Client Sessions: Business Portraits and Professional Headshots
I have enjoyed working with multiple individuals through my partnership with Creative Quarterback, a marketing company that serves entrepreneurs and small businesses. They brought me in to take professional headshots, website stock-style photos and work environment business portraits for Katie Smith. She is a career development coach and head of her own company Careerable.
We held two photoshoot sessions with Katie, one indoors to capture the office-business feel for her website, and the second outdoors for her sunny professional headshots.
Our indoors location was Trendy Minds’ office in Downtown Indianapolis. Katie works largely with younger professionals, those looking to rebuild and focus their career, so she wanted a hip, cool vibe for her website photos. Trendy Minds was the perfect fit with its updated, modern-tech spaces. Our goals were to create shots that could be used as background images for her website, as well as professional portraits to capture the face of her company.
Standard headshot photos, where the subject stands straight-on in front of the camera looking into the shot, with a plain, one-toned backdrop behind them, was not the look we were going for here. We wanted a natural, candid set of portraits that had the sense of capturing her life on the job, as if we had just met her at the office in the middle of a work day.
The outside portraits presented a challenge as the sun was up and shining brightly. I found a great location around Fountain Square in Downtown Indianapolis, and though sunlight provides a good base, I brought my own gear to create optimum lighting. Full sunlight creates harsh shadows on subjects, a challenge I am familiar with. I knew I had to either find shade to work with or create some of my own; fortunately the restaurant we met at had a patio umbrella that worked perfectly.
All Katie’s professional business photos, both inside and out, look bright and clean, a result of carefully choosing locations for the best backdrops, helping the subjects become comfortable around the camera, and using both natural and artificial light to its fullest potential.
Working with Katie was fun. She has a great smile and is very natural in front of the camera, which makes for excellent posed pictures. Katie had some nice things to say about our photoshoot. “Paul never makes one feel awkward in front of the camera. He works with his subjects so that they’re comfortable, and asks for feedback along the way to make sure he’s getting the types of shots they want. His turnaround with the photos is always quick as well.” Thanks Katie.
It can be easy to focus on the backdrop or the effects, but the true stars I want to put front and center in business photography are the people behind the company. If you need anything from simple business portraits to unique brand photography, I am comfortable taking portraits in the field or the studio. You can contact me here.
