In today’s business market anyone who has a job or is even looking for a job… really needs to have professional headshots.  Preferably they should be taken by a professional portrait photographer.  Potential clients and employers are going online and finding out everything they can about you and your business before they even give you a call.  Using an undesirable portrait of yourself on your website…or even your LinkedIN profile can be the difference between that potential client calling you…or your competition down the street.

With this in mind, you have to ask yourself, do you want that old photo from college; the one where you are holding a beer and wearing your college sweatshirt, to be the photo you use on your LinkedIn page?  NO! You want to put your best foot forward and sell yourself before the client even meets you in person.  Using a professional headshot helps you do just that.

The photo below is a perfect example of the type of headshot you should be using.  Use a photo that has a simple background and one which is clear/sharp.  Do not use a fuzzy photo or one in which you’ve cropped other people out.  It’s not necessary to have your photos taken in a photo studio.  If you use a portrait that was taken outdoors… just make sure you have a simple background behind you.

Darren, the gentlemen in the photo below… made the right call by contacting me and setting up his studio portrait late last fall.  He had just recently begun work at a new job here in Boise…and needed to update his corporate headshot for the company literature.  The use of a plain gray studio backdrop in combination with professional lighting makes his personality shine through in the portrait and he now has a portrait which he can use on a variety of online platforms including social media and his companies website.