Professional portraits photographs are vital tools that you can use to communicate with your customers online. Portraits not only help you make your services feel more “human” but also allow you to say something about your brand. The persona you convey in your portrait can have a tremendous influence on whether prospects decide to use your services or not.

For this reason, you need to get professional portraits right. It’s not the sort of thing that you want to leave to chance. Here are five expert portrait tips that we swear by.

Think Very Carefully About Your Outfit

Like it or not, customers judge you on the clothes that you wear. If your clothes appear shabby or inappropriate for your line of work, it’s an instant turn-off, and they’re less likely to trust you from the outset.

Of course, there are no hard-and-fast rules about the precise outfit that you should wear: it all depends on your niche, brand image and industry.

In general, however, you’ll want to avoid some common faux-pas.

  • Don’t wear anything that looks sentimental
  • Don’t wear t-shirts with obnoxious slogans, especially those that include mum jokes
  • Don’t wear patterns or stripes: it’s too visually confusing, and it doesn’t work particularly well on computer screens
  • Don’t wear monotone clothing if you plan on converting your portrait image into black and white
  • Don’t forget to tuck in your shirt

Of course, you need to do more than simply avoid making mistakes; you also need to choose clothing that reflects your brand. If you offer contractor services, it’s a good idea to select a named and labelled uniform of some description. You want to look as if you’re ready for work, professional, and here to meet the needs of your customers. If, on the other hand, you offer professional services, then more formal dress is usually required. Ties are not essential.

Choose Your Best Side

Some people look great front-on, but many look better in portrait. What’s more, it can appear less threatening. Portrait images can help to reduce the appearance of things like double chins and help you make your complexion look more symmetric. Portraits are especially useful for people with strong jaws, helping to soften the outline of their face, again making them appear more approachable.

Deal With Shiny Skin

While your skin might look perfectly matte in ordinary life, the camera has an annoying habit of bringing the shine out.

Shiny skin can be a little off-putting and unattractive to some people, so you’ll want to take steps to avoid it. First, check your lighting. The most common reason for shiny skin in photographs is that there is a light source somewhere in the background that’s dominating all the others, causing a reflection. Try to soften the lighting or light the face from more angles using photography lamps.

The next step is to remove oil and grease from your skin and replace it with a synthetic, water-based moisturising agent. Most women can get around this by using a facemask before a shoot and then wearing a layer of matte foundation. Men can use exfoliating, de-greasing products to remove any shiny surfaces or excess sebum.

Style Your Hair

More often than not, you’ll take your business portrait photos in the environs of your office. While you might arrive at your office with windswept hair on most mornings, this isn’t advisable if you’re having a photoshoot. You want to make sure that your hair looks brushed and styled as if you’ve just left the house.

For those with long hair, brush it thoroughly to get rid of any stray strands that the camera might pick up. Those with short hair should use products to give the hair volume, especially if you wore a hat on the way into the office. And finally those with no hair – well, you’re in luck.

Create A Well-Proportioned Portrait

Finally, it’s worth spending time to focus on the composition on your portrait. The ratio of background to foreground image is essential. If the subject appears too distant, it can look awkward and small. If they are too close, then it seems overwhelming and unprofessional.

What you want is the perfect ratio of background to the subject, so that your audience can see the people who work at your firm, but don’t get the sense that a rank amateur took the photos.

On a final note, it pays to smile. Smiling makes you appear friendly, engaged, and happy to interact with your customers, just like somebody who was smiling in real life.