So... are you taking advantage of a MOST significant hook, in your socials? Your PEOPLE, head shots for lawyers?
Are your people and team selling YOU, your business; your brand?
Or do they look like they are ‘stuck in the ‘80’s’.
AND, is your company 'riding the street wave' for branding head shots?
More natural head shots for lawyers have become the norm.
Lawyers need to build trust like any other business, in some cases more so as a greater personal and financial risk may be at stake. And so now we take our professional head shots down onto the street, to look more natural and like connectable people.
I LOVE shooting down on the street...because it feels ‘real’. Like we have escaped from the office blur if even for just a few moments. Colleagues just look more natural and approachable. The boundaries are down and we better connect with you.
Profile pictures (head shots) in the street?
Outside?
Are you crazy? (Their faces say this and not their words!)
We had them done INSIDE last time… You sure it is ‘outside’?
This is kind of the conversation I have with lawyers, barristers and strictly corporate clients. No one has called me ‘crazy’ as of yet but their expression sometimes suggest it. They become a little nervous of photos in the street. I understand, because the backgrounds have to be absolutely ‘on message’ other wise your business photos misrepresent. And maybe they are concerned that street level trivialises what they do.
For a long time head shot photography has always been taken INSIDE.
15 years ago,I would, more often, rig a studio in a clients boardroom / offices. White background paper and pretty formal stuff, although, in my case always shot reasonably naturally. Then head shots became more about leaning casually against a wall, but still inside. And finally now a headshot shoot can be either, and sometimes both, inside and then street, client depending.
Why historically inside?
The reason in being so that the background remains the same and light controlled. Therefore, the brand maintains its synergy. Images look clean and professional.
You better control the light. Everyone looks the same. But...They now look so dated...and intangible.
Times have changed.
We better understand the value of photography as a significant charismatic contributor within our businesses.
The significant part it plays within our branding and branding photography.
Photos reach your clients in split seconds. (We are now creating more and. more social media content to connect with other businesses. Half of that connecting magnetism is your people and business branding photography..
We are cognitively wired to read photographs before text. It is how the brain works. (This is proven and now more commonly known).
And the more natural and approachable you look the more business you are likely to attract.
And if your wonderful inspirational, charismatic team still look rigid, superior, terrified, visibly leaning away from the camera, shoulders raised awkwardly and under their ears…
It is time for change. It’s time for investment.
Investment that your first new clients attracted will £-guarantee you your ROI. Remember that outfit you wore 2 years ago....? The fashion's change in everything. Processes date and then change.
Perception is everything… if your team look dated in their photos, clients will assume your approach to their business is also dated. Because your photos are ‘saying’ this.
Out on the street, there's a sense on environment. If your office is in a leafy grove and has nice sandstone and brick buildings, why not visually connect your people to it? Or you have an urban park across from it. You are adding rich narrative into a clients understanding of your business visually.
Photography has morphed into more real takes. Less about theatre, more about real people.
So head shots taken in street life have a richness and vibrancy that dull old studio-styled-shots don’t deliver. No scowling, crossed arms, trying to look proud. We now look much more like kind human beings happy to serve our clients.
Shooting 50+ head shots in the street has its challenges.
Profile pictures (head shots) in the street?
The light changes all day.
The sun moves around. (The shadows shift from one side of the street to another due to its positioning.)
The sun moves in and out of the clouds.(Brighter sunnier shots and then duller, flatter light.)
But that's ok. It looks varied. Like normal real life. We don’t all have to look the same to represent the same company, as long as there is a common visual thread.
Makes the shots more individual and yet collective. Makes your photos more human.
(And its less faff than taking and rigging a 9-foot studio back drop to the 5th floor, and an office with a boardroom table now in the corridor and a lift that doesn’t work on the day.
Far richer capture, content, connection and engagement with your TM. And photos that connect you!
