What to wear for a headshot

I get this question more than any other question. And as there is no real right or wrong answer for this question I hold firmly to the stance of "keep it simple." 

Now as a commercial photographer my default on any question is keep it simple. So it should be no surprise that I feel the same way with your outfit for your headshot. Choosing a simple solid-color tops for your headshot will keep the image clean and the focus on your face. We want the viewer to connect primarily with your eyes not some busy pattern or bright color of your shirt. 

Now I don't feel you need to have a bland outfit on for headshots, you can layer and what not to create some texture but we don't want it overbearing. 

Where to get a headshot in Columbus

Often when you or your company seeks to get headshot done the first questions is - 

Where do we go to get headshot done in Columbus? 

The over-simplified answer is– nowhere! You shouldn’t have to travel anywhere to get a headshot done. You should have a photographer come to you. There are many reasons why you shouldn’t travel to a studio just to have a simple headshot done. The big one TIME! Your time, your teams time and company time. 

The more people that need to be photographed the more this becomes relevant this becomes. If you need one person photographed you may lose an hour or two of their time. Need a small team photographed you may lose 5-15hrs of team time. Need a staff of 100 done, now you're pushing 125-200hrs(this could conservatively cost your company $20K) of company time. Time you could be billing. Meeting with clients. Time lost doing what you love! The only persons who gains from this is your photographer. 

Now headshots are an important tool in your bag and they have a real impact on your marketing. So you need them but you shouldn’t waste unneeded time traveling somewhere to have them done. At Walker Photography we come to your location at no extra charge. We shoot straight to a computer so each person gets to see and proof their photo as it’s being taken. And at most, we only take 7 min of each persons time, not an hour or more. 

If you're looking to get a new headshot done of yourself or need a 1000+ person staff photographed– we’d love to chat with you! 

So, instead of wondering “Where do we get headshots in Columbus” ask “who can come to us to do our headshot.”  

Corporate Headshots Speak to your Brand

Often overlooked team headshots can communicate in ways that are in line with your brand or against it. A common place this is seen is on LinkedIn and on the "about" or "team" pages of your website. Like anything a headshot is going to communicate something and why not have it communicate who the people are that make up your company in the best light possible.

I challenge you to do a quick audit for yourself – go search your company on LinkedIn and pull up the team page on your website and ask yourself the following 3 questions...

1. Do you even have headshots on your website and Linkedin profiles? 
   If you don't you're missing out big time. Linkedin states profiles without headshots see 11 times fewer views than profiles that do. So consider if you have a team of ten that gets an average of 10 views a day, that adds up to over 36K impressions your business name is getting for free. Now without headshots, you're down to just over 3K a year. That's about a 33K impression difference of free outreach.
   
   Not to mention the benefits you have on adding the human element to your business that has great impact on creating a bond with your customers. Or maybe you don’t like creating bonds with your customers?
    

2. Is there any consistency to your team headshots?
   I'm not saying you need to have images that are all perfectly the same for your whole team(though you could and many do find this to be a good option) but you should have a consistent feel and look to the images. No need for the stiff look, get creative but be consistent. If everyone looks like their photo was taken at the different times it could make your prospects wonder if there have been a lot of turnover with your leadership and make them hesitate to take that new project with your firm.
   
   Don’t make people wonder if there are issues going on within your business– have a consistent look that can be reproduced when needed regardless of if you need 1 person photographed or 1000 people photographed. Not sure what that looks like– we can help, get in touch here.
    

3. Are your photos up to date– meaning shot within 2 years, matching current hairstyles and color and so on. 
   I hear it all the time “we already have headshots” and I follow on cue with, how old are the images… If your photo is not current—meaning it's over 2 years old— it needs to be updated. Chances are you’ve aged(it’s life, sorry), you have a new hair style, your professional “uniform” has changed– the images you're showing are no longer who your people are. When you have a photo of someone at 25 and their now 32 you are no longer communicating who they honestly are. People feel deceived by this– leaving you to have to rebuild the trust you lost from this miscommunication.
   
   If your team has old, outdated images what kind of message are you sending to your customers? Are you losing trust right from the start?

There are many factors that your headshots effect and it can help communicate your brand or it hand hinder it. If you're strategic about how you used your headshots you can leverage these simple photos. Clearly at Walker Photography, we’re passionate about headshots— we exist because we want to help you connect better with your customers and headshots help do just that.

Columbus Team Head shots - We shoot at your location

When it comes to having your teams headshots done there are many advantages to haveing them done on location. Here are the big three! 

1. Time-savings and productivity!

This is HUGE! It's simple math if you send just 10 members of your team to a studio they will be gone for an hour or more. So you just lost 10+ hours of billable time and you are now 10 hours behind and you're having to play catch up. So we work at your location and spend on average less than 5 min with each person we photograph. This one simple change in how we work pays for your shoot on day one.  

2. It's a familiar space.

It's no secret people are normally uneasy about getting their photo taken. In the photography industry in common knowledge that a portrait photographers first job is to make the person feel comfortable. So when doing the shoot in a place your team feels comfortable in it makes for better photos and a happy team because they are at ease–at least with the location–right from the start.

3. Great use of your space

Not always but at times, we're able to make original imagery in your space using the colors and textures in your space. This can make for original images that reflect your space and brand in a fun way. Our clients have some really great spaces, so at times we're able to utilize that to make great headshots.

So why do photographers have you come to their studio?

Really the only one who benefits from having you and your team to their studio is the photographer and it's our goal to serve you and your team in ways that are in your best interest even if it's more work for us. We understand there are times when you may need to come to a studio and we can accommodate that but it's not our norm. 

3 Places to Use Your Teams Headshots

Using your team's headshots strategically will increase your team's effectiveness in building connections with your customers and prospects. We encourage out clients to use their headshots in more places than just their social profiles. Here are three places we share with our customers because they're drastically underutilized– yet they can drive results. 

Oh yeah— we should also mention they're most likely some of the simplest ideas to implement.

Business Cards

This seems like a no-brainer. How many times have you heard someone say "I'm horrible at remembering names, but I always remember a face." But your only put your name on your card and not the one thing they'll remember– a face!

Considering they may have a stack of cards after shopping around and talking to a few of your competitors– they may forget the conversation you had. Don't lose the advantage you have after creating some report. Let your face be the reminder of the connection you had.

Email Signature

Chances are you have customers reaching out to you daily via email. This is one of your first chances to make a connection and it's important that you make that connection a humanizing one!

We know adding a photo creates empathy when someone knows they're dealing with a real person, not a faceless business. Consider this, Radiologists accuracy rates went up 46% when patients photos were in their files because they no longer saw just another file but a human being. Show your customers a face so they know they are dealing with a real person! 

Your Website

97% of people google a business they are looking to work with. Again it's paramount that you start to create a personal connection with your customers. People do business with people, not faceless organizations. You can tap into the power of a headshot by sharing your team through photos on your website. Let your customers know the people they will be working with. 

The best part! - All three of these take very little time to setup and cost very little but can have a great impact on your business. 

If you need help getting new headshots of your team we'd love to help! You can learn more here! 

The Power of a Headshot

The research is clear– your headshot has huge power when wielded well. We don't want to overload you with stats and research so here are the big 3 you should know! 

1- Online, 90% of how people judge you is based on your photo! 

If this doesn't make you want to ensure you photo is the best it can be, consider this as well– people take only about 40 milliseconds to come to their judgment from a photo. So you have less than 1/2 a second to make an impression.

2- You become human with a photo.

Putting a face to a name can have a huge impact—it's humanizing— when your not able to meet with someone in person. Use it in your email signature, business card, online about page, social profiles and other marketing materials. Research from The Wharton School has shown "When radiologists scanned an x-ray, including a photo of the patient, was enough to increase their reports by 29% and their diagnostic accuracy by 46%." Simon Sinek in his book Leaders Eat Last, contributes this to empathy when the radiologists saw the patients as people after they could place a face to the x-ray– not just another file that needed to be gone over.

3- An updated photo gets A LOT OF ATTENTION!

We've seen this over and over again. We send a client their new headshot– within a day or two they update their social media profile photos and BOOM– 100+ likes and comments. People want to see a photo of you. Start clicking on your friends profile photos on and you'll see the same thing if it's a quality photo of that person.

A five-minute professional photo session—in your office—can have a huge impact on your marketing. If you'd like to learn more about this just let us know– we can show you how you can make your marketing more impactful.