Planning To Use A Smartphone For Your Headshots? Follow These Tips
If your organization needs headshots for its website, you'll generally want to hire a professional photographer. It's often easy to tell the difference between headshots taken by a pro and by an amateur, and you can count on the person you hire delivering you a high-quality product. If you wish to pursue taking your own headshots, however, and you only have a smartphone to use, you need to be conscientious to ensure that your finished results are favorable. While it's true that today's smartphones can deliver top-notch results, you still need to know how to proceed. Here are some tips to follow.
Use the Correct Mode
If your smartphone's camera app is equipped with a "portrait" mode, this is definitely the mode that you'll want to use when you shoot the headshots for your organization. Portrait mode's big advantage is that it keeps the background out of focus. This is ideal whether you have a plain background, such as a wall, or a busy background, such as a scene outside your office. When the background isn't in focus, the person's face will become the image's focal point, which is exactly what you want to get out of a headshot.
Be Consistent with Filters
There's value to shooting your headshots without a smartphone filter. Even though the filters can make the shots look good, having a plain image often gives a graphic artist more to work with if he or she needs to touch up your headshots. If you are tempted to use a filter, however, just make sure that you use the same filter for each of the headshots. Discrepancy in this regard is likely to give some of your organization's headshots a different appearance, which will make them collectively lack cohesion. If you choose a filter, make a note of it somewhere. This way, if you're shooting future headshots you can use the same filter.
Keep the Flash Off
Smartphone flashes can be handy when you're taking pictures, but a photo shoot in which you're taking headshots isn't the time to use the flash. Make sure that the flash is turned off before you shoot. If your camera is in the "auto" position, the flash may still go off for some of your headshots, which will give you an inconsistent look. If the area in which you're shooting is dark enough that you believe you need the flash, the best solution is to increase the natural light. This could mean moving to a room with more windows, or potentially even considering shooting your headshots outdoors.