What to Expect After Getting A Professional Headshot
Once you’ve had your day in front of the camera, the last step of the professional headshot process is editing and final delivery. Although I prepare extensively and communicate with clients to make things run smoothly during the shoot, images usually need some tidying up to make a polished, finished set of photographs. This editing process is fairly straightforward for the client—their heavy-lifting has already been done. However, crucial decisions are still ahead; you will need to select the images that you feel best represent you and what you wanted to convey.
After minor color and light adjustments, I work with my clients to choose their final portraits. We talk in-depth about what they like and don’t like about each image—even pointing out a preferred background or a smile over another. This is the time to step back and see where facial expressions and postures might be off. I can make major changes such as taking a subject from one background and dropping them onto another, or even taking just a head or tie and integrating it into another pose. With larger changes, sometimes there are extra costs; it’s obviously much easier to wear a tie than for me to add it artificially.
Above is an example of how I can move a subject from one photo to another. My client loved the background in this shot, but did not like the outfit she wore. Rather than reshooting, I removed her from another picture where she wore an outfit she liked better, and placed her on top of herself on the background she preferred.
Most of the editing I do is background and detail work—removing specks and stray hairs, softening shiny skin, or reducing a mess of wires on a desk. The point is to reduce distractions, leaving the people as the only subject of interest in the shot. In these professional portraits of real estate agents, I edited out scuffmarks on the table, stains, and stray leaves.
My philosophy is that all pictures should be pleasing and balanced, and should convey ideas about the people in the image while still keeping the focus on them. This picture has a minimal detail of a white picket fence in the distance, a subtle motif lending itself to the suburban theme these real estate agents wanted to capture. The background doesn’t distract from the subject, but still is pronounced enough to tell a story about them—they will help you find a home in our area.
In editorial-style photographs, the profession of the subject is much more central to the shot, and therefore more details are left in to tell a broader story about the person, such as the shot below.
After all the editing is done, I send my clients their final, polished photographs, providing print and web-sized files so all their needs are covered. Sometimes I get additional requests—maybe teeth could be a little whiter or laugh lines a little less noticeable—and I work through these details until my clients are happy with their final images.
The detailed steps within the last stage of image creation are essential to making the very best of raw photographs. If you are looking for an experienced business and professional headshot photographer, you can send me a message.
