Headshot Photography Tips

It's probably the most fun, the most rewarding, and in many ways the most frustrating photography - yes, it involves people!

The weather can be awkward and unpredictable when you’re shooting properties; products can be annoying when they are highly reflective and covered in fingerprints; but nothing is more challenging than photographing people!

Now, I’m not talking about babies or weddings here, of course. I’m only discussing commercial photography, so this article is all about headshot photography for commercial purposes. As usual, I won’t be discussing the technical aspects of camera settings, I’m assuming that you’ve mastered that. What you might be struggling with is the variable that is ‘people’! A large part of photography is actually about control - control of the lighting, the local environment, and the subject itself. This is what makes headshots challenging because, like wildlife photography, when you photograph people the subject is sentient!!

The Basics

I’ll deal with the easy stuff first. Let's assume that you’re photographing a large team in an office environment, let’s also assume that they want individual headshots for their website. They’ve probably already got some, but they were taken at different times, by different people and are therefore inconsistent and make the website look messy and unprofessional.

This is kind of obvious but worth saying - you want all the headshots facing the same way, with the same background, with the same lighting!! When you do your setup, ideally in a meeting room where you can close the door and give your subject some privacy, have the first person to be your client contact. They can be the practice run to help you set up and make sure there are no weird reflections, lighting effects or shadows. Once you’re happy, mark the floor in some way so everyone can stand in the same place. Pick a point for them to look at when they part-turn so the angle is consistent. All you need to do now for each person is tell them where to stand, where to look, and then adjust the height of your tripod. Which means you can concentrate on the tricky stuff instead.

As always, use a release lead and tripod! In this case, it’s partly for consistency of shot, but also so you can see and interact with your subject without hiding behind a camera. More on this later!

A couple of final things before we move on:

1. Angle. You’ll know that you want your subject part turned so it doesn’t look like a passport photo, and it keeps the image dynamic and tightens up the neck muscles. But which way should their body face? I did much research and came to the conclusion that facing to your right looks more natural for some reason - it may be a right-handed thing. It doesn’t matter, as long as everyone is facing the same way. Agree this with the client first to make sure there’s no corporate standard that you need to adhere to. The bottom line is, make sure their body points to a standard place and they turn their head to face the camera - not you!

2. Organisation. Allow at least seven minutes per person so when the shoot is planned everyone is available and ready. Some organisations like to give everyone a time slot and schedule them in, others just to get the next person when ready. The main thing is to make sure that you aren’t rushed and aren’t hanging around either. Remember it’s the client's responsibility to make everyone available and to make them aware that it’s happening!!

Psychology

This is the real challenge of course. People are individuals and will react differently to your camera and lighting. A high percentage will walk through the door and say ‘I don’t want to be here, I hate having my photo taken’! Some may even say that they didn’t know about it or were forced into it!

Some of this will depend on your personality, but whatever that may be, you need to put them at ease, but not too much, you don’t want hysterical laughter either. Remember this isn’t a fashion shoot, you want a couple of good headshots and then move on.

Here are some tips that help me get a relaxed but professional picture:

• Make sure that you shoot somewhere private so their colleagues can’t distract them.

• You have a very short period to assess their personality, are they an extrovert, a giggler, a denier? Chat with them professionally, and explain to them where to stand and what to do. Remove any lanyards and make suggestions about their attire in a positive way. Men typically look better with jackets on, but that may not be the image the organisation is trying to portray. People with longer hair will ask what looks best. Try to help and be constructive, build rapport. Offer to take multiple styles so they can compare if it helps.

• You want a warm smile, ideally showing teeth, but no laughing. If your subject is struggling with this I suggest that they pretend that they are greeting a client in reception, they reach out to shake hands and smile - that’s the smile we are after! If this fails you may need to chat more, be prepared to take the picture at any time and look out for blinking - this is where that tripod and release lead really helps.

• Show them the pictures! If they hate them, offer to take them again. You want buy-in from the subject, they have to live with them after you're gone.

• Glasses can be awkward. Reflections are an obvious problem but some coatings cast a colour cast over the eyes. Try to move the lights to work around this, but if all else fails you’ll have to fix it in post.

• Make sure that your subject looks nice and neat. Chances are that they will ask for help, but try to ensure that clothes, scarves, ties and hair are neat, tidy and symmetrical.

A last point here - the key part of headshot photography is assessing the psychology of your subject and getting some of their personality into the picture. Some people have an excess of personality so be prepared to limit this, but for others you’ll need to encourage it. Be prepared, be flexible and most of all be friendly, but not creepy!

Post Processing

As always, the hard work is done and you’re back at base. Now is the time to make sure that the job is done right!

• Consistency. As I said at the beginning, this is one of the key benefits, so make sure that you deliver. Crop pictures so people’s heads look approximately the same size (amazingly this really varies), and that their bodies are similarly cropped and sized. If all the images are to be displayed together, they must look consistent. Ensure that the final images are all the same resolution.

• Spot-heal any marks on clothes. If they have temporary spots on their skin I remove them, but not permanent marks. Stray hairs stuck to the skin should be removed. Be sensitive to people’s looks and feelings.

• Remove colour casts and reflections in glasses.

• I like to have a spark in each eye, but make sure that it’s only one. Remove any others.

• Skin tone and colour vary enormously so make sure that they are sympathetically lit. You want the backgrounds to all look the same so you may need to do some tweaking. If your subject was embarrassed or laughing too much, just take down the saturation slightly so they don’t look quite so pink!

Hopefully, these tips will help turn your headshots from a nightmare to something approaching enjoyment. It’s rewarding to help reluctant subjects bring out their personality. If in doubt, empathise and explain that you’re so glad to be on this side of the camera!