The Experience: What is it Like Working With Us?
Professional Picture Day Is Rarely something people look forward to.
This is a truth that I hear from clients day in and day out. If there has been an office I have gone to do staff headshots in that hasn’t had at least a couple people tell me to my face “Just so you know before we get started. I absolutely hate having my photo taken” I certainly can’t remember it.
This is something I am well aware people don’t tend to enjoy. I often say "It’s sort of like going to the dentist. A bit uncomfortable for many, but a necessity to do what’s best for you.”
The good news about that is the fact that I AM AWARE THAT PEOPLE TEND TO NOT LIKE THIS, and as such, I have spent a LOT of time and energy into developing ways to make the process of getting professional photos taken a much more painless experience than people are anticipating. So much so that you may even have… dare I say it? Fun!
From first contact to final delivery the people I serve are in good hands.
So What does the process of working with me actually look like for a staff picture day?
The day of the shoot I arrive on site, quickly scope out available spaces to set up with the person I have been in contact with to arrange the business picture day.
I then load in my equipment and get set up to do the photos. This involves setting up professional lighting to overpower the lights in the room so that I have complete control over the way I light a person’s face.
Next comes what I would consider a major part of what makes our process so special: I connect my camera to my computer to allow all the images we take to be instantaneously transferred over for review.
By the time I am all set up and ready to roll, I begin to greet your staff one at a time. It is typical to arrange a schedule for the day in which 3-5 people come by the area where headshots are being taken every 15 minutes. This pacing allows for those who want to get in and out quickly to do so, and for those who know it will take a little more work to find an option they will be happy with to have the time they need to get a great headshot.
When it’s your turn, I will greet you, likely make a little small talk, and ask if there is anything in particular you hate seeing from yourself in photos. This open discussion allows me to get a better idea of ways to take the most flattering photo of you as is possible while still showing off true personality and warmth.
Once we have gotten a chance to chat a little about how to make you look your best, I will guide you into place in the shooting area, and provide you with directions on how to pose perfectly, and talk you through the shooting process.
Now that we have you in place with your best smile on, we don’t want to waste so much time that your smile turns from a genuine happy expression into a borderline grimace that seems to say “Did you get the picture already?” To keep expressions looking natural and warm we will shoot anywhere from 5 to 10 photos before taking a break to look over the results together.
In the break to review images, I’ll give you instructions on how to look through the images at your own pace and how to mark the ones that have good potential to be the image we finalize.
Oftentimes after reviewing the first round of images, I will have you step back in to the shooting area to do a second round. Even if we had options we liked from the first round, it can be nice to see if after looking at the images together there are other small tweaks we should make to help you look your best. This process of shooting a few photos and reviewing can take as many rounds as a person needs to be able to get several images selected as good potential options for finalization.
Once we have anywhere from 2-10 photos marked as good potential options, I will pull them up side by side and talk you through narrowing down to a final selection.
At that point with the final image selected you’re free to go! I will take all the images for finalization back to my office where I provide high end retouching to make sure each individual looks their best.
After retouching I create several cropped versions of the images for different use cases. This generally takes the form of a 1x1 square (great for social media profiles) an 8x10 aspect ratio (Typical aspect ratio used in printed materials and websites) and an uncropped version in case you run into scenarios that need something other than the typical use cases.
I export in multiple resolutions that have different use cases in mind.
I provide you with the finalized images through an email with a dropbox link attached.
The process of getting professional photos taken can feel intimidating, but it doesn’t have to!
At Connor Hibbs Photography we put a lot of weight behind the idea that taking professional photos doesn’t have to suck! We work very hard to make sure it is a fun and enjoyable experience for every person that comes through our mobile studio and make room to have conversations needed to make sure that each and every person walks away with a headshot they will be proud to use as their representative to the world.
Book your session today and see what it’s like to have a professional headshot that you are truly proud to show to the world.