Booth Letter 7: Summer Trends - Corporate Headshot Photography

Summer Business Trends: Embracing the Seasonal Shift

As we enter the middle/late end of summer, we are still noticing some unique, summery things about the business photography landscape. From innovative marketing strategies to shifts in consumer behavior, here are some key trends shaping how we think about business and headshot photography.

Trend 1: Digital Engagement is Soaring.

With more people taking vacations and spending time outdoors, digital engagement becomes paramount. People are away from their desks but not from their phones. Businesses are leveraging social media, interactive content, and mobile-friendly campaigns to stay connected with their audience.

Ease of digital engagement via mobile device is paramount, especially if you have kids you are trying to keep busy before school starts. Chances are, you are running around, dropping off, pickup up, taking the dog to the vet, etc. During those five minutes of waiting in the car or hanging at the dog park, you can squeeze in time to answer an email, look up a vendor, review a resume (do they have a professional corporate headshot???). It's not ideal, but it is nice that phones help you check these things off the list.

And this is on top of the fact that a large part of the workforce is still working from home. Whether we can swing it during the cooler months, a more lax summer schedule that allows us to stay at home drives more digital engagement. Work from home means work outside, maybe, means knock off a bit early and take the kids to the pool, maybe? Hey, as long as you are getting that day to day work done, maybe you can hit that Barre class late morning.

When we are not together, digital engagement soars. Your business is probably leveraging social media and remote connections. As we always say, the first thing someone sees is your headshot photo so make it professional, appropriate and really good!

Trend 2: E-commerce Innovation

Online shopping for that new pair of Birkenstocks or that new office hire, doesn’t slow down in the summer months. Businesses are enhancing their e-commerce platforms and summer outreach with personalized experiences, quick delivery options, and summer-themed digital marketing and outreach campaigns that feel a little lighter in style.

Think about how you can produce images and leverage them to communicate a current feeling. You want the images you put out into the world to feel consistent and responsive to what people see outside their window.

Trend 3: Product Photography in Seasonal Context

With summer comes a shift in consumer preferences towards seasonal products like outdoor gear, beachwear, and refreshing beverages. Businesses invest in product photography that not only showcases the features and benefits but also evokes the feeling of summer. Whether it's a vibrant beach scene or a refreshing drink under the sun, photographers adeptly frame products within their seasonal context.

In the context of corporate headshot photography, this might mean adding a shot that has a fresh, bright feel to it. More and more, we are asked to provide options for a shoot – maybe one professional photo against a solid background and one that is more environmental. Sometimes this is in the office, but it can also have a natural background. Something with natural light that evokes a beautiful day.

And here's the thing about summer shoots. We all look a little better in the summer. Whether it is some kind of outdoorsy glow or a bit of the tan that makes it through your sunscreen, it's a great time to jump in front of the camera for a professional corporate headshot session.

Trend 4: Event Coverage and Documentation

Summer is synonymous with outdoor events, festivals, weddings, and corporate retreats. Photographers specialize in event coverage, capturing candid moments, emotions, and the essence of gatherings.

This kind of coverage is very important for businesses. Clients want to see their vendors as a collection of people. They want to get to know the vendors with whom they are spending time and money.

Social media platforms thrive on visual content, making them essential for businesses during summer. Photographers play a pivotal role in creating Instagram-worthy images and stories that engage followers, enhance brand visibility, and drive traffic to businesses' online platforms.

Businesses can leverage these images in so many ways. Use them in social media feeds, in commercials, in emailers, as press releases. Covering a corporate event with candid photography is a no-brainer. It's a low cost way to generate a ton of content that could last several months of the year.

In Summary

In essence, the convergence of summer business trends and photography creates a dynamic landscape where visual storytelling flourishes. Businesses harness the power of photography to use across digital media. They tell a story that feels timely with the summer light and feeling. Using this kind of corporate headshot photography and corporate candid event photography is a great way to reach people who are digitally connected while enjoying their summers.

Booth Letter 6 - Making the Parmesan Vs Making the Photos

We just got back from Italy and it was a joy – art, food, culture. We hit it all.

One day we took a tour of a Parmesan factory and I hope it doesn't sound cheesy (sorry) but I found some everyday business parallels to our corporate headshot business.

We visited a smaller farm but it was no small operation. They had modern and age-old equipment. Their cheese was certified by the region and are a resource for both the region and as exporters.

Every day they took the milk of over 200 cows who had been feasting on only grass from the region and turned it into 8 (or so) wheels of parmesan cheese.

I gleaned some important takeaways and similarities to how we run and are tied to our business.

Takeaway 1 – 365 days a year.

They have over 200 cows on the farm and those cows produce milk every day. The cows don't know that it is Christmas or the weekend. They make the milk so the milk has to be made into cheese.

We don't work 365 days per year, but you better believe that we are open for business, no matter when the client needs us. If a client needs headshots, or conference photography on one of our birthdays or a Saturday or a holiday, we do it or find a way to support it with our team. There is no way around the fact that we are on someone elses schedule almost entirely, when it comes to taking business headshots.

Takeaway #2 – It can take as few as 2 people to make the cheese.

For those who know us, our headshot photography business is a partnership. It's the Laura and Ian show. Now we are supremely lucky to have photographers and assistants and designers and bookkeepers and accountants and everything else you need to run a business. They are all integral to making the dream of shooting headshot photography for thousands of people per year a reality. But Ian and I are the center of this operation and it is up to us to make the cheese.

Takeaway #3 – This cheese has provenance.

Parmesan cheese is not just parmesan cheese. It is certified DOP from a specific factory with markings made from a mold licensed specifically to that factory. Each wheel of parmesan is marked as such with dates and authorities and can be traced back to where and when it was made.

This one really resonates. We are very much tied to quality and style in our business portraits and all aspects of our photography. The quality has to be consistent. We curate our team making sure they come to us with a base level of skill/talent and we train them all the same way. While each shooter brings a perspective, there is a quality we aim for with our product that meets high production values. We care very much that people get an excellent headshot photo and we stake our name, our provenance, on that.

Takeaway #4 – There is value to this cheese.

A wheel of Parmesan aged for 40 months can fetch anywhere from $400 - $1000. Some producers wll store a few wheels at a bank as collateral for business financing. The bank has that much trust in the quality and certification that they can take make an actual loan based on the value of the cheese.

This shows that there are some intangible qualities that can support that this cheese is a good bet. It is worth the money.

For us, in photography, these intangible qualities are what help us form a strong bond wth our clients. Yes, you can say, that we are using high quality equipment. But anyone can buy a good camera. We know how to use it, we know how to make people look good in a photo. We work with staff that have skills and then continually train them to improve. We are reliable and make clients feel comfortable that we will do the job consisitently and with great client service. These are the intangibles that get us our 'certification'. That make people trust The Booth, like they trust the word 'Parmesan'.

Bon apetite and, of course, say 'Cheese!'

Booth Letter 5: Black or White?

A Client’s Choice - Black and White or Color Corporate Headshots

We recently did a headshot day for a client that was on the fence, creatively. They knew it would be a more serious, corporate headshot look, but were stuck on one issue – black and white or color.

They were thinking maybe they would do both but were unsure of how these images would look together. A color image on a clean white background has a very different look than what that professional headshot converted to black and white. It's an altogether different look for a corporate headshot and the two looks will certainly send a different kind of signal to a client.

Pre-shoot, we established trust with this new client. We had clear packages to show him and examples from our galleries that were relevant to the looks he was considering. This was enough for the client to feel assured that we could do the work.

Still, we wanted the client to truly understand the choice and outcome they could expect from their new professional headshot – black and white or color. It was decided that we would build in an extra bit and do a short test shoot before the staff showed up for their photos.

Starting with one subject, we shot the corporate headshot photo a few different ways and then converted it to black and white. The client was able to do a real side-by-side comparison and think about how their staff photography would look like together on a page. From here, they felt far more assured of their deicison.

This ended up being a really good solution for this client. This was a small-ish firm (20 attorneys) without a marketing person. One of the partners was tasked with making this creative decision. This attorney had an awful lot on his plate, as attorney's often do. While he couldn't have a better client to work with – friendly, gracious and professional – he just didn't have time to ruminate on these creative ideas.

We knew that we could make his life easier. We reduced the pre-planning portion. We came to the job with options that could easily be executed and decided on in person.

From there we were able commit to a look and cover the staff headshots consistently for a client confident and assured client.

Booth Letter 5 - Digital First With Headshots

Utilizing Headshots for Digital Marketing

In today's digital-first corporate strategy, headshots are an invaluable tool for digital marketing efforts. They can be used in various ways to enhance online presence and engage with the target audience.

First and foremost, professional headshots can be utilized on company websites and social media profiles. Placing business headshots of key team members on these platforms humanizes the company and allows clients to put a face to the names they interact with. It makes the company more approachable and relatable.

Additionally, corporate headshots can be used in email marketing campaigns, newsletters, and blog posts. Including corporate headshots in these communications adds a personal touch and helps establish a connection with the recipients. It also increases the chances of the content being read and remembered.

Really want to get the most bang for your buck – leverage your business headshots for online advertising and promotional materials. A well-crafted staff headshot can grab attention and make potential clients curious about the company's offerings. It serves as a visual representation of the company's values and professionalism.

And a lovely review from a lovely corporate headshot client:

Have you ever dreamed of the perfect photographer that would be able to pull the real you from their camera? The you that encapsulates the energy you want to project? Well, Laura and The Booth do exactly that. They just get me. They capture the energy I want in vivid, and sometimes fun imagery. A headshot is more than a photograph, it's the projection of you as a brand. And the Booth nails it every time. I can not recommend them highly enough.

-Rekha Gibbons, Client, friend and peer.

Booth Letter 4

Background Switch

We have a new service! It's called Background Switch and we do just that – take a photo off of its existing background and apply it to yours.

This is the fastest way to get your new hire's photos to match the rest of your staff. You might be planning a headshot day in a few months, but the photos need to match. Now.

This has worked well for clients with the following:
-New staff that needs to be online asap.
-Remote staff submitting professionally taken images.
-A roster webpage with unmatching photos.

This can be a very good, low-cost upgrade that will hold you over until your next full headshot day.

Here's a link: https://www.theboothforbusiness.com/theboothretouching.

Case Study 1: The New Hire

Our client went through a website rebranding, taking gorgeous corporate headshot photos (if we do say so ourselves) of their entire staff.

One month later someone new joined the team.

The press release announcing this new hire was eminent. They needed a quick turnaround to get an image consistent with their new branding for the release and and, in general, for the staff profile page.

We had the background plate from a previous shoot, so we clipped out the image and placed it onto it. Now they had something they could work with.

This is a temporary solution for this client. The photo looks good and lets them move ahead with consistency. Eventually we will be back their office to do a photo with the right light in the right background. But it's a great tool to have for when you need to move quickly.

More case studies to come!

The Booth Letter 003

Spring is springing and we are busy. It’s headshot photography at conferences and businesses looking to catch up on their new hires for us.

In the last Booth Letter we started introducing some of our service features that you will LOVE. More specifically, we introduced you to the scheduling tool. This makes it so easy - everyone books their own headshots, you aren’t tasked with creating an impossible schedule and on shoot days, long lines evaporate.

Here’s another tool that you and your team will wonder how you ever lived without.

Popular Tool # 2 - On-site Image Selection Tool

Our on-site image selection station is BY FAR our clients favorite feature. It's not just fun to see your new professional heashots right away. It's a huge time saver. Subjects get their photos immediately. You, the client, no longer have to spend days emailing individual galleries out to the subjects. With our iPad sharing station, subjects send themselves their new corporate headshot before they leave the studio area!

Here's how the it works:

Subject pose for their corporate headshots.

Photos transfer immediately to the nearby iPad.

Subject selects all images and enters his/her/their email address.

Subject presses send :)

That's it. Really!

*Added bonus, the email content can be branded and customized! You tell us what text, information, links, etc you want included. For businesses, maybe you will tell staff how to upload their headshot to the portal. For conferences, include logos and contacts to extend the reach of, say, a sponsorship opportunity.

Review Time - Corporate Headshots for Conferences!

We have great clients. Here’s what one of our favorite conference headshot booth had to say about her experience with us:

I was first introduced to Laura Londin and The Booth for Business Corporate Headshots while attending a marketing conference several years ago. I loved the efficient process (and the pictures) and wondered if they could do the same for our customer events. Since then they have attended our last two national conferences (2020 and 2023) and have received rave reviews on their service. They are an absolute pleasure to work with and really have a knack for interacting with a variety of personalities to get the best photos possible in a short amount of time. Our CTO called me after our latest event and said he was very pleased with them, and that they were a must-have at future events.

Christine Ray, CMO,

Safe Systems

The Booth Letter 002: Most Popular Headshots Services

Values and The Headshot Tools You Will Love

We built our company from two key values:

1. Take excellent corporate headshot photos.

2. Make it really easy.

Let’s break this down.

Take Excellent Hedashots. The photos have to be good. Obviously. What goes into making a good business portrait? You need an experienced corporate headshot photographer. That photographer needs to make his business headshot subject look comfortable and highlight their best selves. You need good equipment that the photographer can use expertly to sculpt the light and capture high production value images.

Make It Easy. That’s the hard part.

How do we develop services that support our clients and meet their pain points around booking, producing and using executive headshots?

Taking good corporate headshots is at the core of our business. Around that, we have built a business that you will want to work with. How? We identify pain points for our clients and come up with solutions that will save them time and effort.

Here’s how we get there:

We think about who is hiring us inside an organization. We think about the fact that this person probably has a million things to other than planning a photography shoot. We ask the client about their staff and their work environment. Then we draw from the tools we have and sometimes find new solutions to make this as easy as ordering your morning latte.

Popular Tool #1 For Headshot Photography

Our scheduling tool is seriously one of the tools our clients get most excited about. I cannot tell you how many hours it saves our clients. It is pure relief when they find out we will handle scheduling their team’s sessions.

Here is what it looks like.

We set up a calendar with details of the day (hours of operation, session times, etc.) and then send the client a link to that calendar. The client then sends that link to eligible subjects so they can schedule their own session. Everyone picks the time that works for them without our contact having to be involved.

This saves so much time for EVERYONE! Here’s how:

1. Our client avoids the misery of juggling 20 (30? 40?) schedules to fit everyone into a headshot day.

2. The subjects can pick a time that works in their day.

3. It eliminate a ‘rush’ time. No one sits around waiting in the photo line while they have important work to do at their desk.

4. Your coverage is more thorough. If there’s a long line people may skip getting their headshot.

And you know what else is great? We can send our clients a list of who has signed up and when. They can make sure everyone who is supposed to have a headshot has registered.

There’s more! An automated reminder will go out, the appointment can be added to the subjects calendar and they can cancel/reschedule on their own.

So, yeah, maybe not the flashy stuff, but this scheduling tool for your office headshots will be a real hero for your project.

Highlight - Shooting Corporate Headshots In A Boardroom

When we do headshots in a corporate office we are often sent to the boardroom. Sometimes it’s a lobby area, sometimes is one of the larger or empty offices. This is New York headshot photography. Space is a PREMIUM.

So, while we ask for 12x12 feet of space, we know that it’s unlikely that we will have that, free and clear. More often, we will have an office space that has a desk or boardroom table or something in it.

Here’s a situation where we came in to do attorney headshots. There was a lovely, bright, corner boardroom. We were able to move a few chairs around and shoot down the long side of the table to get enough distance from the subject.

Of course we did some planning ahead of time, asking for cell phone photos of the space. This helped us understand what gear to bring and stay on the same page as the client as far as knowing what deliverables were reasonable for the space.

We did two looks for this client and they were very happy. Black and white and color with a grey background.

The Booth Letter 002: Most Popular Headshots Services

Values and The Headshot Tools You Will Love

We built our company from two key values:

1. Take excellent corporate headshot photos.

2. Make it really easy.

Let’s break this down.

Take Excellent Hedashots. The photos have to be good. Obviously. What goes into making a good business portrait? You need an experienced corporate headshot photographer. That photographer needs to make his business headshot subject look comfortable and highlight their best selves. You need good equipment that the photographer can use expertly to sculpt the light and capture high production value images.

Make It Easy. That’s the hard part.

How do we develop services that support our clients and meet their pain points around booking, producing and using executive headshots?

Taking good corporate headshots is at the core of our business. Around that, we have built a business that you will want to work with. How? We identify pain points for our clients and come up with solutions that will save them time and effort.

Here’s how we get there:

We think about who is hiring us inside an organization. We think about the fact that this person probably has a million things to other than planning a photography shoot. We ask the client about their staff and their work environment. Then we draw from the tools we have and sometimes find new solutions to make this as easy as ordering your morning latte.

Popular Tool #1 For Headshot Photography

Our scheduling tool is seriously one of the tools our clients get most excited about. I cannot tell you how many hours it saves our clients. It is pure relief when they find out we will handle scheduling their team’s sessions.

Here is what it looks like.

We set up a calendar with details of the day (hours of operation, session times, etc.) and then send the client a link to that calendar. The client then sends that link to eligible subjects so they can schedule their own session. Everyone picks the time that works for them without our contact having to be involved.

This saves so much time for EVERYONE! Here’s how:

1. Our client avoids the misery of juggling 20 (30? 40?) schedules to fit everyone into a headshot day.

2. The subjects can pick a time that works in their day.

3. It eliminate a ‘rush’ time. No one sits around waiting in the photo line while they have important work to do at their desk.

4. Your coverage is more thorough. If there’s a long line people may skip getting their headshot.

And you know what else is great? We can send our clients a list of who has signed up and when. They can make sure everyone who is supposed to have a headshot has registered.

There’s more! An automated reminder will go out, the appointment can be added to the subjects calendar and they can cancel/reschedule on their own.

So, yeah, maybe not the flashy stuff, but this scheduling tool for your office headshots will be a real hero for your project.

Highlight - Shooting Corporate Headshots In A Boardroom

When we do headshots in a corporate office we are often sent to the boardroom. Sometimes it’s a lobby area, sometimes is one of the larger or empty offices. This is New York headshot photography. Space is a PREMIUM.

So, while we ask for 12x12 feet of space, we know that it’s unlikely that we will have that, free and clear. More often, we will have an office space that has a desk or boardroom table or something in it.

Here’s a situation where we came in to do attorney headshots. There was a lovely, bright, corner boardroom. We were able to move a few chairs around and shoot down the long side of the table to get enough distance from the subject.

Of course we did some planning ahead of time, asking for cell phone photos of the space. This helped us understand what gear to bring and stay on the same page as the client as far as knowing what deliverables were reasonable for the space.

We did two looks for this client and they were very happy. Black and white and color with a grey background.

The Booth-letter 001 - Get it???

Introducing: The Boothletter (get it?)

For the last several years, we have been doing traditional blog posts about our corporate headshot services. It's been great to highlight different features and experiences and are glad to have that 'library' of content about headshot photography and how people can access their professional photos.

It is a very useful tool for our clients and for us!

Now it’s time to try something different.... A newsletter!

This format is an opportunity to share current info about our services, what we have been up to, who some of our corporate headshots clients are and generally help you see the range of professional business photography work that we do.

We hope it will be fun to read and informative for those that are looking for new professional headshot photography.

Project Spotlight: Entrepreneurship at Cornell Tech

One of the coolest jobs we do all year is with Entrepreneurship at Cornell Tech. This year it was double cool because it was at the Bloomberg Center at Cornell Tech out on Roosevelt Island. The space is magnificent.

It’s a day full of young, smart people with unique and interesting ideas, looking to learn and tell the world about what they are doing. We get to take headshot photos of them between sessions. They get a new photo and a spruced up headshot for the professional LinkedIn profile.

Here’s Sade working on camera getting people the best professional portraits.

Corporate Headshots at Conferences

In today's competitive business landscape, creating a strong brand identity is more important than ever. We love that you want to help your clients and community do that by offering corporate headshots at conferences. These professional headshots not only showcase people at their best but also provide an opportunity to elevate their brand and create a memorable connection with your audience.

A memorable connection with your audience is crucial for building trust and fostering long-term relationships. Corporate headshots make it easier for potential clients or partners to relate to your brand on a personal level. These photographs humanize your brand and create a sense of familiarity, helping to forge a strong bond with your target audience.

Tradeshow Headshots as a Client Facing Opportunity

Investing in business portraits for conference attendees is an effective way to showcase your brand, connect with your audience, and leave a lasting impression. Attendees will line up at your tradeshow headshot booth, appreciate the service and spend some time in your area getting to know you. They will use their photo for years and every time someone compliments them on their professional photo, they will remember that it was you that provided it!

Remote Work and Conferences

In the era of remote work, many businesses operate with employees spread out across different locations. While this setup offers flexibility and cost-saving benefits, it can pose challenges connecting with clients and brand representation. Corporate headshots taken at conferences provide a solution to this problem.

Even if most of your team is in the same place, work schedules might vary. Not all team members come into the office on the same day, making it challenging to coordinate individual headshot sessions. At conferences and meetings you are all together at the same time.

While attendees may be focused on the sessions and learning, it can be just as valuable to schedule in time for the team's headshots. By taking advantage of the conference setting to capture corporate headshots, you are making the most of your time together.

For teams that are across the country and in-office on various days, conferences and meeting headshots are an efficient option. It also eliminates the need for multiple individual headshot sessions, saving time and resources for both the employees and the company.

You can schedule in intentional headshot time that coincides with breakfast or other networking moments. Team members can also fit in a quick headshot session between meetings or during breaks, minimizing disruption to their schedules. This efficiency not only saves time but also ensures that everyone has the opportunity to have their photos taken, maximizing the impact of your branding efforts.

Value

Corporate headshot photography at conferences can be a big investment. Let's look at the actual costs in comparison to 1) Other conference giveaways or 2) hiring photographers in multiple locations to cover smaller groups.

Headshots can draw people to your booth/brand. While waiting for their headshot, they will be open to chatting with your team. A key element of tradeshow sponsorships. Client acquisition costs can be anywhere from $300-1200 or more each. We aren't promising that everyone who stops by will become a client, but you are definitely starting a stronger relationship with someone when you offer a headshot vs. a pen.

For businesses that need to cover a full team, there is no question that cost and efficiency is more favorable in a conference setting. A flat fee package means you can get as many people through as time allows. You could be talking $25-45/person vs. $150-1200/person.

Examples of Successful Corporate Headshots at Conferences

To truly understand the impact of corporate headshots at conferences, let's look at some examples of businesses that have successfully utilized this branding strategy.

Example 1: The INSITE Conference is an event sponsored by BNY Mellon. Every year they bring together financial advisors to help share new information, best practice and current affairs in their industry. These attendees need a client-facing profile and use LinkedIn profile headshots, website headshots and headshots for speaking engagements. The Booth for Business sets up a headshot lounge studio area on the tradeshow floor. Attendees come to us between sessions, during lunch and at various other points throughout the day to get a new headshot. This not only enhances their personal brand but also contributes to the overall professional atmosphere of the conference.

Example 2: Benjamin Moore, as we all know, is an international paint company. They have a robust sales team that relies on relationships to get their products to retailers, wholesalers and, ultimately, users. Each year this crew gets together for a sales conference to discuss different aspects of the industry, establish goals and zero in on business initiatives. This team works in all corners of the USA, but they are together in one place for those few days. What better time to get consistent headshot photos that meet the Benjamin Moore branding guidelines. At this event it was important that we covered everyone so we created a sign-up tool and made an intentional schedule using multiple shooters to get the job done.

Conclusion: The Power of Corporate Headshots at Conferences

In today's competitive business landscape, it is crucial to have a professional corporate headshot or LinkedIn profile photo. Corporate headshots at conferences offer a unique opportunity to achieve both of these goals. By investing in high-quality photographs for conference attendees you help them convey professionalism, credibility, and authenticity. No customized pen or stressball in the world can do this.

Conferences serve as a gathering place for businesses within a specific industry or niche, making them the perfect setting to capture corporate headshots. By incorporating headshot sessions into these events, you maximize efficiency and ensure that all team members have the opportunity to have their photos taken. This promotes a consistent and unified brand representation, even if your team is dispersed across different locations.

Investing in corporate headshots at conferences is an effective way to showcase your brand, connect with your audience, and leave a lasting impression. Don't underestimate the power of professional photography in elevating your brand identity. Take advantage of the opportunities provided by conferences and watch as your brand shines through the individual personalities of your team members and those in your industry. You can help create a memorable connection that sets you apart from the competition.

Back For Your New Business Headshots!

In the past year we have seen clients come back looking for a corporate headshots and business photography. We are happy to say we are quite busy bringing everyone's headshots back in line and making sure everyone feels great about their new work photos.

There are a few key reasons that people are coming back to us for headshots at this time. In this blog entry, I will share a few!

Keep It Current with New Business Headshots.

The key motivating factor to bring a corporate headshot photographer in for a day of headshot photography is the change in staff, in style, and in communications have changed. Our client's websites and communications, the LinkedIn profiles and the speakers portraits, they all have to reflect the current state of their businesses. So much has changed over the last few years and having current headshots for your professional team is an important part of communicating with your clients and business partners.

It's been a long time since you did corporate headshots for your team.

By the time people come to us to book professional headshot photography, they are usually a few years behind on the service. Maybe there is no clear person in charge of it in your company, maybe things have been going so well that there's been no time – one of those rainy day projects that never happens. Maybe you they run a startup that just now has a little money to spend. It's time to get a professional LinkedIn profile photo. And maybe it's just hard to get the team rallied for it.

Now add the 6 months it takes to figure out budget, find the right business photographer and get a date on the calendar that works for everyone on your team.

And, oh yeah, the pandemic...

So here you are, in February, 2020. The last time you did business headshots for your team was in 2015. We are already ripe for a new headshot. FYI, we recommend 3-5 years top to renew your headshots.) So here you are, it's been 5 years and you are ready to update the team's corporate headshot photography, and then the pandemic hits. Now you are more like 7-8 years overdue.

But I Look So Much Older!

People use the images they see online of you to familiarize themselves. It kicks off that first meeting either in person or over a video call app, with a trust or familiarity. If your photo doesn't reflect who you are now, it can get in the way of that trust you are trying to build. A client might wonder why you don't look like you do in your photo. It is jarring not to be able to trust it.

And let's just put this out there. Embrace the wrinkles. You earned them!!! And know you are your worst critic. No one sees the age lines or the haircut changes or any of those things the same way you do. If you are keeping your photo because you don't like your look now, well this can create a trust problem. i.e. why is that person keeping her LinkedIn profile from 2005??? She looks great in it but it's not her anymore. Let us get the best version of you and you share that with your team, you are being honest and showing a client who you are.

New Hires!

There are other reasons that people are coming to us for headshots right now. NEW HIRES! There has been a record number of hiring/firing since 2020. No matter where you are or what you do, if you have a team of 10 or more people, the personnel in your team has likely changed. It's time to let your clients and business peers know who is on your team! Take new corporate headshots so that everyone is represented. This not only helps people know who is at your firm, it helps them understand the status of things in your world. What does the new team look like? Who is leading the marketing team? Who are the current account executives?

Working From Home

While there is a return to office push going on in the world, the reality is, there is no more 5 day work week. It turns out that working from home, at least part time, well, works. This means that you might not actually see your colleagues if your days skew differently from your colleagues. And if you are in a situation where the team is another office in another city, you are getting to know these colleagues through their professional headshots or LinkedIn profile photos. For the same reason that having a current, business headshot accessible builds confidence with your clients, it builds confidence with your team. If no one knows you yet and you are unlikely to meet up in the office anytime soon, that headshot could be a first step in getting to know one another.

We love that we are seeing our clients again. Whether it is in our office shooting profile photos for real estate companies, local business for CEO headshots, or creative design firm headshots. Whether we are in your office covering your new hires, or all 50 of you, we are happy to be back with you. Whatever your reason, we are here to support you and get you and your company up to date with the best corporate headshot photography.

Before the Click - Preparing for Your Corporate Headshots

Our clients are the best. They value our business photography service and see that doing corporate headshots is so much more than what happens on professional headshot day. Sure, our first in-person contact might be when they walk in the door for their professional portrait, but there is so much that happens ahead of that moment. We are happy to share the steps we take before we click that first corporate headshot at your office or conference.

That First Call

The preparation for corporate headshots starts on the first communication with a client. At this initial conversation we are starting to make a plan. First we want to know the scope of the job. What type of services do you need? Are you looking for website headshots or general corporate headshots for your staff of 30? Do you want us to provide LinkedIn headshots for an upcoming date where your entire industry is coming together? We are thinking about how much time you need and what kind of venue it will be.

Headshot Photo Style

We want to know what the photos should look like. Are you looking for all of your professional headshots to be against a uniform background? If yes, we start to think about your space in terms of whether it can accommodate our standard 9' background. What color background do you want our executive headshot photographers to shoot against? Do we have that color in stock or will we source that from one of our vendors? Do you want it to be an environmental shot that includes more of the office? If yes, we start to ask you questions about, for example, your boardroom layout. It is it open or does it have a large table that cannot be moved. Or is there a large open hallway area where we can setup without people wandering through a background?

Headshot Photo Shoot Logistics

Other planning includes how many website headshots, for example, you need our corporate headshot photographers to take. This tells us how many hours or days we will be in your office. Finally, we want to know how you will be using the images. This helps us plan for how the images will be taken, what file size you need, and what kind of work will go into post-production for us.

All of these things help us put together a proposal. This is the start of a plan that sets the framework on how we will build the logistics for this job.

So you love what we present and say, yes! Let's do it! What's next?

We show up at your door and take a photos and call it a day.

Yeah right.

Preparation – Planning for the Corporate Headshot You Need

The first thing we do is get you on the calendar and make spend time thinking through who the right staff is for your job. We are lucky to have a group of talented corporate headshot photographers that are trained in our business photography technique. They know how to take a professional portraits and how to make a client feel comfortable in front of the camera.

Next we head to our studio. If you are going with, say our not-so-corporate profile photograph with a grey background, we know just the equipment to pull for your job. We look at lights, cameras and backgrounds that we have in-house. We pack up all the grip (hardware like background supports, clamps, etc. that support the other equipment) and make sure our computers and wifi are up-to-date and can be operated in your space. This kind of prep takes a few hours. The more specialized the professional portrait, the more time we spend planning and getting the right equipment together.

Client Call – Logistics For Headshot Location And More

While clients find that they can be pretty hands-off with us, we do have to have another conversation to discuss logistics. We confirm the building address. We ask if there is a loading dock. Are there insurance requirements for the building? What floor are you on? What room will we set up in? Who will be our day-of contact we can call, should we hit a snag at any point between the street and the room where we are shooting? Exchanging cell phone numbers with our client is a MUST.

Preparation – Executive Portrait Shoot Day

Here is something that not everyone knows. We get to every job at least 2hrs in advance of our first shot. So if your first employee wants their headshot at 9am, we need to be there at 7am to start our setup. That means someone on your team needs to be at the office at 7am to let us in.

Our clients ask us, “Do you need 2 full hours to setup for a corporate headshot?”

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but we always plan for it.

Loading Docks

At a busy loading dock in an NYC skyscraper, for example, there are many steps to getting to our final destination in the building. We are checking in at the loading dock. The same person who cleared our entrance the day before might not be on the morning crew so it can take a minute (or 30) before the loading dock team locates our clearance. There might be a line for the freight elevators with all the other vendors trying to get to their clients. There might be a long walk with our gear from the loading dock entrance to the elevators and then another long walk when we get up to your floor.

Inside - Shooting Location

Often we are working in a space where we have never seen with our own eyes. Sometimes everything is exactly as expected. Sometimes the power outlet is a little too far away. Sometimes there is a table that won't move and we cannot put our lights where we expected. Simply getting into the right room can take time but then you have so many other things to navigate.

These are all expected parts of our day so you won't hear any grumbling from us. These are busy buildings with many many moving parts. It's our job to plan for the environment we are working in and get through all of the hurdles before without breaking a sweat.

Expecting the Unexpected

As much as we plan together with the clients, there are almost always unexpected elements in the course of our setup for website headshots. Maybe our contact hits traffic and we get into the room a little late. Perhaps the furniture in the room we are using hasn't been moved to accommodate our setup. Perhaps we have an issue with a piece of our own equipment.

No problem is insurmountable but we do not always know what they will be. In the 10+ years we have been doing this, we have learned that planning ahead and building in plenty of time is are the best ways to make things go smoothly. If this means we have time for a coffee before our start time, we are happy. Our aim is to be cool and calm with camera in hand when that first subject walks through the door for their corporate headshot.

Ready To Shoot

As you can see, our work starts the second you call us up for our business headshots. We start the wheels turning and with every step we adjust and accommodate. We have been very careful to keep our services clear and consistent and our workflows regular. This helps you, the client, understand how it will be to work with us on executive portraits. But it is also for us. It helps us make doing headshots the easiest part of your week!

Corporate Headshot Photographers - Behind The Scenes

Our clients are the best. They value every part of our business photography service and see that putting a job on is so much more than what happens on professional headshot day. Sure, our first in-person contact might be when they walk in the door for their professional portrait, but there is so much that happens ahead of that moment. We are happy to share some of what happens up until the moment we click that first corporate headshot.

The preparation starts on the first communication with a client. At this initial conversation we are starting to make a plan. First we want to know the scope of the job. What type of services do you need? Are you looking for website headshots or general corporate headshots for your staff of 30? Do you want us to provide LinkedIn headshots for an upcoming date where your entire industry is coming together? We are thinking about how much time you need and what kind of venue it will be.

We want to know what you want the photos to look like. Are you looking for all of your professional headshots to be against a uniform background? If yes, we start to think about your space in terms of whether it can accommodate a 9' background. What color background do you want for those corporate portraits? Do we have that color in stock or will we source that from one of our vendors? Do you want it to be an environmental shot that includes more of the office? If yes, we start to ask you questions about, for example, what your boardroom looks like or is there a space where we could do it without people wandering through a background.

Other planning includes how many portraits you need our corporate headshot photographer to take. This tells us how many hours or days we will be in your office. Finally, we want to know how you will be using the images. This helps us plan for how the images will be taken, what file size you need, and what kind of work will go into post-production for us.

All of these things help us put together a proposal. This is the start of a plan that sets the framework on how we will build the logistics for this job.

So you love what we present and say, yes! Let's do it! What's next?

We show up at your door and take a few pictures and call it a day.

Yeah right.

The first thing we do is get you on the calendar and make spend time thinking through who the right staff is for your job. We are lucky to have a group of talented corporate headshot photographers that are trained in our business photography technique. They know how to take a professional portraits and how to make a client feel comfortable in front of the camera.

The dog offers moral support as we pack up our professional headshot gear at the studio.

Next we head to our studio. If you are going with, say our not-so-corporate profile photograph with a grey background, we know just the equipment to pull for your job. We look at lights, cameras and backgrounds that we have in-house. We pack up all the grip (hardware like background supports, clamps, etc. that support the other equipment) and make sure our computers and wifi are up-to-date and can be operated in your space. This kind of prep takes a few hours. The more specialized the professional portrait, the more time we spend planning and getting the right equipment together.

Ian preparing for our business photography shoot in the studio.

While clients find that they can be pretty hands-off with us, we do have to have another conversation to discuss logistics. We confirm the building address. We ask if there is a loading dock. Are there insurance requirements for the building? What floor are you on? What room will we set up in? Who will be our day-of contact we can call, should we hit a snag at any point between the street and the room where we are shooting? Exchanging cell phone numbers with our client is a MUST.

Here is something that not everyone knows. We get to every job at least 2hrs in advance of our first shot. So if your first employee wants their headshot at 9am, we need to be there at 7am to start our setup. That means someone on your team needs to be at the office at 7am to let us in.

Our clients ask us, “Do you need 2 full hours to setup for a corporate headshot?”

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but we always plan for it. On so many of our jobs we are navigating through a space where we have never been. Simply getting into the right room can take time.

At a busy loading dock in an NYC skyscraper, for example, there are many steps to getting to our final destination in the building. We are checking in at the loading dock. The same person who cleared our entrance the day before might not be on the morning crew so it can take a minute (or 30) before the loading dock team locates our clearance. There might be a line for the freight elevators with all the other vendors trying to get to their clients. There might be a long walk with our gear from the loading dock entrance to the elevators and then another long walk when we get up to your floor.

These are all expected parts of our day so you won't hear any grumbling from us. These are busy buildings with many many moving parts. It's our job to plan for the environment we are working in and get through all of the hurdles before without breaking a sweat.

As much as we plan together with the clients, there are almost always unexpected elements in the course of our setup for executive headshots. Maybe our contact hits traffic and we get into the room a little late. Perhaps the furniture in the room we are using hasn't been moved to accommodate our setup. Perhaps we have an issue with a piece of our own equipment.

Our corporate headshot team is ready to go!

The problems are never insurmountable and we do not always know what they will be. In the 10+ years we have been doing this, we have learned that planning ahead and building in plenty of time is are the best ways to make things go smoothly. If this means we have time for a coffee before our start time, we are happy. Our aim is to be cool and calm with camera in hand when that first subject walks through the door for their corporate headshot.

The Background Challenge - Corporate Headshots

When we work with clients, we want a clear understanding on what they want out of their final professional headshots. Our strategy is to break down down the elements of the shot. This can include background, crop, style, environment, etc. This helps us zero in on how we can construct an image that the client really wants.

Looking at background, we find that clients are pretty clear on the general category or style they want from their photo. The professional headshot subject will either be on a setup background or situated in a specific environment. It is our job to tune in on exactly what that means for you, stylistically. But we would be remiss if we did not also help you understand how that type of background will work with your company.

We have discussed background consideration in previous posts. The two main choices are environmental backgrounds and solid backgrounds. An environmental corporate portrait means we are taking a photo that features the subject using the space (or environment) as the background. The idea is that the room or location will be part of the image and will feature surrounding elements that add context to the image.

Think of an attorney photographed in a boardroom or library, a business person in a conference room, an actress photographed in a theater. Each of the locations and backgrounds give the image depth, adds professional context, or signals something about what the subject does professionally. There is consistency in feel but because no two people are the same, they will fill up the space differently.

Here is an example of a subject that was photographed in an available space. In the end they wanted that corporate headshot against a shifted background.

If you are using a solid background, you are shooting against a backdrop or wall. There might be some texture or variation in hue, but in this case, you are looking for a clean and consistent look. No matter how tall, small, large-haired or bald this person is, the background is a unifying factor.

This is great for a company that wants every shot to feel similar. It is an easy solution for large companies and companies with multiple locations where it is hard to get all staff together in one place. It can easily be duplicated in different locations.

Creating consistency with backgrounds.

So you want to use your office environment for New York business headshots but you have staff working in Atlanta and Chicago. What do you do to for corporate headshots in those other locations? There is a workaround that takes a bit more planning and post-shoot time, but is easy to pull off.

Here's the trick. When we photograph a team in front of an environmental background, we also capture an image of the background without anyone in the frame. It is a photo of just the background. When someone from a different office needs those same professional headshots, that person can be photographed against a solid background. We then clip the image, (imagine using a pair of scissors to cut around the outline of that person) and then paste them onto the company background. Yes, it is more complex and might require a bit more budget for post-production work, but it works and is certainly less costly and more convenient than getting that person in for a photo.

Another option for environmental corporate headshots is to choose 2-3 different options for backgrounds. There can be a background choice for each company location. Keeping in mind your company's overall design choices and branding guidelines, pick a spot in each location where your employees can be photographed.

Multiple environmental backgrounds, thoughtfully chosen, can work beautifully together on a company website. There will be no images that feel jarringly different, should you hire someone new. Already the staff roster page will be filled with professional headshots using different backgrounds.

Solid backgrounds can sometimes also require additional background work. Tonal shifts can happen even when subjects are all shot on the same exact background. Variation is less likely when everyone is shot the same and lighting plans are created for the most consistent outcome when a second day of different cities need covering. Still there are factors, such as slight shifts in light placement, different cameras, different computers processing, etc.

We get around this and aim for consistency using the same strategy as with the environmental background. When we are doing the original professional headshots in your office, we shoot the original background without a subject in front of it. In post-production, we compare the backgrounds of those professional portraits. If necessary, we can clip the subject off of the background they were shot in front of and place it onto the company background.

Here is a different kind of example of how a we had to shift professional headshots from one solid background to another. The company business headshots to blend into the overall basic white webpage background.

Now, anyone who has ever walked into a paint store to find a can of white for their walls, knows that there are more than a few shades of white. When you start to put those white paint chips together, you see that while some might be similar, you can still detect differences.

The same is true for photography. Our white background might be a warmer (think yellow tones) or colder (think blue tones). The light we are using might have it's own cast to it and the file processing might add it's own shift. There could be a some light fall off making the edges a little darker. To the eye, the background might appear to be a clean white on the screen but when we get it onto that white web page we will see a clear line differentiating between the two. There is a clear difference.

So we take the same approach. We clip the image from it's original photo and place it onto the white that matches the website from edge-to-edge. Voila, it blends in perfectly!

There is a lot to think about when you plan for your business headshots. Hopefully these ideas around background solutions help you feel more confident that your headshot page will pull together beautifully.

It's Headshot Day - Covid Style!

The ball started rolling for us in the business headshot and professional portrait market in August and it has been a steady and solid Fall, work-wise, ever since. That is very good news for us, given that we are in an industry where every sector hit a massive 12 foot thick wall a few Marches ago.

We will not go as far as to say that the pandemic is under control, but we will admit that we are cautiously optimistic. Why? So many of our clients have figured out how to function safely. They have guidelines and rules in place that allow people to operate with protections in their places of business. They are being supported by vaccine requirements. People are wearing masks. Offices are at reduced capacity.

Here are some of the trends that our executive headshot photographers are seeing.

Thank Goodness for Vaccines

People are feeling confident in the power of the vaccines. Those who are vaccinated are not getting sick or nearly as sick.

There is no way for a corporate photographer to take a headshot when the subject is wearing a mask. When we ask them to get in front of the camera and remove their mask, they can feel far more confident that they are protected by their own vaccination status.

Clients are being so careful. They are following mandates as a baseline. Extra steps include, for example, closed campuses. This means that only those with ID's or that have pre-approved business in the building are allowed to enter.

These vaccination requirements are being taken quite seriously in New York, our home base and the surround areas. We are grateful that this key element of vaccinations is something that will help us get back to business as usual.

Masks, Masks, Masks

Call it overkill, given the vaccination rates among our clients, but with the delta variant still causing so much havoc, we are grateful that our clients are still feeling the value of this extra layer of protection.

Everyone is wearing and cooperating, as far as we can see. Obviously, for their online or LinkedIn headshot, the mask has to come off. But we are glad about the extra protection that masks bring to our shooting area while subjects wait. And we said it here first – masked professional headshots anyone? A real sign of the times, no?

Smaller Groups

We used to come to an office to cover employees for their business headshot. Or maybe a university to cover graduate or graduating students for their LinkedIn headshot. There would be crowds of people lining up. Sometimes it would be 20-30 people deep every second of the 6hrs we are shooting. People wanted their professional headshot.

This piece has changed dramatically. The events are smaller and we are taking phased and scheduled approaches to getting people their professional headshot photos.

We are doing our part to keep a more organized flow. With our clients, we are strongly advocating for scheduling individual sessions. Our scheduling tool is the simplest way to do this. We send the client a link to the schedule. They then distribute it to their staff or subjects. Each individual schedules their own time to have their corporate headshot session. This means that there is a steady and predictable flow of headshot clients coming into the room. No one is waiting in line for an hour to get their photo taken. They are scheduling their time, showing up a minute or two early, getting their photo and then exiting the area.

Easy breezy.

Not only are people in and out faster, the room where we shoot is never crowded. There are never more than 1 or 2 people waiting around, if that. It is only the photographer, an assistant, the current subject and sometimes the corporate headshot subject who is up next.

Spaced Out

The other factor that helps with less crowded spaces? A room that has a bit more... room. We are pushing for more open and roomy areas to shoot in and clients, whenever possible, are accommodating. Our ideal space has enough room for a photographer, an assistant and a subject to occupy the room with the magic 6' distance between everyone. If that can't happen we modify with safety being the first priority.

A few other things we are seeing...

Rooms are clean. We see professional crews coming through all the time wiping down tables, doorknobs, chairs, and anything else that people might be touching. There is hand sanitizer everywhere and surfaces wipes galore.

Now, we at The Booth are very familiar with the phrase, Hygiene Theater. But we operate in spaces that are shared by sometimes hundreds of others, where doors are touched by at least 20-30 people an hour, where the bathrooms might have 10 stalls. We believe the safest cleaning measure is to wash those hands (for a full 2 rounds of happy birthday, please). But when we are in NYC in high traffic and public areas, we are happy for the effort that the cleaning staff and our hosts make.

And for the best and most important part.... People are on board. Everyone wants their headshots done safely and in an organized way. Sure, the occasional mask might slip below the nose, but they are quick to adjust back to code. We have not seen anyone out of compliance as everyone we work with is comfortable with the safety guidelines, or at least willing to comply while we are working together..

We are so glad to be back shooting corporate headshots and business photography on the regular. We love seeing our people, meeting new folks and making great photography.

Small Businesses During Covid - Corporate Portrait Project

During the pandemic, we were thinking a lot about our colleagues and how they were conducting their business through this difficult time. Attending large zoom meetings, connecting one-on-one, reading LinkedIn, posts, comments, industry journals, helped us, and we know so many others, get a clearer understanding of what was happening in various business communities. It was interesting to see how our corporate headshot business compared. Since we are almost 100% a B2B headshot photography company our next moves very much hinge on what is happening out int he business community.

Our meetings were mostly focused on local business associations, conference planners, etc. Getting a read on where everyone was with their businesses helped us understand what we could expect coming down the pipeline to our corporate headshot business.

From the corporate event people, we started to understand when conferences were coming back. This is a big sector for us as many of our clients are associations who want to get website headshots and LinkedIn headshots for their members. Internal event planners at large corporations bring us in to cover corporate portraits for different departments or staff groups. They might bring us in to do business headshots for a department of 10, or a salesforce of 800.

Talking to businesses in our area gave us a read on hiring. Of course, businesses that are hiring need new headshots for their new employees! But it was also, simply put, kind of interesting to see how small businesses were doing, to understand their unique challenges and to get surprised when we hear how certain businesses not just thrived, but blew through growth expectations.

One of the things we love about doing business photography is that we are always interfacing with people in various professional positions among varied business sectors. The last few months was a very interesting time to hear from this myriad group of people.

Of course as we were staying connected and listening to stories, we started getting interested in the idea of sharing Covid business stories. Lucky to have a wonderful circle of professionals that we respect and learn from, we were able to get a few to sit in front of our camera.

Without further ado, here are some portraits and small business stories that we have captured so far:

Sandra Cohen, Cohen and Buckmann

Employment and Employee Benefits Law Firm

How long have you been in business? Exactly five years in April 2021 - we are trying to celebrate our fifth anniversary all year long!

How did your business thrive or struggle during the pandemic? As an employment and employee benefits law firm, our business evolved in a steady way with the economic cycles: during the pandemic, we were busy advising clients on layoffs, furloughs and navigating all kinds of new laws affecting things like sick leaves and benefit law changes. Now that business is opening up, we are helping clients with new hiring and new incentive contracts, as well as employee benefits in transactions/M&A deals.

Did you have to make changes in your business to accommodate personal or family circumstances? I was fortunate to already be working from a home office by choice, well before the pandemic. But it was new territory to have my husband working home every day, and we had to set up make-shift office space for him as well as set up our two teenage sons in different parts of the house so they could do Zoom school. I feel very lucky that our kids are old enough to manage a lot of that by themselves, and we all managed to get along pretty well too! I have so much respect for working parents of little children, trying to juggle homeschool, keeping their jobs and managing the overall stress we all felt about daily life in these times.

Has your business community reached out to support each other in any way? The legal community found new ways to network over video. While I was originally skeptical that I could develop meaningful relationships without meeting in person, I now have new business colleagues that I can now call friends, that I have only met over Zoom.

John Rafferty, Watchguard 24/7

Security guards for residential and commercial locations + related services.

How long have you been in business? 12 years.

How did your business thrive or struggle during the pandemic? Just like every business, there were hurtles that we had to deal with during the pandemic, but we were able to meet our clients' expectations, find new opportunities, and strengthen our relationships even more with our clients where they realized the value of having a true partner providing their security, concierge and fire safety director services. 

What are unexpected consequences of the pandemic on your business? Unfortunately, people are still being offered unemployment and other incentives where some people are not looking to come back to work, and it is minimizing the available work force. 

Did you have to make changes in your business to accommodate personal or family circumstances? We are still currently making accommodations for our team and these changes are still currently in place. 

What will you change about your business moving forward? Moving forward, I understand that working remote is still effective when needed. 

Do you think the government did a good job supporting small business owners? I think during an unprecedented time the government did a decent job, however, I would like to see some changes currently to help business owners and to get everyone back to work. 

Has your business community reach out to support you in any way? I'm very involved in the business community and have many business partners I collaborate with. We work with each other all the time to refer each other business.

Azra Kazim Kermali, Plaques by Azra

Signs and Lucite Products

How long have you been in business? Founded by my parents 46 years ago, I have been actively involved for 25 years.

How did your business thrive or struggle during the pandemic? We struggled a lot as events were cancelled. [Sales for] My entire graduation season was impossible as people were in lockdown and there was too much uncertainty.

What are unexpected consequences of the pandemic on your business? As soon as we were in the third week of lockdown, I knew that all businesses would take a hit.  I was blown away at how my networks were focused on survival.  I even sat on a panel advising the community to tap into resources as I saw them being available.  Unfortunately, I didn't get much at all in the beginning, and I could see my savings starting to dry up.  I had some past due bills, but vendors were willing to defer payments and AMEX also gave us a no finance fee period which really helped me out a lot.  Other credit cards followed as well, but the wait time to reach them was absolutely insane.  As soon as I got my first loan, I made sure I paid my vendors and balances due.

What will you change about your business moving forward? Despite it all, I am so proud to share that we have decided to expand to offer our clients Employee Engagement services. During the pandemic, I struggled with uncertainty as to when our business would bounce back. All our clients were facing budget issues, and understandably cut out events and awards in the new virtual world. I came up with an idea [to accommodate for this] and so far, it is moving well.

Do you think the government did a good job supporting small business owners? Yes, I think they did their best. It was tough getting the answers and eligibility at the beginning, but I am grateful.

Has your business community reach out to support you in any way? Yes, all my networks were amazing with information on funding, resources and support around pivoting. Grant opportunities were also available. There are so many, I don't know where to begin but here are a few: Goldman Sachs, Tory Burch Foundation, NYCSBS, Small Business Administration, NMSDC, IFundWomen, HerSuiteSpot and of course, my community.

Thank you to our subjects and we look forward to featuring more professional headshots and corporate portraits featuring businesses owners as they move through these next few months.

Corporate Headshots - It Is In The Eyes

Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. Sophia Loren

Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes. Tarjei Vesaas

When photographing people for their corporate headshots, it all starts with the eyes. They are the window to the soul, says Shakespeare, Da Vinci, the philosopher Cicero and, it seems a few others over time. Whoever and whatever the origin, we believe that it to be the absolute truth. And while we, as photographers, are not trying to get down deep like a therapist, we completely agree. What is communicated through the eyes can create the tone for how people see you and what you want your clients to understand about you from your business headshots.

True, communicating your essence through a corporate headshot is a cumulative effort. Face, clothes, posture, etc. all have to look right for your website headshots. We look at the whole 'you' . But the thing we are connecting with, the most important element, the thing that we must get right, is how the eyes look. Chances are, when you come into our studio, we will tell you where to stand, how to hold your body, where to put your hands. The last thing we will tell you is where to look. We are seeing your eyes and figuring out how to capture your spark.

Remember, the goal is to engage clients with your professional headshot. You do this most effectively through eye contact. It is amazing how different people can look from frame to frame depending on their eyes. The number one thing we will want is for people to look into the camera. Some people want something more casual where they are looking off to the side. This can work, but it must have a serendipitous feel. It can also be hard for us mere non-model mortals who might not feel at ease in front of the camera to pull this off. We are always game for trying, but you can expect us to give you several safe options for your website corporate headshot.

So we say, make eye contact with the camera. By doing so, you are engaging with the viewer/the client/your audience.

How To Use Your Eyes In A Corporate Headshot

Communication comes from the eyes. Other facial features compliment this, but what is going on in the eyes is very important. Where are you looking? Are you making eye contact? Are you emoting the kindness of a healthcare provider in your website headshot? Are you telling the world you are a hard core litigator through the steely glare of your corporate headshot? Are you using an introspective gaze of a therapist with your website headshot?

How do you want people to read you? Direct and bold? Then a very direct look into the camera matched with a feeling of ease, but no real smile, is the way to go. Do you want people to know that you will care for them? Perhaps you need something softer and inviting - maybe not a full-on joyful smile, but a friendly grin with a 'Smize' in the eyes is the way to go. See Tyra Banks, America's Next Top Model if you want to know what that looks like.

Imperfections

Let's get this next question out of the way right now. Unless you are Kate Moss, who is said to have perfect facial left/right symmetry, you have some kind of uneveness in your facial features. This is normal, typical and varies in range from one person to the next. The goal is never perfection or absolute symmetry. We love everyone's unique faces and are never trying to make anyone look anything but their best selves in their professional headshots.

Getting Technical How We Create That Corporate Headshot Spark

From a technical point of view, we always want to see a little spark of light in the eye. A tiny dot, or catchlight, reflecting our flash can make an professional headshot look alive. This is something that happens when we fire the camera and the flash goes off. It's different than glare, which is a reflection, usually off of glasses, that can obscure the eyes. It's a small thing but it is one of those details that can make a difference.

Once we have that spark in the eye, we can start to adjust other details. We can look at your smile. Are your eyes saying one thing, but your smile (or non-smile) is saying another? How is your head positioned? We often ask our clients to tilt their head a bit to the left or the right. Often this is a correction for an over-tilt. So many people take their posing cues from Instagram where the flirty head tilt reigns supreme. That is fine for social use. For business portraits, we recommend something more direct and professional.

In Conclusion - The Eyes Make The Corporate Headshot

So much of how you come off in your corporate headshot photos depends on the connection we can make with you. This is why we start with the eyes. We know it is awkward and can feel almost confrontational to look directly down the barrel of a lens, but we are here to make that feel easier. We love to get to a point where we can put our subjects at ease, look into their eyes, and know that we have gotten the most authentic corporate headshot spark.

Professional Headshots for Pride Month

We love to celebrate and we love to highlight excellent portraits. So while we are not so timely on the Pride Month theme, we feel there is always a reason to celebrate Pride! We will launch July with our celebration of some wonderful headshots and business portraits highlighting this community.

For us, inspiration for our corporate and business headshots comes from looking at all kinds of portrait photography. It is wonderful to be able to start with a research subject that might lead us to new headshot work, or to revisit old portraits that we have not come across in some time.

It would be easy to fill pages and pages of blog posts highlighting the LGBTQ community. There are the LGBTQ portrait photographers in our industry who have contributed their creativity and unique perspective. And, of course there are the subjects that our photographers cover and by taking their true, beautiful, fun and fantastic portraits, share their significance with the world.

In this post, we decided to focus on excellent headshots and portraits of the smart, driven, heros and icons that have led change for the LGBTQ community.

Starting way back in the 1960's we can look to Marsha P Johnson. She was a trans woman who identified as gay and emerged as a leader following the Stonewall uprising. Uniquely and 100% her own woman, Marsha led with personality, style and spirit. Together with another LGBTQ rights trailblazer, Sylvia Rivera, she founded STAR, or the Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.

Unsurprisingly, as a contemporary of Andy Warhol, Ms. Johnson sat for many portraits with him. While our corporate headshot subjects rarely come to us with her wild creative style, we see similarities in how he approached the portrait. As his goal was to create a true portrait of who this person was, our goal is to create a corporate headshot that feels both honest, beautiful and flattering.

When considering our next subject, Harvey Milk was an obvious choice. For those who don't know, he was an outspoken politic figure in San Francisco, who rallied the gay community to identify issues and speak up for their rights. It took him many campaigns to be elected to public office, but eventually he won. As an active official on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he moved definitively on legislation that would fight against discrimination. He was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States, earning the local title of the Mayor of Castro, a street and neighborhood in San Francisco.

Here is a business portrait of Harvey Milk from the Bettman Archive. It is office photography of a sort - a wonderful look at him in his habitat, district map in the background with stacks of paper, business cards and photographs strewn about. This documentary style business portrait gives us a window into his professional life like only the best environmental portraits can do.

Edith Windsor might not be an household name, but she brought a case all the way to the Supreme Court that was instrumental to future progress. Her case laid the groundwork for one of the biggest human rights gains in the LGBTQ community: Same Sex Marriage.

In 1996, Windsor inherited the estate of her female partner of 40 years. They were married in Canada as same sex marriage was not yet legal in the US, but lived in NY. Because they were not recognized as legally married in New York, Windsor was subject to over $350,000 in taxes. Had their marriage been recognized the taxes would have been 0.

In 2010 Windsor filed a suit against the federal government, fighting this injustice. She argue that there was discrimination inherent in the Defense of Marriage Act that led to her unfair and exorbitant tax bill. She won this landmark decision, paving the way to the case for same sex marriage.

This professional portrait of Edith Windsor by Robert Maxwell is a heroic portrait of a powerful, self-assured woman who, with her fight against the Defense of Marriage act, paved the way to same sex marriage. While it is no corporate headshot, it is most certainly a professional portrait highlighting a hard working activist. She looks unstoppable.

Michael Sam was a formidable competitor in the NFL and man, was that guy brave?! In one of the most difficult communities where, at best, homosexuality was a fraught conversation, he announced what he was: a gay man.

This headshots by Richard Phibbs is, in many ways, no different than a typical sports headshot. Sam is shirtless. His physicality is impressive. He addresses the family unflinchingly. He is a fit and strong professional player. Of course, his recently announced his sexuality, that he was gay in a profession that has little precedent for identifying as gay, hangs between the viewer and the subject. It helps us understand two things about him at one time. It is a complex headshot photography, a dramatic business portrait of sorts.

These portrait photographers have beautifully highlighted important figures in the LGBTQ community. We gain inspiration from both the imagery and what they represent for continued progress.

Posing for Corporate Headshots

Posing for business photography and website photography is not as difficult as it seems. You do not have to be a model to pull off a flattering corporate headshot. Everyone knows this and yet most people feel incredibly stressed about what they are supposed so they look good in front of the camera.

“Where do I look?”

“How should I stand?”

“What should I do with my hands?”

“Should I smile?”

These are all totally great questions that people get pretty darn stressed about when thinking about how their headshot shoot will go. A good photographer will take charge and put you at ease from the moment you begin. Hopefully this article will help you feel comfortable as well.

The Role Of A Good Corporate Headshot Photographer

A good photographer does more than just take a good photo. They are skilled at putting people at ease and helping them understand how the shoot will go. Our photographers are all trained to greet each subject and then let them know what is happening and how the session will go. As photographers who have taken thousands upon thousands of corporate and business headshots, we can tell you this. There is no one who walks into our pop-up photo studio that knows what to do. Everyone needs a little direction.

After initial niceties, we will tell you where to stand and brief you on what the plan is for the shoot. Right away the photographer should help you relax. A relaxed subject makes for good photos!

Expectations and Posing

We never expect that a subject comes to us knowing how to pose. Here are some ideas that might help demystify the corporate headshot process and get you feeling more comfortable.

The first thing we think about is, 'how will the subject be using this corporate headshot photo?' You should think about this also. What industry are you in? What are some industry standards for headshots? Does your business have a more creative or professional services/corporate vibe? Does your company have any technical requirements for size or cropping?

Think about frame, or what will be included in the photo. How much of you should be in the photo. Is the photo of you from the shoulders up? Or do we zoom out and get everything from the knees and up?to match your overall corporate branding. The vast majority use shoulders up, but sometimes a website headshots or a company's branding guidelines require something different.

Left: 3/4 frame. Right: Shoulders up.

All About The Angles

Portrait and headshot photography is all about working your angles. When we take our first look at you, we think about how we can position you to work those angles. A straight on, squarely facing the camera is not such an interesting look but turn the subject a bit and now you have something that feels a little more dynamic. Hands down by your side can feel boring or too much straight up and down. Put a hand on a hip and now we have some flattering angles.

A very typical pose to start with is with the subject\angled ¾ towards the camera. This means that your feet will be pointing 45 degrees away from the camera. From there, we will might have you rotate your shoulders towards the camera a bit, and then rotate your head even further.

Are you started to see the angles? Expect additional small position changes with direction like, 'turn your shoulders more towards the camera' or 'tilt your head a tiny bit'. Making these subtle movements can create a big change and make a 'just fine' website headshot into a 'wow' of one.

How about my arms? And hands?

Again, it's about the angles and how to position your body so it looks best. We always have some kind of platform or table in front of you where you can rest your hands. Sometimes we will ask you to put your right hand up and drop your left by your side. Then we could say, bring your left hand on top of your right. We might tell you to cross your arms. Again, we are working the angles and figuring out how you look best by making these changes. Not all of them will work, but at some point we will run into one that does and then you will sparkle!

Posing for the light.

Another factor we add into the mix is to look for the light and how it is hitting your face. How does light affect how you pose? The light is always coming from some direction (above, from the right or left, etc.). We will move you around in the light to see how it hits you best. We will likely position you facing the light and facing away from the light with adjustments of your arms, face, shoulders and such along the way. Everyone is different, so we are looking for those lighting tweaks that will make our subjects look awesome.

In the example below, the light is coming from the subjects right. While we like both of these options but it is easy to see some differences. The shot on the left has a more dramatic shadow on the subjects face, as he is subtly looking away from the light. On the right the subject is facing the light so it is spreading across his face more evenly.

In Conclusion…

So there you have it. You don't have to be Gisele to pose and look great in photos. Simply knowing how a shoot will go and that a good photographer will be your best guide will be a great start in getting yourself some fabulous new business heaadshots!

Post-Pandemic Work and the Corporate Headshot

As the head of a business headshot photography company that has been mostly sidelined during much of the pandemic, I am so very eager to get back to business. I am also on the (very) cautious side. I celebrate the positive and think about ways we can work safely. I am one of those that is excited to hear that masks are coming off, but also quite nervous about it. Is it time to take that step? Too soon? Too late?

At least a portion of my team is definitely vaccinated which is great in terms of the safety we can offer those that will be doing business headshots with us. But I am also very practical and am reading up on how to be pragmatic about risk. I understand that while there is no such thing as zero risk, there is plenty that we can do to keep our team and our clients from being vulnerable.

But I digress. This post is not how we, at The Booth for Business, feel safe about going out into the world. It is about how we can serve our longtime loyal and very new clients safely given the new ways of post-pandemic working.

What We Are Hearing from our Professional Headshot Photography Clients

We conducted a super-non-scientific survey of our clients about when they expect to start getting back together in the office and at conferences. We got some great feedback.

The news from those that are going back to work in the office seems kind of consistent. They will be expected back around Labor Day of 2021. That is not so far away and we are excited that we can get back to doing professional headshots and website headshots for these clients in a way that, with precautions, will not be so different from how we did this in the pre-pandemic times.

The same kind of timing is true for conferences. We are starting to see interest in our conference headshots as early as August 2021. But there will be some changes in this arena. Many conferences will operate on a hybrid format and there will be fewer people in attendance. It is exciting to see things move towards an in-person agenda. This is great news for those who are vaccinated and/or feel safe getting out and being with people. And it is great news for those who rely on getting their corporate headshots at an event like this.

How The Booth Will Change Doing Corporate Headshots

For our clients in the above categories, we will likely be implementing new Covid safety strategies. These are all things we have been doing at our in-studio professional headshot sessions and for business headshot off-site, at people's offices.

This is the kind of photography precautions we have been doing throughout the pandemic. We will wear masks and have our subjects keep their masks on until we are ready to shoot. We will clean communally touched surfaces between subjects. Guidance set by planners, the CDC and other guiding organizations will be followed. Like at all other times during this pandemic, we expect things to change and we are ready to be flexible and nimble in order to accommodate those changes.

In Many Ways, Corporate Headshots by The Booth Will Be The Same

From our end, the experience will be very similar. The quality will be there. The subjects will be made to feel comfortable and we will be the same friendly and personable headshot photographers who will get the best, most flattering and professional corporate headshots! What you loved about having your professional headshots with us pre-pandemic will be there for you moving forward.

What About Those Companies Not Going Back To The Office Full Time?

We have had a lot of conversations with companies about how 'going back to the office' will look. Many are considering a hybrid schedule while some companies don't intend to ever bring their staff back to the office with any regularity. Productivity has remained good with their staff working from home. Why not save commuting time and rent and keep things status quo?

What are also hearing, though is that a more permanent work from home situation does not mean never coming into the office. Most of our companies we speak to see the value of bringing people together in real life. Corporate culture is a real thing and there has to be some kind of 'coming together' experience for companies to create a sense of community.

Companies also see that a certain synergy happens among their teams when they share the same physical space. Productivity can be a goal, but productivity cannot be the only goal. Running into someone in the hall or passing their office and stopping to say hello creates a different kind of workplace commodity. It allows for collaborative thought and that other serendipitous opportunities that is important, but harder to measure.

We are seeing many companies considering a range of options that don't require staff in full-time: from 3 days in-office/week, to completely flexible work week options, to only coming in for quarterly meetings. It might even look like events, meetings and conferences particularly, will be an opportunity to bring people back into the office.

And This Is Where the Headshot Magic Can Happen!

This can be your solution for getting professional headshots for your team. Employers can do everything they need with their staff during these 'together' times and that can include corporate headshots and website headshots.

This solution is perfect, even for teams in different cities or states. If they are getting together infrequently, it is not so crazy to bring those super-remote people in for a few days.

The one thing we are hearing consistently from clients is how much they value and see a need for headshots of their teams. Website headshots, especially, in certain professional services fields, are more important than ever in establishing a relationship with a remote client. It closes that gap of feeling disconnect from your vendors or those working for you.

Now that there are fewer in-office interactions, website headshots serve an important intra-office purpose. It helps create a sense of familiarity among staff. With these new ways of working, many of us will not be in person with most of our peers.

From our perspective, this new way of getting together will make it optimal timing to cover a team, update their headshots and cover all those new employees that you have hired since the pandemic began. We feel confident that there will be further innovation in the workplace. It will be exciting to see things evolve and we look forward to evolving along with it.