look and idea behind the shot and then just repeat it for another 10-20 people that are waiting for their turn. This way you get consistent result across all photos and save some money, since the photographer won’t have to spend time setting up lights for each shot differently. But keep in mind that it will still take the same amount of time for the artist to post-process those shots. They will still have to colour grade those photos and remove some skin defects, fix some productions issues etc. So when trying to get a deal from a photographer – remember that in this case they will only spend less time with you, but the same amount of time back at the computer screens.
Consistent Business Headshots in Toronto
Do you remember that we suggested to experiment with the look of you headshots – be careful with that. People keep getting into this trap all the time! You have this cool idea for your Business Headshots Toronto – using some creative background – a park or against that brick wall in your office for example, you hire a photographer, you do the shots for all your employees, the result is great – you’re happy. But then in 3-4 month you hire another couple of employees or promote some of your current ones to seniors, leads or partners and want to add them to your “About company page” on your website and update their photos on Linkedin. But then you realize that the backdrop you used is long gone, or it’s too late to take that great shot in the park since the weather is bad at this time of the year. Or you did a renovation in the office and that wall is long gone, or maybe you moved to a different locations. These things happen all the time. In some cases – the photographer can use their photoshop skills to match the colours of the new backdrop to the old one, tweak the background to have some warmer tones, but if you need to completely rebuild the background – it’s going to cost you quite a lot, since it’s going to involve a lot of rotoscoping, grading, fixiing edges etc.
And you don’t want to have a random grid on your companies website or linkedin page. You want all those photos to be consistent and match the brand look of you company.
Here are some of the tips to get great results in these situations:
1) Use a neutral background, that is easily reproducible. Classic headshot on white/black/grey is a great way of minimizing a risk
2) Take a photo of your whole setup when you’re taking pictures. What if you won’t be able to hire the same photographer for your additional photo session, it will be easier to show him the setup, so it’s easier for him to match the light. Most photographers can analyze the photo and figure out what lighting setup was used on the day, but some setups get tricky so it’s best to be on the safe side
3) Clothing. You employees should have matching outfits as well. We’re not suggesting that everybody has to buy a new shirt for a photo session, but if some people come in dressed in a hoodie, some in t-shirts and the rest wearing a suit – it won’t look good on your photo grid. If you decide to stick with casual style – everybody should come dressed like that, if we go for a classic business look – bring a suit, well you get the idea.
4) Use the same focal distance. You don’t want some photo taken on 24mm and others on 200mm, they might sort of look the same, but it will drive you crazy how lens compression is important. We suggest starting from 50mm on full frame camera, and all the way to 200mm, depending on the look you’re going for. If you forgot to ask you photographer what focal distance was used on the day of shoot – don’t worry, you can still most likely get this information from EXIF data, that each photo contains (although sometimes photographers removes this info from their files for some uknown reasons). Fstoppers have a great video that explains what lens compression is and how it impacts your photos
5) Same look across the board. We already locked our lighting, focal distance, clothing and we should do the same for angles. Basically if you shot eye-level on your first session – do that again, don’t try to shoot higher or lower, it will dramatically change the look of these photos and they will stand out on the grid.
6) Facial expressions. Generally you don’t want your whole team smiling and laughing and then adding another guy who is dead serious and vice versa.
Should I use my old business headshots for years?
Time changes you. Literally, it does. So you should definitely invest in new Business Headshots Toronto at least every year. You might notice the slight difference in yourself because you’re used to seeing your face every day, but people tend to notice, especially the people hiring you by looking at your picture. People are looking at you, so make sure they get to see the newest and best version of you.
Best pose for business headshot
When it comes to headshot photography, posing options will be limited. But as any good photographer knows, the slightest turn of the head and different expressions can make a huge difference. So experiment with that. See what orientation works best. The world is your oyster!
A headshot is all about the individual and the camera. Try different emotions and stances. If you wish to look more relaxed, try not to think about photoshoot and just relax and engage the conversation with your friends and photographer to get more natural postures and look. Play around with the expressions. Try a subtle smile or a serious expression.
As you can see – there a lot to learn about business headshots. We hope these tips help you get the best business headshot in Toronto. If you’re still looking for a photographer – check out our best headshots and don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to get one.