What Is The Purpose Of a Business Portrait?
The purpose of professional business portrait photography is to guarantee the best possible first impression for both the person and the business. This will be the first thing your (prospective) client will see, and data shows that the ‘about us’ page (or teams page) is usually the most visited page for business websites (Source: Shopify) People don’t want to deal with faceless corporations hiding behind generic imagery any more. Trust is key.
Professional portraits build trust, in a world where first impressions matter.
Decide for yourself, if you were looking to hire a new service from an independent business you found online through search results, how do you quickly ascertain if they are genuine and real? Yes, checking social media or recent blog posts show the company is active, but even better is to have a dedicated team page showing clearly the staff members, and if appropriate, links out to social proof such as social media profiles or blog posts written by those team members.
The world of business portraiture can seem intimidating if this is your first time booking a professional photographer to capture a series of photographs that represent who you are, (or who you want to be seen as), but fundamentally the photographer’s aim is to best represent you and create an amazing first impression, ultimately to get you more business and build trust.
Team Portraits: KROWX
CVS GROUP - Classic Business & Corporate Portrait Photography for use in their annual report.
What are business portraits used for?
Business and corporate portraits are generally used for many applications such as:
Company websites (team pages / about us / founders)
Email signatures (A small headshot and bio is often used here)
Business cards and general corporate literature
Advertising campaigns and marketing material
PR, press packs and press releases all require headshots and author info.
Social media profiles, business (and personal) LinkedIn portraits, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others.
CV Applications and job adverts
Book cover, inside cover and author bios (Amazon requires these)
Online personas, forum profile images, reddit / Quora etc.
There is always a need for portrait photography for business, especially the team and founders!
Matt Dolphin FCCA MBA - Finance Director - Greater Anglia - Corporate & Business Portrait
Why Use Business Portraits?
When photographed the ‘right way’, a professional corporate or business portrait photographer will make you and your team look far more professional, approachable and friendly. Professional portrait photography for business show that you value the people in your business enough to show them off in the best way you can, and proud to have them in your team.
Seeing a happy, cheerful employee smiling from a teams / about us page provides an instant positive connection in the brain of the person viewing it. Empathy and first impressions are key.
Team Portraits : KROWX - Corporate & Business Portrait
Having poor headshots can be seen as lazy and unprofessional. A strong portrait from a professional business portrait photographer could instantly separate you from your competitor if you appear more approachable and friendly. There is no doubt that an investment in a set of business portrait photography will pay for themselves in no time. (Source: Forbes)
Can professional Photography boost search rankings through implied trust?
Since google updated their algorithm in August 2018 (the medic update), google came up with this concept of E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Fundamentally this update helped prioritise websites that had accurate and trustworthy profiles of the team on the site. Sites that showed blog ‘authors’ as truly trustworthy in their fields (linked to social proof etc) added a great deal of weight to google showing ‘accurate’ answers to questions searched online. (Source: SeJournal)
Of course google wants to show the best (and accurate) answers to your query, so anything that can be done to build trust is a worthwhile addition for them.
Strong photography on a teams page, or on the about us page builds trust.
Different Types of Business Portraits
There are many different types of business portraits, from the starched bright white background, close up head and shoulders, through to an informal environmental style portrait of ‘person in natural surroundings’, whether that be their office environment or outside, surrounded by relevant context. These ‘environmental’ style portraits are by far my favourite type of portraits, as you can probably tell through my portfolio. Environmental technically still falls under portrait business photography, as it’s still providing images for multi use.
Camilla Balshaw, Writer. Environmental Portrait
There is nothing better than photographing a person in context of their surroundings, for instance photographing a blacksmith by their forge, rather than on a plain background.
David Butler - Blacksmith - Classic example of an environmental portrait
However, what I think isn’t always what the client wants (or needs), which is why it is so important to have a conversation before the shoot is booked to talk about how they want to be shown, and how they want to be perceived through their portrait.
Reportage Portrait Photography
As well as the standard corporate and business headshot, reportage style is growing in popularity.
The reportage style of photography helps to show people as a bit more ‘normal’ and going about their work in a more natural unposed, unforced way. This can help in more informal businesses, but is often quite a nice addition to corporate and business portraiture. I have had a number of clients request both more formal portraits, as well as semi-formal, and then a few natural images. This will then allow the client to pick and choose which images they need depending on the context of the placed image.
York Rescue Boat Team - Reportage style informal portraits
York Rescue Boat Team - Reportage style informal portraits
What Is The Difference Between a Business Portrait and a Corporate Portrait?
Although pretty similar, there is a subtle difference between a business portrait and a corporate portrait.
What is a business portrait?
A business headshot is a simpler photograph, generally head and shoulders only focusing primarily on the subject showing teh subject as confident, friendly and approachable, and perhaps with a simpler background so the emphasis is 100% on the person. The key here is to use the image to create a feeling of trust and engagement.
What is a corporate portrait?
Although a corporate portrait is technically the same as the business portrait, (making sure you’re shown as confident, approachable and friendly), but in my opinion the subtle difference here is that a corporate portrait shows more of the surroundings, office or location. It helps imply other details about the company and subject, for instance if you’re based in London in a huge office overlooking the city, this might be included in the background of the image to add context. For me, the portrait showing more about the subject in the environment is what I enjoy the most, adding context to complement.
There would be a stark difference of a portrait against a white wall, or small dark office. compared to a portrait with a background over looking the city of London, they imply very different things. Some may or may not be appropriate to what you are trying to achieve through your portrait photography requirements.
It is vital that you communicate with your photographer what you are trying to achieve, and there is no need to be shy. There is nothing wrong with wanting a striking image of what you are aspiring to be, rather than what perceive yourself to be right now. You want an image in a fabulous office, or striking background? It’s all possible. Talk about what you are trying to project to the world, as there are many subtle changes that can help imply this, even if you don’t have the background of your dreams.
Jasper Thompson - Help Bristol’s Homeless (For Aviva Community Fund) - Relaxed portrait for general use.
What is the difference between a headshot and a business portrait?
For clarity, ‘headshot’ implies just head and shoulders, whereas business portraits can be full length, headshot, or anything in between.
Is there a difference between a business portrait photographer and a corporate portrait photographer?
I don’t think so, no. I think this is getting a bit specific. I think any photographer that specialises in portraits will be able to provide both business and corporate photographs, they are for all intent pretty identical.
Executive portrait photography - is that a thing?
Executive portrait photography falls in the same group as corporate and business portrait photography, as executive is just a ‘title’, and you would expect to be providing portraits for all levels of seniority in a business. From managers, executives, CEO’s and founders, and everything in between. I think all staff should have portraits regardless of position in the company, it’s a team!
Richard K Morgan - Author of Altered Carbon (NETFLIX / Gunzilla Games) - Universal Black & White Portrait for marketing / editorial.
Richard K Morgan - Author of Altered Carbon (NETFLIX / Gunzilla Games) - A more colourful environmental portrait from the same shoot.
Do you need portraits for your business?
I’m Chris, a freelance photographer based in East Anglia, but travel all over the country, so do please get in contact if you’d like to know more about portrait photography, or how I can work with you or your business. Read more about me here.
PROFESSIONAL EDITORIAL AND COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
PORTRAITS, ADVERTISING AND COMMISSIONS. 15+ YEARS EXPERIENCE
CLIENTS
COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE, OBSERVER MAGAZINE, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER FOOD, ENGLISH HERITAGE, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, THE BBC, BRITISH AIRWAYS, BARCLAYCARD, DISNEY, CBEEBIES, AVIVA, THE TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES, HUFFINGTON POST, THE MIRROR AND THE INDEPENDENT AND OTHER MAJOR PAPERS AND MAGAZINES. UK ADVERTISING AGENCIES & PR SPECIALISTS