No Weird Smiles: The Value of Editing in Professional Headshots
Shoots for professional headshots can run very smoothly, but the resulting photographs may still need some tweaking; facial expressions might be off in a group photo, or an outfit that looked great in person looks less appealing within a picture. Thankfully, it is never too late to edit. In a portrait and group photo session with a local United Real Estate office in Broad Ripple, I used my Photoshop skills to address some issues to make these nice shots look even better.
The photos were intended for banners and headshots on their website, helping to create a personable face for the office as well as set their tone; a friendly, confident bunch of real estate agents in a suburban setting. We took the photographs at one of their homes rather than the office—the big, open back yard was perfect for capturing a relaxed feel, and we could easily switch the background from the back of their house to a nice wooded area.
Kathy Jordan, one of the agents I worked with closely, describes what they wanted from their photos:
“Our clients range from investors to first-time home buyers to million-dollar buyers and sellers, plus everything in between, and while we’re ‘all business’ on their behalf, we have more of a collective ‘casual’ personality which we wanted to portray in our photos. Paul made us all comfortable, took time for individual shots as well as group photos and had great ideas for backgrounds. Once we made our selections he used his mad Photoshop skills to make us look perfect.”
Much of the photo editing I do is to clean up the background and foreground in order to remove distractions, leaving the people as the only subject of interest in the shot. In these photos, I removed distractions like scuff marks on the table, stains, and stray leaves. This kind of editing is important in professional headshots, when just the person is the focus. However, editorial-style photographs are meant to tell the story of not just the person but what the person does, so background details are desired.
Major changes can occur when a client sees the final photo spread and likes certain elements, but not others. Kathy changed her jacket between backgrounds. She liked her outfit better in one shot, but did not like the background as much. However, she loved the background in a different shot, but did not like the outfit she wore in it. Rather than reshooting, I cut her out of one picture in Photoshop and put her on the backdrop of the background she liked better.
This picture has the detail of a little white picket fence. However, it is so minimal that it does not distract, and in fact subtly lends itself to the suburban theme. That’s a little game that I play: how much do I put in the background to tell a story without being distracting? My philosophy is that all pictures should be pleasing and balanced, but also should convey ideas about the people in the photograph while still keeping the focus on them.
Another issue is posture. Sometimes we don’t stand as straight as we think we do. Part of the office is a family—Ginger and Tom, with their son Taylor. I took a nice shot of Tom and Ginger together, but she did not like how she looked hunched over. Again instead of reshooting, I was able to tweak her posture so that she stood straighter in the picture.
Expressions are also tricky. In this group photo, it looks like I was just a little ahead of snapping the picture before Tom got his big smile up. He had a great smile in another shot, so I switched the expressions to make the picture perfect without having to redo it.
Before
After
Many professional photographers have some degree of Photoshop skills, and this flexibility it is certainly a plus when all you need to change in a photo is an expression or a background. Representing this group of fun real estate agents took balanced backgrounds and good editing skills. If you are looking for business portraits, or unique brand photography, you can contact me here.
