You’ll want to wear professional business attire that is classic and timeless so you can use your photos for years to come. This image will be used to represent you and/or your company so you need to dress accordingly.
Photographers specialize in different areas, so do a little research. You can put your portrait on your:Ĭan any photographer take my business portrait, or do I need to find someone who specializes in business portraits? Your business headshot gives a face/name to your business. It’s similar to a typical portrait except you are buying the image to use for your business rather than buying a print to sit on your mantel. What is a business portrait and why should I get one?Ī business portrait (also called an executive portrait or professional portrait) is generally a headshot (head and shoulders portrait). It’s less painful than you might imagine. If you’re serious about connecting with your ideal audience and want to show them you mean business, you need to invest in a professional photo of yourself. Or worse, a selfie where the person next to you has almost (but not quite) been cropped out of the photo. With the availability of high-quality digital cameras on our smartphones, there’s no excuse for posting a grainy, blurry headshot. There’s no excuse for neglecting to feature a relatively current headshot of yourself on your website and in all marketing collateral. This professional who was teaching writers how to market their writing “hadn’t gotten around to” updating his headshot in 15 years? My opinion of this person sank even lower. His response: “I haven’t gotten around to having a new one taken.” “Why are you using an outdated headshot on your website?” I wondered whether he didn’t know how to update his own website, so had put off uploading a new headshot. I wondered whether he was self-conscious about his looks, and preferred to show the world a younger version of himself. I wondered whether he was too cheap to invest in hiring a photographer to update his headshot. The reason? He didn’t care enough about his audience to feature a current headshot. The instructor was at least 15 years older than his website portrait. When I walked into his classroom, I expected to see the young professional depicted in his headshot. Before the conference, I checked out the faculty member’s website. I recall the time I attended a marketing workshop at a writers conference.