Does your headshot photograph have a distracting background?
I hvae been a Sydney headshot photographer for many years and I have always believed that a really good headshot photograph should be all about you. Because of this, I have always had a preference for photographing people on a solid colour background. That isn’t to say that I’ve always shot on a clean background. There are cases such as environmental portraits where having a person in the place of work or in the environment that matches the context of the photo is the correct way to go.
Sometimes the image is part of a story, and in those cases, I do agree that having additional components in the photograph can add to the image.
Non-clean background
Corporate photography or headshot photography is a totally different thing. Those types of images are most often used for different purposes. A headshot photograph is typically used for things such as LinkedIn profiles, Bios, resumes, or website about us pages.
These types of requirements are different because they are trying to showcase you. You may have a client or a prospective employer who is interested in getting the first impression of how you conduct yourself and a professional headshot photograph helps them do that.
If you have a photograph of you riding a bike or part of a group, it may not be as effective as having a professional photo that shows someone that you take your career or your business seriously.
Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule but, I photograph a lot of people, and regardless of their situation, I’ve never met anyone that didn’t benefit from having a clean background in their headshot photo that didn’t help their career.
There is another forgotten reason to get an image with a clean background and this text. A clean background is easy to extend in any direction. This means that you can have text on either side of the photograph as well as above it. This is not something that is usually only possible on a clean background with good photo editing. If you have a dark background such as this one, you could insert vivid white text to the right of the subject that will really pop and be very easy to read for your viewer.
These are the main reasons why I specialise in photographing people on a clean and elegant white, grey or dark grey background. This background with professionally crafted lighting always looks stunning.
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