Professional Headshots for Pride Month

We love to celebrate and we love to highlight excellent portraits. So while we are not so timely on the Pride Month theme, we feel there is always a reason to celebrate Pride! We will launch July with our celebration of some wonderful headshots and business portraits highlighting this community.

For us, inspiration for our corporate and business headshots comes from looking at all kinds of portrait photography. It is wonderful to be able to start with a research subject that might lead us to new headshot work, or to revisit old portraits that we have not come across in some time.

It would be easy to fill pages and pages of blog posts highlighting the LGBTQ community. There are the LGBTQ portrait photographers in our industry who have contributed their creativity and unique perspective. And, of course there are the subjects that our photographers cover and by taking their true, beautiful, fun and fantastic portraits, share their significance with the world.

In this post, we decided to focus on excellent headshots and portraits of the smart, driven, heros and icons that have led change for the LGBTQ community.

Starting way back in the 1960's we can look to Marsha P Johnson. She was a trans woman who identified as gay and emerged as a leader following the Stonewall uprising. Uniquely and 100% her own woman, Marsha led with personality, style and spirit. Together with another LGBTQ rights trailblazer, Sylvia Rivera, she founded STAR, or the Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.

Unsurprisingly, as a contemporary of Andy Warhol, Ms. Johnson sat for many portraits with him. While our corporate headshot subjects rarely come to us with her wild creative style, we see similarities in how he approached the portrait. As his goal was to create a true portrait of who this person was, our goal is to create a corporate headshot that feels both honest, beautiful and flattering.

When considering our next subject, Harvey Milk was an obvious choice. For those who don't know, he was an outspoken politic figure in San Francisco, who rallied the gay community to identify issues and speak up for their rights. It took him many campaigns to be elected to public office, but eventually he won. As an active official on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he moved definitively on legislation that would fight against discrimination. He was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States, earning the local title of the Mayor of Castro, a street and neighborhood in San Francisco.

Here is a business portrait of Harvey Milk from the Bettman Archive. It is office photography of a sort - a wonderful look at him in his habitat, district map in the background with stacks of paper, business cards and photographs strewn about. This documentary style business portrait gives us a window into his professional life like only the best environmental portraits can do.

Edith Windsor might not be an household name, but she brought a case all the way to the Supreme Court that was instrumental to future progress. Her case laid the groundwork for one of the biggest human rights gains in the LGBTQ community: Same Sex Marriage.

In 1996, Windsor inherited the estate of her female partner of 40 years. They were married in Canada as same sex marriage was not yet legal in the US, but lived in NY. Because they were not recognized as legally married in New York, Windsor was subject to over $350,000 in taxes. Had their marriage been recognized the taxes would have been 0.

In 2010 Windsor filed a suit against the federal government, fighting this injustice. She argue that there was discrimination inherent in the Defense of Marriage Act that led to her unfair and exorbitant tax bill. She won this landmark decision, paving the way to the case for same sex marriage.

This professional portrait of Edith Windsor by Robert Maxwell is a heroic portrait of a powerful, self-assured woman who, with her fight against the Defense of Marriage act, paved the way to same sex marriage. While it is no corporate headshot, it is most certainly a professional portrait highlighting a hard working activist. She looks unstoppable.

Michael Sam was a formidable competitor in the NFL and man, was that guy brave?! In one of the most difficult communities where, at best, homosexuality was a fraught conversation, he announced what he was: a gay man.

This headshots by Richard Phibbs is, in many ways, no different than a typical sports headshot. Sam is shirtless. His physicality is impressive. He addresses the family unflinchingly. He is a fit and strong professional player. Of course, his recently announced his sexuality, that he was gay in a profession that has little precedent for identifying as gay, hangs between the viewer and the subject. It helps us understand two things about him at one time. It is a complex headshot photography, a dramatic business portrait of sorts.

These portrait photographers have beautifully highlighted important figures in the LGBTQ community. We gain inspiration from both the imagery and what they represent for continued progress.

Restart - Booking Your New York Corporate Headshot Shoot

Our New York headshot photographers are ready to start taking your executive headshots and corporate portraits.

We are finding that our clients are ready to start thinking about projects long delayed by coronavirus. Thankfully for us, that includes getting their corporate headshots updated. New York and the surrounding areas have done the work to contain the virus and we are ready to carefully step back into our role as their New York corporate headshot photographers.

The way that we do things is a little different now with the goal being to keep you, your staff and our team safe.

Booking The Booth for Business.

Booking us is not much different. If you are looking to start a new corporate headshot project, start by giving us a call. We will talk to you about your needs, touching on how many people we are covering, what creative looks you are considering, background types, location, etc. If you are a client that was already booked, our conversation with you will act as an update. We will confirm details and find out if there have been any changes to the plan since we last spoke.

Space and Location For Your Corporate Headshots

For the foreseeable future we will be giving space and location quite a bit more consideration. Like in every public circumstance right now, we must maintain the minimum of 6 feet of distance between the photographer and his/her subject. We almost always come to the client's place of business (you), so one of our pre-shoot priorities would be to vet the location a little more thoroughly so we know we can set up properly for this distance.

Space and access will be the key factors we consider when we are sending our corporate headshot photographers out to setup a studio in your office. Ideally, the room would be 15 feet in at least one direction. This gives us space for our gear and our people to stay separate. We would also prefer a space where we can set up so the subject can walk into position without passing the photographer. Again, the less contact, the better!

What Does Your New York Corporate Headshot Photographer Want You To Wear?

Our recommendations on what to wear and how to prep are the same as pre-covid. Stick to solids and wear clothes that have a nice structure. Keep things as simple as possible. For one, it will highlight you and look nice in the photo. Also, there is less need to adjust well-fitting, uncomplicated outfits. In pre-Covid19 times, we would approach the subject and with his/her permission, and either direct or help them to adjust an item of clothing that might be laying wrong or hanging improperly. We can still direct our subjects, but the distance makes it more difficult.

The same is true for jewelry. Try to wear chains that don't tangle or earrings that hang properly without getting stuck in long hair. Again, the less you need to rely on our New York photographers for adjustments, the better.

Before you come into the room for your shoot, stop and look in a mirror. You have already taken precautions with your outfit and accessories for the day. Now do a last minute check:

-smooth down stray hairs with a hair product or, in a pinch, with hands lightly coated with lotion.

-if wearing a necklace, check that the clasp is in the back and that any charms are hanging straight.

-if wearing earrings, make sure they are arranged and hanging properly.

-check that your collar is folded neatly.

-neatly tuck shirts.

-check for exposed undergarments (bra straps especially).

Pre-shoot Timing

For the time being, we are strongly encouraging clients to use our scheduling tool. This will give each subject a designated 10 or 15 minute window, for example. We will time our work in an effort to clear the room of one subject before the next one comes. Here is a link to how our scheduling tool works.

Finally, the images will all be viewed and delivered digitally. We will send a password-protected gallery to the client with all of the download-able images. Our goal is always to get photos to our clients within 3 days of the shoot, but, of course, this depends on the size and complexity of the project.

Taking all of these precautions will help you prepare for a great shoot. As New York corporate headshot photographers, we are a all about keeping the quality high and the experience safe.

Retouching - A Touchy Subject

What is retouching?

Retouching is when you enhance a photograph making small alterations and additions. It used to be done physically by hand, but now we have computers and computers have Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop was an incredible gift to the photography industry. It's one of those universally understood terms that has turned into verbs, like Google (to search for something on the internet). If you say you want to Photoshop something, you are saying you want to retouch it. This says something about how important photography and more specifically, retouched corporate photography, is to the headshot process.

Some people associate retouching with being a bad practice. It almost feels like a dirty word. It can be used to create something that doesn't truly represent the subject. It can be overdone. It can be used with or without permission to make someone look like someone they are not. But when used properly and with standards, it is a wonderful tool to make the best photographs even better.

As New York executive headshot photographers, we mostly do headshot photography, so for this blog post, we will focus on how retouching can help our human subjects.

We love good retouching not for it’s transformative powers, but how it can help our subjects look their personal best in their business headshots. We believe in using the least amount of retouching that can add polish and elevate our subject's outward presentation. People come to us wanting to look their personal best, not like someone else, and we happily use retouching as a final step towards getting this. This aligns well with why people hire us in the first place. They want to elevate their professional business portraits presentation and retouching is the best final step to achieving this. It’s the cherry on top of the perfect sundae.

Because retouching is a powerful tool we have a list of do's and don'ts that we try to stand by.

1. Our goal is to make you look your personal best

2. This is a clean up, not an overhaul.

3. We don't change anything significant about the subject's features.

4. We only change things that would naturally be gone within 2 months (i.e. blemishes, dark circles from a particularly bad night's sleep, glare on glasses).

Here are some of our typical focus areas:

Color correction – we will always correct skin tone or overall color balance. Color balance is everything so we have no problem correcting skin tone that is too much in one direction. If our light exacerbates a red-leaning skin tone, we are going to bring it back into balance.

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In the original photo, left, the color temperature felt too warm/yellow. We balanced the color to a more true and flattering look.

Eyes – this is a big one and, done right, can add a brightness that will really elevate a corporate portrait. We will almost always lighten dark circles and soften lines around eyes. We never erase or remove these details. Erasure of specific details can make the photo look unreal and retouched. Subtlety is a must.

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Above is an example of a portrait where we de-accentuated under-eye circles. The lines were not completely removed, but they were softened a bit.

Glasses – Glare on glasses can be a big problem and it is hard element to retouch, for which reason, we try our best to notice a glare during the photographic process. Should the best shot have glare, we will remove it in the retouching process.

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There is some major glare happening for this gal and it is very distracting from what is otherwise a great looking and stylish headshot. Our retoucher magically removed that glare and turned what could have been a completely unusable image into an overall stellar photo.

Flyaway Hair – Flyaway hairs happen to even the best-coiffed subjects, especially in dry, wintery, or rainy locations. We add significant polish by removing these unruly strands of hair.

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This subject is looking sharp in every way but in the executive portrait on the left, we noticed a halo of flyaways ready to be tamed. In the photo of the right, you can see where we removed those wisps, creating a smoother and more finished look in keeping with a professional business portrait.

Blemishes – We remove blemishes since they fall in the 'gone within 2 months' time period. It's a real bummer to do all the preparation for your headshot and then wake up that morning with a big blemish. With the click of a mouse we can fix it.

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The above left is an example of a subject who had a combination of blemishes, freckles and other markings. We carefully removed the blemishes and left all other skin markings. The goal was to remove unwanted temporary markings and leave all of those gorgeous identifying elements that made her, her.

Clothing – We often take out distracting details on clothing, such as lint, spots and stains. Wrinkles or other fabric issues, is one of the more difficult things to retouch, so fabric and draping is something we pay very close attention to during the shoot.

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We love the subject’s pose in this photo, but it caused his suit to pull around his upper arm. Take a look at the puckering of the fabric on both sides. We smoothed the area to give the overall look polish turning a pretty good photo into a great photo!

Mistakes Are Made

We love what retouching can do for our subjects, but, in our option, there are so many no-no's when it comes to retouching.

The number one mistake we see after New York business headshot photographers complete the photo, is that they or their retoucher overdoes it. They remove EVERYTHING, leaving the subject without any markings, lines, pores, etc. It looks otherworldly (not in a good way) and makes the portrait feel unconvincing. If a peer sees your photo on LinkedIn, they should recognize you when they see you in person. In our opinion, if the changes are too drastic, it can cause a lapse in trust. It’s also a good rule of thumb in understanding the experience of your retoucher. An untrained eye will do more harm.

Retouching – A Touchy Subject

Retouching is a sensitive topic. The goal is to make people look great, without pointing out or correcting issues that the subject never saw as problematic. Tricky, right?

It helps to know that your New York corporate headshot photographer has established guidelines that he/she will always address for his or her subjects. This way, people know we address those issues in everyone, not just them.

One particular rule has been very helpful for us in our retouching practice: If it will be gone in 2 months, we will fix it. If it is something more permanent, we will leave it. The easiest, most practical example: will remove a blemish, but we will leave a mole.

Because we are so very very careful about how far we will go with retouching, we are sometimes asked by subjects to take care of elements we saw as just fine. They might request a heavier hand at those bags under their eyes. Or perhaps want to de-accentuate a laugh line or two. We get it. We all see ourselves differently and if we can help someone improve the photo in a way that maintains integrity, we are happy to make those changes.

Retouching software is a wonderful tool that can make improving a photo quite simple. Like the best lights, the best lenses and the best photographers, it can be a part of the mix that is used to make the best photos even better.

New York corporate headshot photographer