As a corporate portrait photographer, you are responsible for producing high-end business headshots for company executives and employees as well as small business entrepreneurs. Your role might also extend to providing headshots to actors, models, and artists alike.
There are five main types of corporate portraiture.
Headshots
Headshots are the most traditional and arguably common style of corporate portraiture. They are often used for employee identification cards, passports etc.
Editorial
The editorial or "business in action" style is one of the most popular types of corporate portraiture. The aim is to capture an individual in action with the props of his or her trade. This type of shot can be fascinating to those outside of the client's industry as well as add a human element to the client's business or role within the company.
Environmental
A style that is equally popular is the outdoor or environmental portrait. This style aims to capture the client in an environment that has particular significance to the business. Many clients like this style as it has a very airy and modern feel as well as using a lot of natural light.
Group Shots
Another well-known portrait style is the group shot. These portraits can be formal or informal and it mainly depends on the business you are working with. For example, if you are photographing bank employees then the more formal, professional look is preferable whereas if you are capturing joint owners of a beauty salon, then a more laid-back, fun look might be the way to go.
Studio Portraits
This style can be quite popular with photographers as you have complete control over the lighting, angle, and distance from the subject.
Your website is a virtual shop window for your business and therefore, should reflect your business style and market as well as be designed to attract your target customer base. As a corporate portrait photographer, your website should be:
Easy To Navigate
Any website should be designed with your target audience in mind. When a new client first visits your website you want them to be able to easily find the information they are looking for. One of the best ways to achieve this is by making your website easy to navigate.
When designing your navigation menu, think about the "journey" you want your customers to take. By guiding them through your website in a logical and informative way, you will help your clients find exactly what they are looking for as well as make the experience enjoyable for them.
Have Large Images That Download Fast
Unlike other types of photography, corporate portraits aren't usually purchased as prints, canvases, or stand-alone products, but are instead downloaded and used on company websites or in printed materials. For this reason, it should be a priority that the images displayed on your website are high quality as well as have large sizes available that download quickly.
Have Contact Information In An Obvious Place
When a customer wants to get in contact with you regarding a project, they want to be able to find your contact details fast. So, ensure that it's easy for a potential client to get in touch by having your phone number, email address, or simply a contact form in an obvious place on your website.
If you have many pages on your website, you might benefit from using a stack page. This would allow you to display your contact area at the bottom of each and every web page, making it even simpler for potential clients to get in touch.
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Social media is a great tool for business and we would highly recommend linking any business social profiles that you have to your website. Not only does this make it easier for clients to find your social media profiles and therefore follow your business but also is great for your search engine optimisation. You can link to your social media profiles anywhere on your website but generally, this is done in either your website footer, website header, or on your contact page.
Add An Attachment
As a corporate portrait photographer, you may often have clients that send you written briefs or ask you to sign contracts before starting a project. You can make this workflow easier for both you and your client by adding an attachment option to your advanced contact pages.
All attachments that are uploaded and sent via the advanced contact form are automatically saved to your My Images area, making them easy to find at a later date.
Pop-Up Boxes
A pop-up box displays on your website periodically, according to your chosen programmed schedule. For example, it can display on every page on your website or just a selected one, such as your home page. A pop-up box is usually designed to initiate a particular action from the visitor as well as isolate a visitor's attention to what you consider the most important message. For example, to encourage a visitor to get in touch, follow your business on social media or sign up to your mailing list.
Notification Bars
Notification bars have become increasingly popular and commonplace, namely as either an announcement bar or a cookie policy.
An announcement bar is generally used to display currently important information to your visitors and should be updated fairly regularly. Announcement bars could be used to display information such as holiday breaks, scheduled maintenance, or other important announcements (i.e. Covid-19 pandemic, GDPR etc).
Alternatively, a cookie bar is used to link to your cookie and privacy policy so that visitors can read, should they want to, how you handle their information and data. A cookie policy is required on any website using persistent cookies i.e. if you are offering gift vouchers to customers.
If in doubt, we would recommend that you always display a cookie policy, just to be on the safe side!
Cover Photos
Cover photos are a way of introducing your client to their gallery in a beautiful and unique way. It is also a great way of giving your client galleries a more high-end and bespoke feel. The cover photo displays one chosen image, full-screen with the name of the collection in the centre.
There are different display settings that you can choose from and you can customise the cover photo for each collection, giving you maximum control.
As a corporate portrait photographer, you could use the cover photo feature to display the logo or crest of the client's company or simply select what you consider to be the best image from the collection.
Big, Responsive Thumbnails
It's important to consider your client gallery in the same way you would any other page on your website. After all, it's the main way your customer will view and purchase their images.
Using big, responsive thumbnails allows you to display image thumbnails as big as you want within responsive client gallery layouts. Not only that, but you can also select different watermark profiles depending on the media type displayed. This allows you to really customise the appearance of your client galleries as well as give your customer's a unique, well-designed experience.
Once you have completed a corporate portrait session, your clients will want to view their images and purchase products. The most common way of managing this process is by giving your client a unique access code that they can then use to log in to their private gallery. From this gallery they will be able to view their images as well as purchase prints and downloads via the shopping cart.
When it comes to selling to your customers, you can sell anything in an online shop with theimagefile including physical products (such as traditional prints and other photo products), stand-alone products, digital downloads, and services. However, for corporate portrait photographers, the most popular product is normally digital downloads as the files can then be used on the client's website, social media platforms and in printed materials, such as brochures, flyers etc.