At some point when you’re developing your personal brand, you’re going to want to have professional photos taken so you will be able to show a great-looking photo on your blog or website.
By now, I’m sure you know things you need to be aware of when you take your business photos. No revealing clothes, natural-looking make-up, wearing something classy instead of this year’s latest trend… all things that will make the photos as versatile for you as possible.
Which makes sense–quality photos with a professional photographer aren’t cheap! So you want to get as much value out of them as possible.
Over the years though, I’ve seen some of my friends and clients follow all of those common-sense rules and still end up with a photo that isn’t as useful as they had hoped.
To help you avoid that situation, here are three things you probably haven’t thought about that will make a huge difference in how well your professional portrait will go with your personal brand.
1. Pay attention to the backdrop
A couple years ago, I worked with a woman who wanted to incorporate her professional photo into her website. Since that’s exactly what she should be doing, I happily agreed to help her. Until I actually saw her photo! It was a great picture of her–but the electric blue Technicolor background clashed so horribly with her brown website that we couldn’t use the photo as it was. She eventually had to pay someone to remove the backdrop from her photo so she could put it online.
So when you get your photo taken, take that into consideration. A white background is best because it’s the most versatile. It blends in with most websites, is used by the most professionals, and makes it easy to remove the background entirely if you need that.
If you absolutely have to have a colored background though, go for something neutral. You don’t want your backdrop to be a distraction or for it to ruin the look of your website. And if you have portraits of different people up on your website, make sure that everyone has the same color backdrop!
2. Wear clothes that compliment your brand
It’s bad enough to have a background that clashes with your website. It’s even worse when your clothing does! Once, I worked with a client who wanted to use a photo of her in a blazing orange shirt on her website. It was so vibrant that it was the only thing people saw when they looked at her photo. Her face was completely an afterthought. Plus, the color was one of those polarizing oranges that people either love or hate. Not good–and not something that can be edited out.
When you choose outfits to wear for your professional photo, you need to pick ones that go with your branding materials. When I was doing my photos, I wanted to wear my favorite lilac-colored button down shirt. Until I realized that a soft purple doesn’t go with the colors I picked as my brand for my websites. In both cases, the purple would have thrown-off the color scheme and left viewers with a slight sense that something was wrong. I ended up going with yellow and a soft blue-green shirts.
It’s not the end of the world if you get your picture taken wearing the wrong colors, but it will make your life a lot easier if you think about the color scheme beforehand. When in doubt, wear a color like navy that goes with almost everything and everyone.
3. Make it crop-able
Good photos are expensive, so you will probably want to use yours as much as possible. And when you give photos to other websites to use, they often need different dimensions to match the layout of their page. You can’t control that, so you will want to make sure that your photo can be cropped down without making you look bad or out of alignment.
So, when you’re picking photos from the one’s you’ve taken, make sure that you have at least one that can be altered to fit different requirements. It should at least be able to be used as a square and as a vertical rectangle. If it’s a full or 3/4’s body shot, try not to lean too much in one direction or a cropped version will look off-center.
And, keep your hand off your face! When you’re leaning on your hand, it will either slightly distort your features, or will make you look unnatural. Plus, it totally ruins your ability to crop the photo. It looks really weird to have a zoomed-in close-up of your face with part of your hand randomly jutting into view.
Keeping those three things in mind (as well as the common-sense professional photo tips) will help make sure that you will be able to use your photos in as many ways as possible and feel confident that they represent you well.
If you have any other tips for people who are getting their photo taken for professional purposes, please share in the comments!
Author:
Katie Konrath writes about creativity, innovation and “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped!” at www.getFreshMinds.com.
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Hi Katie,
I am not a fan of putting personal photos everywhere, I prefer to use my website logo instead.
Sometimes I use sketch image of my face in the about us page, is that OK?
Thanks,
[...] (ex. blog posts, pictures, etc.) are the ones that best represent who you are. Making sure that you have an appropriate profile picture that is happy, positive, and shows your personality is key. This profile picture can be used for [...]
@Mohammed It’s your choice if you want to use a photo or another image to represent yourself. However, using your pic can help you with your personal branding because then people associate what you’re doing with you (as a real person). It also helps people feel more connected.
In some cases, you absolutely need to have a professional image to represent yourself. If you’re a contributer to a blog, or are doing a webinar, or anything else like that, you’ll usually need to put up a picture of yourself.
A personal photo, by the way, is quite different from a professional picture. In a professional pic, you’re deliberately projecting an image of professionalism and the look you want for your personal brand. So it’s not as revealing as a personal picture.
It obviously depends on what you want to do with your personal brand, but you shouldn’t completely disregard how helpful it can be to let people see your face.
Great Feedback!
According to what you said, I am using my personal photos at my blog and other social media websites but I should now incorporate my professional pic. to strength mu personal brand.
Thanks,
I use the company logo everywhere they ask me to upload an image. On a few websites such as Myspace and Twitter, people have advised to upload a photo to gain more attention. But I still believe words can be more powerful. what do you think?
I do the same. Check my twitter.com/brandmycareer
But I just put very small personal photo in the about owner page.
We can use professional photo whenever have big audience and attend seminars, webinar, etc.
Some other quick tips:
1) never use a webcam photo. these never look good, are obviously taken with a webcam and are simply unprofessional. If you can’t have a professional photo taken, at least take your shot with a good quality digital camera in a well lit space with a neutral background.
2) don’t include kids, pets, props in your shot. Just you.
3) over dressed is better than underdressed. If you have any question about what to wear, dress up, not down. What’s the worst that could happen? Viewers think you’re too professional?
BTW, I think you meant to write “Wear clothes that complement your brand” for #2
Good advice. I also recommend a professional photographer if not a talented amateur (something I have to do soon as my current picture is dull.).
I am also experimenting with using art of myself on my personal site (since I work in media), with an actual picture in my contact section. So far I’ve had positive reactions, but part of my “brand” is being in media, gaming, and being a “professional geek”.
I quite agree with you Katie, but having a hand on your face, cheek may not necesasry be bad, The picture I use mostly was taken to project me as a thoughtful person wh is goal oriented? Is anything bad about that?