Wardrobe for business profile portraits and headshots

For best results I suggest the following general wardrobe guidelines for head and shoulders portraits for your consideration. 

Please note that if we are shooting against a green screen it is critical you not wear green.

1. Try to stick to predominantly solid, neutral colours, and mid-tones (ie. not white or black) although a white or contrasting shirt can work underneath a suit jacket.

 

A white shirt works under a suit jacket.

 

Photo (right) - Unsplash

2. A splash of colour can also work well and add some spark to a portrait.
 

A colourful scarf can add spark.

3. Busy and large patterns should be avoided, as well as very small patterns such as fine checks and houndstooth which can cause a distracting moire effect.

4. With a shirt and tie, the shirt should be a solid colour. Any stripes or pattern can make retouching of wrinkles impossible.

 

 Photo - Unsplash

4a. If you are wearing a tie, make sure the knot is centred, fills the space between the upper collar leaves and can be fitted snugly to the top of the tie space. Some slippery fabrics and skinny ties don't make for good knots. Consider a windsor knot, if just for  for your photo.

 

 

5. With dresses and tops higher cut necklines tend to work better because aesthetically it is preferable for the top of the dress or top to be included within the image frame.

Typical head and shoulders crops - 4 great necklines and one less great Photos - Unsplash

 

6. With dresses and tops, three quarter or long sleeves tend to be more flattering than sleeveless tops, as long as they are not ill-fitting, and work better with portrait crops. Short sleeves may not work as well visually as sleeves that extend beyond the edge of the portrait frame.

The safest option for a flattering head and shoulders portrait will often be long sleeves.

 

7. Wear something that is flattering on you (ie. has flattering lines and shape), and fits you properly* and comfortably, without pulling or sagging, not too tight or loose, and without extra fabric in areas such as where the sleeve joins the bodice. Note that in general cardigans look less professional than other options. Beware of undergarments that show through tops; noticeable bumps may be distracting and difficult or impossible to remove in retouching.

 

Avoid sweaters and loose clothes. And watch for distracting wrinkles and bumps that won't be fixed in retouching.

8. If you wear a jacket make sure you can comfortably do up the top button. 

Not like this. Photo - Unsplash

 

9. Lean towards jackets that zip up or button up to form a 'v' underneath the face, as opposed to jackets that don't have buttons and/or that can't be done up. Also, in general, it is best to avoid double breasted jackets.

There are no hard, fast rules here, just a somewhat aesthetically conservative suggestion.

 

10. If your outfit allows for it consider wearing pants with pockets. Being able to put hands in pockets can facilitate a relaxed standing pose.

11. Avoid clothing styles that are likely to date quickly (ie. trendy styles).

12. Keep in mind that generally viewers of your portrait should be noticing your face, foremost, as opposed to your clothing or jewellery, so it's often best to keep them understated (unless you are a clothing or jewellery designer).

13. If you are not sure what will look good, time allowing, consider bringing options -- cleaned and pressed and on hangers (not folded).

14. If you plan to wear something that wrinkles easily consider bringing it to the shoot cleaned, pressed and on a hanger to put on right before your session.

15. In the absence of a Hair and Make-up artist be sure to be as camera-ready as possible -- clean teeth, lips moisterized (avoid dry, chapped lips), lipstick, etc. touched up, if applicable. Consider bringing your make-up kit (if applicable) for touch-ups. Due to the pandemic we no longer apply shine  reducing powder, for now, so you may want to bring your own.

16. If we are hiring a hair and make-up artist please make sure your hair is NOT FRESHLY WASHED. Freshly washed hair can very difficult to style.

If I have missed anything glaringly not covered please let me know.

* Post-pandemic many of us do not have the quite same bodies we went in with. If nothing fits right and you haven't had to dress for the office in while, please consider buying something new that fits your current self.

Wardrobe is obviously very personal and what is considered to look good is a subjective thing. These guidelines are intended to provide some tips on common pitfalls that can detract from the awesomeness of a professional portrait. Hopefully with these in mind readers will show up for portrait sessions feeling confident and looking great.

kathryn@hollinrake.com

hollinrake.com

 

Is it Photo Day yet? And the importance of backgrounds.

What you might see when I am photographing you.

  

I have to admit I have started and stopped writing and revising this post multiple times over the past two months, as I navigated the uncertainty we are probably all to various extents still feeling. No time ever felt like the right time to reach out about doing corporate (or any) portraits. But I think now that September is here and summer holidays are done people may be more receptive to embracing the need for updated photography. And likely by now if you’ve wanted a hair cut you’ve been able to get one, and if you’ve decided to forgo colouring your hair your natural colour has grown all the way out. You may also be part of the growing and overdue movement to start embracing your naturally textured hair.

Also helpfully, we are further along to road to coming out the other end of this pandemic. As I write almost 80% of adults in Ontario my age group are vaccinated (including me). And we continue to observe Covid protocols on shoots. So we are finally, truly, back in business.

Yes, for many people it will be high time for an updated profile portrait or updated staff or leadership team portraits, so where to start?

3 things to do to prepare for a portrait shoot:

1)   Step 1 is to book a hair cut if you haven’t already. With reduced capacity at salons it may take longer than usual to get an appointment with your stylist, so you may need more lead time than usual.

2)   Find something flattering to wear that fits, a more challenging task for many due to after effects of the pandemic. I have a wardrobe blurb I share with all portrait clients, and one of the most important points in it is to wear something you feel great in and that fits nicely…not too tight or too loose. With any button up top or jacket you want to be able to do it up without any strain. So, it might be time to buy a new jacket. (If you’re interested check out my video on wardrobe for video calls, adapted from my portrait wardrobe guidelines: https://youtu.be/LMRoP8NIVJY )

3)   Think about where it makes sense for you and your team to shoot. With many still working from home it may be that shooting at your office is no longer the best option. These days we divide our time shooting at office locations, my studio, and people’s homes, and often you can’t tell from the resulting portrait which location we were in because…green screens! Yes, I am talking about this technique again. Read on.

 Beautiful Backgrounds, Beautiful Portraits - my latest author portrait

 

Author Judith McCormack in my studio

One of my first post lockdown portrait shoots this year was with lauded author of numerous award-nominated short stories and the brilliant novel Backspring Judith McCormack. I was excited to be able to provide her with the outdoor portraits she wanted without actually having to deal with the sometimes deal-breaking unknowns of shooting outside. For those following my updates you won’t be surprised to know we shot inside against a green screen. This meant we could relax and focus on the portrait knowing that I’d be able to take my time choosing the perfect outdoor environment from my archive after the shoot.

Here’s a link to a larger version of the portrait: https://hollinrake.com/portfolios/authorscelebrities

Here she is, alternatively, in a downtown interior:

 

Same portrait on another background from my archive

Of course sometimes we want the look of an in-studio shoot, and maybe a bit more drama. We shot the following example in studio against a 5x7 foot green screen.

Shot on 5x7 green screen; background is a 9 foot wide seamless.

The 9 foot wide gray seamless paper backdrop in the image was shot separately. A couple of advantages of shooting this way are 1) we can set up a much smaller set (in a living room for example) than is required to actually shoot against a 9 foot wide seamless (which requires a big space), and 2) we have the flexibility of deciding on the background later, and changing it as needed. 

Same portrait as above with a light gray background

The importance of backgrounds 

One of the things that distinguishes one portrait photographer from another is, of course, lighting, but as important is the art of choosing the right background. Some portrait techniques and scenarios really limit the options, compromising the potential impact of and message communicated by the final shot. When someone asked me recently about my favourite part of my job I thought of how I feel when I capture a particularly “perfect” background for a future portrait. At the time of my writing this I had just had one of these moments. Having returned from a trip to Oakville to shoot gardens, specifically as backgrounds, I was reviewing the images in full resolution and came upon one that I just didn’t want to stop looking at. So I made it as large as possible on my monitor and just came back to it repeatedly in between working on other things, to get that little hit of joy, the way you do when you look at a piece of art you love, over and over.

 

An outdoor background from my archive

The next best part is carefully and artfully selecting the appropriate background for a specific portrait and placing that person into that background, and watching the whole portrait come together in a way that could not even have happened without the magic of the green screen. Because while I do shoot these backgrounds as if there is a person there, focusing on an imaginary subject in the foreground to blur the background in camera (because blurring it later in Photoshop will not look the same), actually photographing that person there may have been, in most cases, pretty much impossible for a number of reasons.

Corporate photography might look a little different post-pandemic but there have been some silver linings. I LOVE not being limited by (often) boring available backgrounds. And as a wish-I-could-have-been-a-painter photographer I love the art of creating portraits in this way. I am growing my archive of indoor backgrounds, too, so if you work in an attractive building that is still somewhat empty these days I’d love to drop by and capture a few blurred and unidentifiable but suggestive-of-a-business-environment backgrounds.

Backgrounds make me happy.

If you haven’t seen my previous blog post on green screen shooting please have a look at this where I talk about the advantages of the technique on more detail: http://khollinrakemakemepretty.blogspot.com/2021/04/why-i-love-shooting-portraits-against.html

You can also see a mini-portfolio of green screen portraits at: https://hollinrake.com/pdfs.

Where to shoot wasn’t typically often a question in the past, as more often than not we would come to clients at their offices and organizations. But this has changed. I’m curious to see who goes back to the office, who adopts a hybrid model and who has shifted to a more permanent WFH arrangement. From a photography point of view we can accommodate portrait shoots almost anywhere as there’s almost always room for a green screen. (And no, we don’t HAVE to use a green screen. We can, of course, shoot the ‘normal’ way if there’s somewhere nice and appropriate to shoot).

That said it seems to be working for organizations to call people to the office on a selected date for profile portrait shoots. It has been interesting photographing people who were hired during the pandemic and have never set foot in their organizations’ offices, and who are now meeting colleagues in person for the first time. This certainly has the potential to add a level of stress for those who don’t love having their pictures taken, something to keep in mind.

And that's it for my latest blurb on portraits and backgrounds. I hope this may have filled in a few gaps for the reader. Thanks so much for your interest! And please get in touch if you need photography for your business. I look forward to working with you.

kathryn@hollinrake.com

hollinrake.com