How to Take Better Business Portraits (for happy customers & more profit)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
- Speed and efficiency are key requirements for successful corporate portrait photography, BUT there's far more to consider if you want happy customers and maximum profitability.
In this video, I discuss the important aspects you need to know about business headshot photography and highlight problem areas that could slow you down.
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![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
My whole career has been shooting editorial and advertising. I have been shooting since 1980 and I am now starting to retire. My base is here in Los Angeles and I have had a very rewarding career. I used to shoot all my products with a 4x5 and for people a Hasselblad or a Mamiya RZ 6x7. Then everything was switched to Canon digital. I was a contract shooter for a major popular magazine for 15 years and I have photographed many celebrity home stories. I never owned a medium format digital camera. I would rent if I had needed one. I have shot many business portraits and you are correct with all your tips. For me for each person in the firm I would provide a web gallery and either the subject or the person who hired me would pick one final image and I would do minor retouching. Never take out moles unless they request. You are so right about that also a job will run a lot smoother with a skilled assistant that can also do tech work. Setting up a seamless background on location without an assistant takes too long to set up. One tip I will mention is before the shoot day each subject is given a request on their wardrobe. Men pressed shirt and pants and to make sure their jacket is free of wrinkles, women same pressed top and pants or dress. It is not easy to get wrinkles out on a fabric that has a busy pattern. No busy patterns or non company logos is desired. A company logo is fine but the client would have to approve that kind of shirt or top. If shooting at the end of the day I ask for a them to bring a second clothing change if possible. A man’s pants when sitting all day will look horrible in a picture along with their shirt. Best to shoot in the mid morning. I also ask that the women bring their own make up and their hair brush. I do bring powders for medium and dark skin tones for subjects with a shiny skin tone. Some jobs I am able to hire a hair makeup person. For me the 85 lens is the perfect portrait lens. You will need at least f8 to have both eyes sharp. Making the subject relaxed is super important. With a large group you will only have about 10 minutes with each subject so you have to show confidence when directing the subject but a good sense of humor helps them to relax too. For me I avoided real estate businesses because they never wanted to pay a fair rate. Law firms did pay the best.
Thanks for the extra tips, some good advice.
This is right on time for me: I've been commissioned to take portraits of a real estate staff for their website and you have helped me a lot!
I have my first corporate shoot coming up - this video helped me tremendously. Thank you. Clear and concise wording, no fuss, straight to the point.
I subscribed and saved your webpage so I can learn more in the future.
What an absolute gem of a video. Nice refresher/intro with enough wisdom to feel more confident on one’s next job. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
This video is packed with great information! Thanks for all the great insight. You nailed everything!
I can tell you really did this with corporate people. Right on the money.
Very useful information. Specially the "who is in control" and the "choose and delivery" part.
Glad you liked it
Love the videos on youtube and training website. Always learn something.
Great job, Karl, very useful, very clear. Thanks a lot!
I worked as a commercial photographer myself, back in the film area. You really know your s..t, a real pleasure to watch your content.
You deserve more subscribers for your youtube videos. Thank you so much for your sharing your knowledge with us.
Thank you so much sir you really opened my eyes about business portraits
I love how Karl explain things he doesn't need to repeat it twice because he's confident and love what he's doing.. I make sure I don't miss he's videos ❤️💪 big up👌 am from South Africa
Thank you.
Absolutely perfect tips and nicely explained. You really are the Master, Thank you Karl.
I appreciate that!
I enjoy how gangster you are about the technical and social problems that face the environment of biz headshots...
The taking command and using humor
The posture to fix clothing
The reduction of ambient light
Are my top 3...
I'm going to use my 50mm and led lights to see what I come up with....
Amazing video Karl! As usual. I do a lot of corporate portraits every year, and the human/ psychological factor is really something you need to handle very well! Showing confidence, without being arrogant or a dictator.
But of course, the technical factors have to be chosen wisely.
Thanks for the content!
Thanks Pablo.
So much good information in this video alone. I can only imagine how good your classes are. In fact, I'm going to check them out. Thank you for posting this.
Awesome, thank you!
Great stuff as always. I've done high-volume headshots for a number of years and am working to seriously up my game on environmental images. Thanks Karl - keep up the great work.
Cheers.
I never shoot portraits yet here I am because learning new genre is always fun and the way you explain everything is amazing you have a certain calmness in your voice
Thank you - glad you're enjoying the videos
He is very clear with his ideas..
Great advice. Thank you so much Karl~!
My pleasure!
You are waaaaay too professional Karl, i admire you so much. Big fan here from Argentina.
Thanks Oni.
as always, the tutorial is very useful and entertaining. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure!
Very very useful. Thank you Karl!
Lots of great tips here - thanks, Karl.
Glad it was helpful!
Great tutorial on how to shoot business portraits, Karl. I have been soaking in tons of information on karltayloreducation.com, but had not yet watched the videos on this subject. Thanks for doing what you do. You are a great educator.
Thank you Stephen, you went to the right place! We keep our best stuff for KTE :)
Invaluable as always. Thank you
My pleasure!
Really informative! Thank you
Muchas gracias por tener la opción de traducción al español! Gracias, Gracias, Gracias!
On point as always! Great explanations, nice and useful tips. Big fan of your videos :)
Great to hear!
Once again. I am so impressed by your delivery(started the free course. You know, the illustrations are very helpful in understanding the basics of photography). This got me thinking, how far I would have gone if I had you as my mathematics teacher😂.
We always shoot on manual mode. Right?
Great lessons on here. Thank you once again for taking the time to help us improve our photography!🙏🏿
Thanks Lorna, yes 90% of the time manual mode. There are some occasions where aperture priority or shutter priority can be useful too.
I am doing my 1st internship and my task is to do a company excecatives photoshoot this is helpful.
This video is pure gold!! Thankss!!!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Gracias por tener la opción de traducción al español 🙌🏻
Thank you for usefull information
You are a great Teacher and Photographer!!!
Very useful indeed! Thank you as usual.
My pleasure!
Karl Taylor is definitely the go to Guy on matters Photography. Honestly speaking, to test whether a concept is true or not in this field, he is the encyclopedia. Thank You Sir
Thanks
your amazing mr karl
Top tips! Thanks Karl!
No worries!
thanks for valued tips and notes
Most welcome!
Very well explained, how about a video on the group photography
Sehr cool, danke!
The most shocking eye opener to me was offering only one (!) image per subject based on their selection! Indeed that would reduce retouching and selection time a lot and harddisk space as well. Never thought of this, shooting hundreds of frames with different outfits, resulting it many keepers. And the subjects want them all... 🙂
But I really like Karl's opening point: the subject is not the client. The subject does not get to decide on anything. The member of the corporation who pays you decides.
Thanks for posting! I'll check out your online classes.
Awesome, thank you!
Thanks Karl!
AWESOME VIDEO, I just want to know check if it is not important to have a chronological planner to know who you are shooting in order to place the photos in the right format for the client?
The main and the plain ! Very clear, thanks. You should add a pricing section, it’s very important to cover the whole topic.
Thanks. Pricing is covered for members on our website.
great content! pro!
absolutely amezing
Great tips and explanations, thanks u sir
Always welcome
Great tips!
Karl is head and shoulders above 99% of the other tutorials on this subject on TH-cam. Good work Karl!
Thank you!
Thanks for the effort and sharing. I am an appreciative subscriber. Stay well. Thumbs up.
Much appreciated!
Excellent points. Thank you
Very welcome
Great tips and explanations, thanks mate. ;)
No worries!
Thank you Karl!!
Cheers
Thank you. Your videos are excellent
Glad you like them!
Excellent video! Cheers mate 😁
Many thanks!
karl thank you so much for great english speaking.... as i am non english speaker (native) audiance .... i can understand every single world perfectly. unlikely the other instructer are speaking like all audiance are american citizen or UK citizen. thank you again.
Cheers.
Brilliant - it is exactly as you are saying!
Thanks
Thank you Sir Karl
You're welcome
Lots of terrific stuff here as always, but the best tip comes right up front: It's all about what the company wants, not what the subject wants. I'm nowhere near Karl's level, of course, but I used to do in-house headshots for a company website, and I remember a sales manager who wanted to look like a tough guy. HIM: "I'm not a smiley guy. I don't smile." ME: "Yeah, you do. The company wants people to know that business is good." HIM: "Yeah, okay, I see what you mean... how's this?" He had a Hollywood-quality smile, just had to get him to use it!
Thanks J.L.
thank you..this was helpful
You're welcome!
Nice education for us and thanks for sharing
Thank you.
Thx. Very useful 👍
Excellent point about shooting for the company and not what the individual likes. This also applies to design in that design represents the company (and the brand) not the individual. Not many photographers understand that the brand includes the style of photography used.
A master teacher.
Thank you.
@@VisualEducationStudio No, Thank you. You have been instrumental in my photography progress, I owe you a lot. Next year I will join your school.
THANK YOU
Excellent class
Many thanks
awesome recap and reminds me to re-visit these tutes on membership site - i re joined recenty and done absolutely nothing so far!
Great to hear! Look forward to seeing you on the site again soon
Thank you Karl! :)
My pleasure!
Great thank you Karl
Thanks
This is good information.
Glad you think so!
I just started taking such portraits, great advises, Thank again Karl!
My pleasure!
nice overview Karl
Thank you
Thank you sir 😊
You're welcome Anujith
Thank you Karl for the tips, company photos are one of my most awkward shoots, ngl.
No worries!
Thank you for this great video. I take a lot of business portraits so it‘s allways nice to compare my workflow with others.
How long do you keep the raw files?
Once you get a lot of clients it gets impossible to keep all the files.
I tend to delete them after two years.
Thanks. I process the selected ones and keep those tiffs and then dump the RAWs within a couple of months.
Great Tutorial from Phil Collins!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very informative and confidently delivered video. Thank you Karl! I'm wondering what backgrounds and light modifiers did you use when you first started doing on location business headshots at the beginning of your career? Was it a slow or quick progession to what you use presently? Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
Thank you. When I first started in commercial photography some 25 years ago I was using Elinchrom lights, I took a bank loan to start my business at the time which included the purchase of some 101 packs, Mono heads, softboxes, grids, beauty dish and all the usual start up studio stuff. The lighting setups then remain very similar to many of the ones spoken about or shown here, except now I'm using broncolor lighting brand. You can learn more on my website.
@@VisualEducationStudioYou're welcome. Thank you! Speedy reply! Excellent. Good lighting is good lighting. I'll definitely continue to check out your website.
Ps....About 4 mos ago I purchased a Elinchrom kit (2 R 400 d-lites plus softboxes. I'm excited.
Very useful video.
Glad it was helpful!
such a good and well scripted video
Cheers
Highly educative
Thanks
Any tips on how to get an evenly lit grey background? A gradient grey is fairly easy but I'm having trouble getting it evenly lit. Especially in a smaller space. Thanks!
I'm going to use my para 133 next week for the first time on a business portrait. Will be my first time using it professionally and to be honest I wasn't really sure people used para's for business portraits. I do have a fairly good idea how I want to light the subject, but was a bit disappointed in the amount of hashtags on instagram there were of headshot photographers.
Keep it in the soft light position, that is the lamp head further out, not in. It's my favourite people modifier.
@@VisualEducationStudioWill let you know how it turns out
Thank you for the video!
I already had a few business shoot but my last one was really bad. I failed at so many things. I appreciate for the info I forgot thinking about.
Glad it was helpful Dave.
Thank You...
Great tips and video. Than you!
Glad it was helpful!
What about a 135mm with a full frame? A lot of the greatest portrait lenses are in that range. Would you recommand it?
Excellent.
Many thanks!
Thank you so much..
Welcome!
Thank you Sir, this information came at the right time. I jus have one question; What’s the most important thing when I approach a business to offer them my photography services for professional headshots?
Be firm, be polite, be professional
Karl Taylor Thank you Sir for the advise and the videos. They are very informative and always on point, and I highly appreciate your support🤝
Awesome & Thanks :)
No problem!
Karl, just great stuff, I'm learning so much from you, as a hobbyists I need to archive your stuff until I have time to practice your instructions. I hope the up and coming young pros are listening to you. The lessons can knock off a year or two from the curve of bleeding money during startup to putting profits in the bank! Thank you.
An opinion if you don't mind. I was at the garden shop shooting while waiting on my wife, we give the man quite a few dollars a year so I figured it would be fine and he didn't mind.
He liked what I showed him but was a bit miffed that I would not do photography for him. My position is that I'm not a professional photographer and I'm uncomfortable taking bread off a man's table. I don't do brain surgery or erect bridges either, I'm not qualified. Am I in the wrong here?
Hi David, thanks and no I don't think you are wrong at all.
@@VisualEducationStudio Thanks for the reply, I'm enjoying learning from you and having fun with photography, as a HOBBY! It's nice to have people appreciate my work but it's better sending them to a pro for their work and sending the pros to you to get better. 😀
Karl - Outstanding summary of your approach to taking business portraits-thank you! Do you have a preference regarding whether clients are standing or sitting for their headshots?
Thanks and that's a good question, I generally prefer standing if it's just a head shot as it slims the body and you can keep the shoulders in a better shape (for guys hands in trouser pockets to do this). But if you want to include the enviroment/workspace - wider than a head shot then sitting gives you lots of options for occlusion, props etc.
@@VisualEducationStudio Thanks for taking the time to answer my question Karl - appreciate it!
Hey Karl how do u get business clients?
Amazing
Thank you! Cheers!
Thank u so much sir for this wonderful video.
Since I'm a beginner to buy cannon M50. Can u pls suggest your opinion abt this camera, whether it is good to take photography or u can suggest any entry level in cannon.. your suggestion will b great useful for my career sir..
Hi Sorry I can't comment on cameras that I don't know or haven't used.
@@VisualEducationStudio Its k.. Thank u r reply.
Hi Karl thanks for the infos:) may i ask what lens did you use for this youtube video to film yourself?
Thanks again
50mm
@@VisualEducationStudio thanks karl! Love your work and how profesional you are,and you always think about every detail..i am very impressed with your knowledge and i am glad that i found your chanel.. i will start on september your course as i am going for holidays now but again thanks for all the infos and knowledge you share with us:)