The Importance of Professional Head Shots

How to Look Your Best in Your Next Professional Head Shot Photo Session -

In this social media crazed world we seem to have a million ways to share photos, post photos, and tag photos....however when it comes to our professional lives it is nice to have a polished and stylized look.  This includes good lighting, polished makeup, styled hair, and appropriate attire.  These key ingredients help represent you in the way that you want people to see you.

Even though we are in the industry, I really do recommend hiring professional help with styling for attire, hair, and makeup looks.  These photos are going to be used for your business and represent you and you work so hard to put your best foot forward at work why not put your very best into your image as well.

Suggestions when considering a professional head shot...

Example of great lighting and location

1.) Location - Pick somewhere with natural light, but sometimes outside is too much natural light, and the environment ends up being hard for a photographer to control.  The wind or rain can be a problem for hair and makeup so I would recommend a second location in a studio as well.

Example of great hair and skin

2.) Photographer - Make sure to pick a photographer who does a lot of professional head shots, who has experience with the lighting and poses.  As silly as it sounds, having someone who can help you with your posing and how you stand is very helpful!

3.) Hair  - Hair should be simple in a style you feel comfortable with and one that is flattering to your attire and your face.  It shouldn't cover your face too much and also shouldn't be completely pulled back.
Not to much hair product, you want it to be soft and fall naturally not look stiff in the photos.

Example of the right amount of makeup

4.) Make-up - Make-up should be natural and enhance all your features.  It might be a bit more makeup then you are used to, but it is necessary in order to show up in photos.  A touch more contouring and highlighting might be advised as well as more definition in the eye liner and blush.  Makeup tends to get lost in photos and in order for your features to stand out and look polished with high def photos more makeup is required.



*** there is a benefit to airbrush makeup and that is, it holds up well in heat and lights and lasts for a very long time if you are having a long shoot.  It also doesn't show brush strokes because it is applied with an airbrush gun.  This is all much more important in a high definition photo shoot.  Or for media prints that will be enlarged such as posters or banners.

Wedding Networking

This is sort of a business entry, but I like to discuss my plans in hopes of getting feedback and maybe helping someone else out there working on the same sort of thing.

I have recently looked into a couple different wedding industry network groups, and found that while they are a blast...I am not very good at putting my contacts to practical use. The newest of these groups is determined to teach us (members) how to make better use of our time at these events, novel idea. If they can pull that off I will be their biggest fan.

This year during the "off" wedding season I am determined to better connect with my fellow wedding industry professionals and make practical use of those contacts. What I have learned so far... ***Contacts are useless if you don't use them, and all the twittering, blogging, website updates, and facebook announcements are doing me no good unless I have an audience (the right audience). Along with posts about current events in Seattle and on the Eastside having to do with beauty...I plan to track the success of these suggestions given to me and my opinion on them in general.

Blogging is the first suggestion that was given to me. Done!

Next is Wedding Wire and The Knot. Sounds like these are free places to announce your business and list your services for potential clients. I like the free part the best, now I will try it out and see if I can get any results.

Constant Contact will be my next goal. I plan to contact my "contacts" every so often to let them know of certain events going on in the area or just to ask how things are going for them.

Reviews, reviews online can be extremely helful to clients who are seeking your services and I plan to be much better at asking for these reviews from clients and collegues.