How To Choose A Professional Headshot Photographer [5 Key Tips]
Top tips on how to choose a professional headshot photographer.
The fact that you came across this page already means you are excellent at conducting research. If you want to have a positive headshot experience, doing the needed work to find the photographer that is a good match for your needs is important.
There are 5 important steps on how to choose a professional headshot photographer.
Take the time to check the photographer’s previous work to make sure you like their portfolio.
Choose someone that’s focus is for headshot photography, hiring an amateur or someone focused on another field of photography will not get you the results you are looking for.
Read the reviews of the brand to understand other people’s experience with the company of interest. Don’t deny that it’s a common standard to read reviews before committing to an experience.
Be in communication with the photographer before your appointment. This might be with additional questions you have before your headshot appointment or additional studio information. Whatever it is, the company you are working with should be efficient at responding.
Make sure to agree and understand the pricing before coming in for your headshot. You don’t want to feel surprised by any charges or additional add-on’s you might want to go with.
Here are 5 reasons why it’s time to update your professional headshot.
Check the photographer’s previous work
Part of the process of how to choose the right photographer is doing the extra research. When you come across a photographers work you like, check their website portfolio along with all their social media platforms. Make sure their work is consistent and, in the style, you are interested in.
Details to focus on are whether the lighting in the headshot is appealing. If you really want to get down to it, check if the eyes have a catch light in them. Proper headshot lighting should have consistent catch lights in the eyes. Also, make sure the skin is not overly retouched where no texture can be seen, and the person looks plastic. Another detail is over whitening of the white area in the eyes and teeth.
When you begin to do the work to look at all the details in the image, you will see what catches your eye.
Choose someone who focuses on headshots and portraits
When looking for something specific, hire the brand that focuses on exactly what you are looking for. Don’t settle for something similar but for a discounted price. A headshot is a very precise category in photography. Not only does the type of lighting matter but also the kind of expression coaching and guidance that will or will not be given during the headshot experience.
If you are looking for how to choose a good photographer for your business, you want to hire a professional that specializes in that field. For example, if a photographer focuses on newborn photos, they are not experts in headshot photos.
Our website is dedicated 100% to headshots and other styles of photography that fall in a similar category like business headshots, real-estate headshots, corporate headshots, headshots for doctors, actor headshots, and headshot booth. We are experts in photographing headshots across the whole spectrum of categories.
Read their reviews
Conducting research on how to choose a corporate photographer that would be a good fit for your company can be very time consuming. It’s critical to take time to read all of the reviews.
According to explodingtopics.com, “Nearly every consumer now reads online reviews. 98% say they read online reviews at least “occasionally” while 77% say they read them “frequently” or “always.” When consumers have a top-notch experience, they are happy to share their review.
This also goes for when consumers have a horrible experience, they want to share with others their terrible experience.
What if you saw a business page with over 150 5-star reviews? You would be drawn to read other people’s experiences and book your headshot appointment to have the experience yourself. At WASIO faces, we do have over 160 5-star reviews. Check out our reviews here.
Communicate pre-shoot
Still wondering how to choose your photographer. Your decision should not only be based by their portfolio or reviews, but by how the communication experience is before your headshot appointment.
Having clear communication with your photographer is part of the 5-star process. Whether it’s just receiving a confirmation email with your booked headshot or if the brand goes above and beyond to provide style guides and an option to talk over the phone to go over any additional questions before your headshot appointment.
If the photographer or the company you are interested to work with takes a longer time to respond (more than 24 hours), that is a big red flag. Lack of communication from the start is not part of a 5-star experience. If the photographer is taking long to respond before you even come in for your headshot, think about how the communication will be after you leave the studio.
When you book an individual headshot with WASIO faces, there is an option to schedule a call with the photographer before your headshot appointment to discuss any additional details.
If you hire WASIO faces for larger business headshots that are on location, we schedule a call to discuss all the detail’s way ahead of the start date. We even offer walk-throughs ahead of time to make sure everything goes smoothly when there are larger groups involved on location.
We pride ourselves on our fast response time and efficient delivery of photographs.
Review pricing information
When doing your research for how to choose a photographer, pricing is a big part of that. It’s important that all the pricing information is clear, and everything makes sense before having the headshot experience.
It’s not a good feeling to go into your headshot appointment and be surprised by additional charges. Take the time to read the fine print on what you are signing up for.
Learn what is included in the different collections and understand exactly what you are paying for. It is common that most headshot companies do not have any retouched photographs included in the initial booking process.
We are very transparent on our website with pricing and what to expect during and after your headshot experience. For bigger groups the pricing is custom depending on the amount of people.
Besides agreeing on pricing, it’s beneficial to understand the expected turn-around time for when your headshots will be ready and in what form they will be delivered to you in.
If you are still uncertain how to choose a professional headshot photographer that would be a good match for your needs, we would be happy to answer any additional questions or concerns you have. Get in touch with the WASIO faces team for more questions.
If you ready to schedule your session click the button below to schedule your headshot session.
Feel prepared for your appointment with The Ultimate Guide on Preparing for Your Business Headshot Photo Session.
