It’s all about the background today – a small but significant piece in the construction of your perfect headshot!

But before we do that a few words on some of the problems you have to deal with as a commercial photographer.

Take the image above.

This was shot for a Water Business ( how do you know that!) here in Bristol.

It’s a fairly standard group shot but with some added extras.

I shall go into my thought process behind it.

On the day of the shoot it was in January and the weather was really bad - raining cats and dogs and so the light was awful. And when it came down to this picture, as you can see by the clock, it was starting to get really dark. Now when I shoot I invariably use flash so it wasn’t a problem. But I wanted it to look as naturally lit as possible and hopefully I have achieved that.

For the technically minded it was achieved by using a large soft-box.

When shooting commercially you never quite know how ultimately the images are going to be used. So with this photograph I have given the client options as to how it may be cropped.

Option 1 is to use the image as shot here - that is, including the company logo.

Option 2 is to go for a tighter crop just concentrating on the 3 guys.

I purposefully have left space around the people so this could be achieved.

HEADSHOTS & CORPORATE PORTRAITS

There are basically 3 options to choose from:

1.  Black, White or Grey – The classics, with white being the most popular, I would say!

But, of course, it’s not quite as simple as that. If you go down to your local paint shop you’ll find quite a lot of shades of white! Warm white, bright white, Arctic White etc. It’s the same in photography, with clever lighting a photographer can come up with lots of different shades too.

Grey is becoming more popular and fits well on most websites. I like grey it has a contemporary feel to it, and yes, there are different shades again. This blog is on a light grey background and images, or more precisely skin tones, look good against it.

A white wall can be made too look grey with flash lighting - it’s to do with The Inverse Square Law!

Black tends to be very dramatic and is best used by the more creative industries! It was the go to backdrop for actor’s shots back in the day!

2.   The Company Logo – Does what it says on the tin. And looks great.

But as discussed above it may lead to difficulties later if you want to crop the image down. Just make your photographer aware of the issues and there wont be a problem.

3.   Your Brand Colour – Not the easiest to pull off because you need to find the right paint or paper background that matches your Pantone colour. Looks really good though.

Also great idea for a feature wall in your reception, which you can then use later as a backdrop for your photoshoots!

A very subtle way of tying your headshot in with your brand and again looks great on websites and promotional material.

What strategies do you use when deciding on a background for your headshots?