Tara Flannery is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) based in The Woodlands and Conroe, TX. Tara Flannery Photography specializes in corporate headshots. Does the friendly headshot win? See more headshots in the gallery. Contact me to book your professional headshot today!
Does the friendly headshot win?
Yes, absolutely, the friendly headshot wins every time. The professional headshot is potentially the most important tool for introducing yourself to new customers, clients, patients, and business partners. In today’s digital marketplace, your online presence is vitally important. And with the Covid pandemic, it’s even more important to have a great headshot. When you use a headshot on your website, marketing materials, and social media, it’s important to be friendly and welcoming. That’s how people relate to people. It’s the psychology of making a connection with another human being. If you appear friendly and welcoming in your headshot, that connection is made more easily and with more confidence. I’ve always promoted the friendly headshot with only slight variations for a subject’s industry and role. However, even in this article from FindLaw, lawyers should remain friendly.
Stern or friendly? Go with friendly, hands down. Smile, at least a little bit. A forbidding look might communicate authority, but to a non-lawyer, it also says “I will talk down to you.”
Similarly, an article from the University of Washington, confirms that we should be smiling in our headshots.
Your job: Look approachable. Time after time, I notice this as a key common denominator separating good profile shots from bad ones.
So, the bottom line is smile for your headshot. Go ahead and practice in the mirror a few times before your headshot session and you’ll be ready to greet your newest connections!
Headshot Examples
The latest from the smiling headshot galleries…
Tara Flannery is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) based in The Woodlands and Conroe, TX. Tara Flannery Photography specializes in corporate headshots. See more headshots in the gallery. Contact me to book your professional headshot today!
