How to Find Your Most Appropriate Headshot
Our two gallery solution will make your review and edits easy!
During any photoshoot, we generate a large number of images. This is especially true during sessions involving people. A typical headshot or portrait session can average between 50 and 150 images, with some going as high as 300.
Why so many? During the session, I am looking for those moments “in between”. Those genuine moments when we are not thinking about the camera, or the deadlines or the next meeting, when we are not pulling out the smile that hasn’t changed since the 5th grade school portrait days, but when the real human being is there in front of me. That is when a person’s authenticity comes out. That is the goal of a professional headshot.
So, this means I might make a few more frames on the way to that goal. But, it doesn’t mean that you need to wade through a pile of frames to find your best one!
First Pass
At the studio, our first edit pass removes all of the frames with blinks, squints, and odd expressions. And, then cull the similars and dupes. Our goal is to narrow the selection down to the top 30 or 40 images. These are put in a private online gallery for the marketing person to review and narrow down to the top 5, or so, that fit with the marketing scope of the project.
Second Pass
We make a second gallery that just has these top selects and share that with our executive subject for their final picks and approvals.
Instead of picking from 150+ images, which can cause anxiety and take up way too much of their time, they only need to review the top 5 images.
The system is a little longer than the traditional session contact sheets, but generally goes very smoothly and can greatly shorten the turn around time when making the final decisions.
And, of course, we can customize the system very easily to fit the needs and goals of your project!
- Tags: Executive Portraits, headshots, How To...