7 Tips to Choose a Headshot Photographer

Headshots are a specialty. Your friend with a nice camera might get lucky, and so might a good wedding photographer, but you want someone who photographs faces every week and knows how to help you look like yourself on a good day. If you like someone's portfolio but don't see many headshots in it, ask to see some. If they don't have anything to show, move on.

The same goes for the apps. An AI headshot can look polished, but the people who know you can tell, and you'll know too: every compliment on it chips away at you, because you know it isn't really you.

First-hand reviews are essential. Start with the photographer's Google reviews: if they're a professional, they'll have their business on Google Maps, and that's where most people leave a review now. Read a few rather than stopping at the star rating, and look for people like you, whether that's a LinkedIn update, a whole team or an actor's first headshots. If you can see the photo each person walked away with, even better. Can't find any reviews? Ask the photographer for references, and ask each one, "Would you hire this photographer again?" If the answer is no, keep looking.

Finding a photographer is a lot like ordering your favourite meal. If you want a perfectly grilled steak, you don't go to the vegetarian joint down the road and ask them to throw one on the grill. Good photographers have a style, a “flavour,” in their work, so find one whose work speaks to you and go from there. Ask someone to copy a look that isn't theirs and you'll probably end up with a perfectly grilled portobello when you were craving the medium rare ribeye.

The exception is a look you have to match. If your company already has headshots and you're adding people to the set, ask whether they've matched someone else's lighting before, and ask to see the two side by side.

What's the lifetime of a headshot? Well, that depends. The short answer is: a headshot lasts as long as it still looks like you (2 to 3 years is a good rule of thumb). It's an investment in yourself, in your company, and in your brand, so think about it by the month. Spread over the two or three years you'll use it, a headshot works out to about what you pay for Netflix. While we can all agree that Netflix is great, it doesn't help you get a job or promote your brand. An excellent headshot, one that makes you feel great and expresses exactly what you want to convey, is priceless in its own way.

So weigh the whole thing: the work, the reviews, how the session runs and what happens after it. A headshot you're proud of is one you'll actually use, everywhere, for years. And if it's for your business, ask your accountant. It's often a business expense.

Nailing an excellent headshot is all about expression. The best lighting and background in the world won't save a stiff one. Your photographer should know how to direct you, and the good ones make it feel like a conversation. They can tell a real expression from a forced one, and they know how to get you to the real one.

I know what you're thinking: “How the heck do I find out if they can do that?” Do what you'd do before buying something on Amazon: look past the seller's photos to the ones customers posted. On the photographer's Google listing, open the photos clients attached to their reviews, or check the posts they've been tagged in on social media. It's a better view past the curated portfolio. Focus on the expressions. Are they confident? Approachable? Relaxed? Or is there tension? Any deer-in-the-headlights looks? If the expressions rock, you're in good hands. Then ask whether they shoot tethered, straight into a screen you can both see, rather than checking the back of the camera. Reviewing every photo as you go, and deleting the ones you don't like, puts you in control of the shoot, and that's where the confidence comes from.