Whether you’re marketing your business or marketing yourself as a professional, one thing’s inevitable: your headshot is sending a message about you. And if you don’t have a headshot, the lack of one is sending a message too.
It’s natural that people will form impressions about you based on what they see, so it’s important that you choose what message you’re sending, and the only way to do that is with professional, intentional, custom headshots that are designed with your brand in mind.
As a branding photographer in the Seattle area, I work with my clients to craft the perfect first impression, so let’s talk about what your headshots are saying about you.
Your Professionalism
Your headshot and branding photos give an immediate sense of how you carry yourself as a professional. Do you look confident and assertive? Do you have an air of someone who takes themselves and their work seriously? You don’t have to look stoic or rigid, but your posture and smile can say a lot about whether you’re attentive to your work.
This is also something you lose if you don’t have a headshot. Without one, it can create the impression that you’re not engaged enough in your business or your work to invest in yourself.
Your Approachability
Body language and facial expressions speak volumes, even if you don’t realize what they’re saying. This is one of the most notable benefits of hiring a professional brand photographer for your headshots.
Sometimes we don’t realize what our default smiles or postures are saying to others. Beyond taking a beautiful photo, I’ll be able to coach you on how to pose and smile in ways that make you look welcoming and approachable yet professional and poised.
Your General Personality
Clearly, you can’t fully know someone from a photo. But the overall tone and look of your headshots will give people an expectation of your personality and what it would be like to work with you, whether they’re intending to make those assumptions or not. If that impression isn’t correct, you might be turning off clients who would be a perfect fit for you, attracting the wrong clients, or setting the stage for an awkward first meeting when you aren’t who they thought you were.
When I take branding photos and headshots for my clients, I always get to know them a bit and talk about what impression they’d like their photos to make. It can be hard to know how someone else would perceive you in your photos, so it helps to have a skilled photographer who can both see how you’d be perceived by someone new and also craft your photos in a way that paints a brief but genuine picture of who you are.
Making the Right First Impression
Ultimately, people will form opinions about your and your business in the first few seconds of seeing your headshot, just as you do when you see theirs. If your headshot isn’t a professional photo in which you’ve crafted a very intentional image, you probably don’t know what message your headshot is sending.
To take control of your professional image and create a headshot that sends the perfect message, reach out to Jaimié Birtel Photography.
