
Ask HN: Have you paid for the photos/headshots you use in professional setting? - lambdadmitry
And if so, why?
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frereubu
We tried to do it ourselves (two of my small company, including me, have an
art college background - I studied photography for a year) and the results
weren't great. They were obviously taken by non-professionals, and gave the
staff section of our site an ad-hoc feel. Having said that, I prefer that kind
of feel to photos that are so "professional" that they're mind-numbingly
boring. There's a fine balance to be struck between stuff that's too slick and
stuff that's amateurish - getting images that feel professional while still
having a soul is very tricky, and generally involves finding a photographer
that you click with (sorry, not sorry).

~~~
stan_rogers
Getting headshot images that feel professional (in the sense of being well-lit
with a decent background/setting and otherwise good technical execution) is
actually a doddle. Especially these days, what with there being a plethora of
resources available - good tutorials, cheap equipment, the equivalent of free
film, and immediate feedback. There's no need for necromancy involving light
meters, and no need to read the tea leaves of a Polaroid to guess at what the
"real" picture will look like after it's souped. You don't need to do anything
moody, dramatic or otherwise risky. As picture-taking goes, it's about as low
as you can go on the technical difficulty scale.

The hard part is getting "a person who happens to be in a picture" rather than
"a picture that happens to have a person in it". That's psychology, not
photography, and it's a completely separate skill. You can get the book
learning from successful headshot types (notably Peter Hurley, but there are
certainly others), but that's sort of like knowing the theory of standup
comedy. You've got to actually work with people to figure out how to make them
seem like they're looking through the camera rather than at it. And you've got
to care enough to keep your subject from figuring out that you're doing any of
that.

~~~
ensignavenger
I do some hobbyist photography, and I have kept myself to photographing nature
and architecture because I have never been very good at posing / the
psychology aspect as you describe it. Recently I have become more interested
in doing more people photos, but I'm not sure how to go about learning it.
Other than practice, are there any resources you might be able to suggest?

~~~
stan_rogers
First, make an honest assessment of whether or not you (a) _are_ a "people
person", or (b) can fake it for long enough for your subjects to really
believe you are one. I'm not going to kid you: if you're a severe introvert
who can't at least pretend to be open in a convincing way, then the majority
of the work you'd need to do to get into the game is actually on your own
comfort and skills in the social setting.

If you're up to the game, or at least think you could be, then starting with a
YouTube search for "Peter Hurley headshot" and watching the excerpts from "The
Art Behind the Headshot" (they'll be at the Fstoppers channel) is a great
place to start. Hurley's a salesman with an ego, and his clientelle are mostly
actors looking for a different sort of headshot than the typical corporate
client, but don't let any of that get in the way - the interaction tricks,
etc., are still the same. Posing should seem like little offhand comments in
the rest of the patter; the idea is to get rid of the obvious, gigantic and
scary camera thing, and reminding the subject that the photo is important is
going to kill that. Expect a low "keeper" rate, especially early on. (If you
allow time for school pictures, you're going to get school pictures.) Once
you've watched Hurley, you'll be able to judge others. Joe McNally's humble
approach - like he's been given the privilege of taking the photo, no matter
who's in front of the camera - also works well. Find someone who reminds you
of who you'd like to be, and can be, behind the camera. But it's about reading
the people and working with them _as_ people that makes all of the difference.

~~~
ensignavenger
Thank you. I will follow your advice and lookup these resources!

------
colanderman
Random tidbit: for some reason, LinkedIn displays your own profile image to
yourself at a lower resolution than other profile images. I think it's related
to the fact that your own profile image opens editing tools when clicked.

(It took me hours to realize -- after digging through their HTML -- that the
reason my own pic looked so blurry once uploaded was because of this. Logged
out, it looks fine.)

------
mcculley
Yes, I have done so twice. The first time, I had a professional photographer
take photos of my team and I so that our "about us" page would have a
consistent look. The second time, my local Chamber of Commerce provided the
services of a professional during a networking event. I use these photos over
something I took with my phone or cropped from some other photo because they
look a lot more professional.

If you are developing a service related to professional headshots, I would
appreciate you contacting me at mcculley@stackframe.com as I am developing
something related to that industry.

------
alexgmcm
I haven't yet.

I'm considering it because of the popularity of LinkedIn but in the Anglo-
American culture and thus most multinational companies - it is frowned upon to
attach a photo to your CV.

~~~
frereubu
This is interesting in terms of the ubiquity of LinkedIn - the lack of a photo
on a CV is obviously to do with reducing bias. For example, if a recruiter
doesn't know how attractive someone is, that won't influence their decision,
and rightly so. But now that everyone's on LinkedIn it's easy to track down
someone's photo if you want to. I often do this with clients who approach us
through email because I like to have a face in mind when I speak to them on
the phone, but it's easy for recruiters to misuse.

~~~
jciochon
I attended a tech resume workshop recently and the recruiters there said they
would absolutely discard resumes with photos (and other overly personal info)
on them due to bias, and were instructed to do so by their employers.
Interesting, but understandable.

I do wonder how that reconciles with all the social media around though
considering the main way recruiters reach out to me is LinkedIn.

~~~
bengale
Yeah at my last job where I used to get CVs I was always told to bin CVs that
had photos/age etc. on them.

~~~
eb0la
In my country (Spain) you must attach a photo to the CV to get into
consideration.

I've been told in Germany you must attach a specific type.of photo, and you
must gomtona professional photographer for it

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lucasgonze
I paid for professional headshots to use in professional settings. It was
partly about LinkedIn and other social media, and partly about conferences and
press.

Why? Because it's an effective way to tell your story better.

It says you're confident, because you know that you're awesome enough to
deserve a professional shoot.

The specifics of whatever photos you end up using will carry some message. For
example being shot in front of books carries an obvious message.

It's good to have a photo specifically designed for professional contexts,
rather than one awkwardly repurposed from a social context.

~~~
netsharc
I second this, the lady I went to took around 80 different pictures, and she
was telling me how to stand (where to place my feet, shoulders, turn my head,
smile - even though the photo was chest-up the placement of the feet were
important) and was very encouraging with "Smile! Oh wow, that's great!". Later
on we reduced it to several photos by sorting out the ones I wouldn't like at
all and going "Photo A or photo B?" through the ones we had left.

A stiff passport photo would've been boring...

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PedroCandeias
I did, and use it in the company slack, email, salesforce, etc.

Like it or not, others respond to our image. Using a professional photo is a
great way to influence that response.

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pure-awesome
I have a friend who studies photography. I paid them a bit of cash to snap a
few semi-professional photos outdoors, and do a few post-processing touch-ups.
I make use of these on my CV etc.

Much better than I would have been able to do myself / with an amateur
friend's help. Not as high quality as studio photos, but also not nearly as
expensive, and good enough for my purposes.

------
Tharkun
I don't use photos online anywhere. When silly tools/platform require the use
of some kind of profile picture, I draw a stick figure or something similarly
silly. It might not look terribly professional, but my face is entirely
irrelevant in a professional context.

~~~
DJBunnies
Except for somebody looking for you...

~~~
Tharkun
I have a name. They can look for that.

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BjoernKW
Yes, about ten years ago when founding a startups because we thought it might
be useful for press releases and similar publications.

It probably wasn't the best way to spend our limited resources at the time.
However, the pictures weren't particularly expensive either and I still use
one for profile pictures and similar use cases, mostly because otherwise there
aren't that many decent headshots of myself. Well, there's this one but I
suppose it'd not be particularly suitable for a professional setting:
[https://bjoernkw.com/images/top-hat.jpg](https://bjoernkw.com/images/top-
hat.jpg)

So, in hindsight I'd say I got my money's worth for those shots.

------
gallamine
I spoke at OSCON once. As part of the speaker package they did professional
headshots. It was a great perk. I've used those extensively since - lots of
other conferences ask for a headshot on their speaker list. I also use it on
Linkedin.

------
venantius
Yes - the guy who did our wedding photos was great and I was just starting my
own startup and knew I wanted headshots. I was happy to pay him for an hour of
taking photos and knew I'd get something usable out of it.

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zozbot123
Yes. I had a professional photo made for my passport instead of the usual
instant photo where you look flash burned, have a big nose, and a shadow
behind you that looks like a mullet.

There is a substantial difference in the way people handle identification with
good photos. It feels like people think, "oh, of course, this is you." I liken
it to my photo having taken a shower - it makes a much better impression.

People usually hate their identification photos. Having a quality photo is a
nice conversation starter.

------
milanmot
I did it for my personal website hosted at
[https://www.milanmotavar.com/](https://www.milanmotavar.com/).

I think it came out well.

------
nottorp
No, it's not the kind of image I want to project. I randomly use a crop of a
normal photo or a drawing of me that my daughter made when she was like 3 or
4.

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LandR
I'm a developer, so no...

A headshot would be of exactly zero value to me. I have no photo on linkedin
or any social media. In fact, zero photos of me online.

Current work asked me to upload a photo for the company skype / whatever. I
told them no. It's completely pointless.

If a company wanted a photo for me to apply for the job, I wouldn't apply.

Judge me on my history / technical skills / personal skills etc at the
interview. My face is irrelevant.

~~~
mdgrech23
You're greatly limiting your career potential with this mindset. Soft skills
matter too. If you want to advance in your career you need people to pull you
up, you'll never get the necessary contacts with this kind of attitude.

~~~
tboyd47
Is being able to smile for a camera a "soft skill?"

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Fradow
No, one time I took the team (~10 persons) to a nearby park on a nice day, and
took photos with blurry green background. Otherwise, I just order people to
stand in front of the white wall with best lighting I can find in the office,
smile, and done.

I use a low-end DSLR that I take the time to manually adjust.

Results are good enough that I won't bother finding a professional to do
better.

~~~
copperx
Good enough is the enemy of great.

------
qmarchi
Have not. For me, there are events where the internal media team (responsible
for announcements and for ads) handles taking these.

------
ykevinator
I've heard from those who have that it was worth the money. The only caution
is that for some reason people still use those 70s olan mills background which
connote a sort of tone deafness or cluelessness of the subject.

~~~
copperx
What is, these days, an appropriate background?

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schnevets
No, but my current job provided one as part of onboarding, which I think is a
great idea. When my nieces and nephews enter the work force, I'm planning on
paying for professional headshots for each of them.

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sideshowb
No. Then again I'm not awful at photography myself and nor are the people who
snapped pics for me (the ones that aren't selfies). Fwiw I'm an academic
though I do interact with business.

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kowdermeister
No, but I will do it in the future. It's handy for Tinder as well :)

~~~
copperx
Because nothing communicates "I can be fun and exciting" as a stiff headshot.

------
okwme
was considering this recently and came across something interesting. This
photo studio in berlin charges different prices depending on where you plan to
use it. Also curious whether that is common practice?

35 euro: for private use in applications, social networks eg Xing, LinkedIn,
Facebook, Instagram etc.

80 euro: You acquire the full rights of use to use your portrait commercially
eg for websites, brochures, business cards, publications in books or
magazines, all without time and space restriction.

~~~
netsharc
I've seen that too from some studios. Legally the photog is the copyright
owner (they created the work), and you're purchasing a license from them, and
I suppose in this case there are 2 levels of licenses.

I guess one could try bargaining with them - because without you hiring them,
there'd be no license to sell to you. But I guess successful ones can just
turn you away.

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randyzwitch
Yes, because it’s usually pretty inexpensive (I think I paid $35) relative to
having a perfectly lit, clean background picture when one is needed at the
last minute

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wozmirek
Nope, though I'm using a photo from an (unpaid) photoshoot from a startup
accelerator, made by a semi-pro photographer.

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1337biz
Of cause. I consider it a relevant part of my professional identity just
similar to dressing appropriately to the occasion.

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wingerlang
I am currently re-using the picture from my work permit, it looked
professional enough for me.

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yannis7
oh how much I dislike this latest trend in tech-hip employee headshots where
they blast insane amounts of light on one's face - that, in combination with
the fake smile on all those pics, gives such an eerie effect..

~~~
copperx
Smiling says "I'm an idiot" in Japan, so be careful if you're going for a
headshot that can be used internationally.

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dyeje
Yes. It's cheap and well worth it, you can use them for quite a while.

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dataminded
A previous employer paid for mine. I had considered paying for my own.

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marsrover
I paid for my Christmas photos and that’s what I use on LinkedIn.

~~~
ARandomerDude
Ditto. After the family pics, I told the photographer I want one of myself for
professional use and she did a great job with it.

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TheGrumpyBrit
Kind of. I use a good headshot from my wedding.

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lwhalen
Yes, and it's been worth it every time.

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mrtenbears
yep. I went to a pro with a lot of experience because i wanted a professional
image for linkedin.

