Your company headshots

Thanks so much for choosing me to come and take these photos for you! This page will help you and your team get ready for your portraits and covers things like, timeframes, location and personal presentation.

The overall outline for headshots is:

1. Site visit to discuss best location
2. Portrait sessions
3. Online gallery sent out to contact person

In preparation

In light of our upcoming headshot session I wanted to share a couple of key things to bear in mind to get the most from the time. My end goal for my clients is to provide natural portraits in an environmental setting. For the most part, these portraits should present you as; warm, relaxed, inviting, vibrant, engaging and successful.

I will provide you the key direction for body positioning, to get the best from the shoot but may also get you to engage with me a little, to answer a question or two to gauge genuine responses.

Location

Generally I will utilise existing spaces, for the most part this can be done as is with minor adjustments. Sometimes it is necessary to change things or add things in order to evoke the right look and feel in your images.

If you wish to do the shoot externally, I can provide you with options for spaces around the Waikato that will lend themselves to the look you are after.

If you would prefer, I can provide a "set" where I will fit out a room (onsite where appropriate) with the right props to give the aesthetic you are after. Please note this will have an additional surcharge.

Timeframes

I will arrange an initial visit to come out to your space prior to the shoot. This is to define the most appropriate space for your session. Please allow 30 minutes or so for this.

On the day of your shoot please allocate roughly 10 minutes per individual. I will also generally take 15-30 minutes to set up on the day.

Personal presentation:

This comes back to what I wrote above about what these images hope to achieve, both warmth and openness as well as success.

• Please try for clothing that is in a neutral colour palette. Greys, greens, navy, cream, tan. These tones provide a nice touch of colour and don't "wash out" skin tones. However you know what suits you best, so please base this on your own look as well as the company image.
• Please avoid bright or busy patterns as this detracts from your face. This means, bold spots, stripes and check are out.
• Pairing a light and dark colour works well, however try and avoid stark contrasts, black with white for example.
• Often for fair skin tones black and white both tend to give a very sharp look and often can make facial features appear sharper than sometimes intended, if you are quite fair please try and avoid these, however if you are blessed with warmer and darker skin than I am, Both blacks and whites can be used, not together but with a supporting colour. Eg. black and pastel pink, or white and navy.

• Specifics for men, please be 'fresh'. If you shave, clean shaven, if bearded, cleanly trimmed and hair washed. It goes a long way to adding a professional image. Make sure if you are wearing suits or jackets, that your shirts are ironed.
• Specifics for women, please do wear make-up. If you are not proficient in doing your own makeup I have some good suggestions of local Make-up Artists, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. It makes such a difference to the overall quality of your portraits. Without having any makeup on, you will lose a little of the professional aesthetic in the end image.
• Hair styles are of course, personal preference, however if your hair is down it needs to sit nicely around your face without covering your face. If you are in the mood to get your hair done, blow waves are perfect for getting a soft, warm look and still maintaining a professional image. Hair up is of course also fine but if it is pulled sharply off your face you can may not get the same "warm and inviting" look.
• In terms of clothing for women, Please make sure your clothes fit the aesthetic of the brief. Have a good check of your neckline at a couple of angles as well as the length of your skirt if you are seated.