I shoot a lot of business portraits / head shots around the Bay Area – but mostly around my home town of Santa Cruz. My goal with each client is to provide a variety of portraits – usually some formal, some casual, and with multiple outfit (top) changes. I also try to get several different environment options, although because the background is really blurred out (due to lens depth-of-field effects), this is usually pretty subtle.
The purpose of this article is to address how one photo can actually turn into three or more photos. Because I shoot with Nikon D800 cameras (36 megapixel), we’re got a ton of headroom to work with each photo – which means you can crop the heck out of each shot and still retain enough quality for the most demanding print or web applications you’d need.
A standard headshot that you’d use on a business card or LinkedIn profile is generally cropped pretty close in – say, mid-chest height. However, I try to include shots that are pulled back a little, maybe showing from the waist up, or even full body. You never know when you might need to use one of your portraits for a magazine ad – where the designers will need more negative space in your photo to work with, to help make a more compelling layout in their ad design.
So you can see, options are good. But what if you loved one of your photos, but it was one of the waist-up shots, and you don’t want to show that much for a particular use? Crop it! Like I said, the source images are huge, and you can crop that waist-high shot to a standard headshot and still have a really high-quality image. On top of cropping to create a new photo, you can also get a custom black and white version – which has better contrast than if you submitted a color photo for publication that was going to get automatically converted/printed in black and white.
Here are a few samples of creating multiple options from a single source photo. Oh, I should mention I don’t charge extra for this – you pay once for each photo, period. If you like what you see here, and are interested in booking a quick headshot / portrait session – I recommend you check my business portrait pricing page and my availability page.
This shot started out in landscape orientation, but was cropped to a more standard portrait version. Also, a custom b&w version from the crop.
The client really liked her expression and hair in this shot, but because it was for a business card, she only needed the standard close-in composition. No problem – I cropped it and made a custom B&W version too. But she gets all three versions for the same price.
Looking for business portrait photographer in Santa Cruz? San Francisco / Bay Area Portrait Photographer Chris Schmauch captures great, natural portraits of people – and is super quick, so there’s minimal interruption to your workflow! Call (831) 216-6210 or fill out this nifty contact form (for serious inquiries only).
