Personal Brand Portrait Shoot

This was actually the second portrait we shot.

This is going to be the shortest post ever, but I wanted to share the results of a recent personal brand/business portrait shoot at my studio which went pretty much perfectly.  My client Steve is a senior communications professional who was between positions and needed a fresh portrait for LinkedIn and other personal branding initiatives. 

I probably told him we needed an hour and we probably spent two, because when you are supposed to be looking competent, relaxed and awesome the last thing you want to be is rushed. 

We decided to do two looks in terms of backgrounds. We talked about losing the tie for the second look but decided to keep it because it looked really good.

For the first look the goal was a classic head and shoulders business portrait against my personally designed "Corporate #5" backdrop. This is the one Steve used for LinkedIn.

Classic head and shoulders business portrait on my Corporate #5 backdrop.

Here's a picky detail thing that's an example of why people count on me:

Left: Steve's tousled hair. Right: Steve's more nicely tousled hair.

Basically, Steve's hair has a naturally tousled look. I decided I didn't like the way it had landed in the headshot as well as I did when we shot the second look, so during retouching I replaced the part I didn't like with the part I did like.

For the second shot (see pic at the top of the post) I wanted to make it a little more artful and give him more room to play with in case he decided to use it as a banner on his website or anywhere else that may require more horizontal space. The backdrop was a canvas one of mine that I recently repainted. It can look very different depending on the amount of light on it and the amount of focus or blur.

One of my hand-painted canvas backdrops.

As Steve is a versatile guy with a lot of experience in more and less conservatively corporate roles, and broad interests, including sports, we decided to do one more super casual shot to round out the set of images. 

Steve looked his most relaxed in a simple white T-shirt.

Bottom line: I took his picture, he posted it and he landed his next senior position! It may sound as if I'm saying that my picture got him the job. I cannot say that unequivocally. :)

If you need a refresh, please get in touch.

kathryn@hollinrake.com
hollinrake.com