Where I work, the company pays for every employee to have a professional headshot made. We’re supposed to use it internally as our email and chat avatar, and we’re strongly encouraged to use it as our LinkedIn profile photo. The company will also use it in PR should I ever do something PR-worthy.
My second headshot came back from the photographer the other day. It’s my second because I didn’t like the first, which was made shortly after I started with the company early last year. The photographer had me smile big, but that narrowed my eyes to slits, especially my right eye as that eyelid droops a little.
I asked for a second chance and got it in April. I told the photographer that I’d be doing a closed-mouth smile in several shots so that my eyes could be seen. This was a chance for me to wear my Irish tweed jacket, which I bought in Ireland. I love that jacket!
Here’s the image I chose. My eyelid still sags, but I’m just going to have to get over myself.
The photographer converted the image to black and white and sent that along, too.
His conversion washed out my forehead a little, so I brought the color image in to Photoshop and did my own conversion. I got skillz.
I’m not sure why the photographer chose to tell me about his kit, because he has no idea I’m a hobbyist photographer. But he showed me his big full-frame Nikon DSLR and said that he was experimenting with it for portraiture. He normally used that camera for architectural work, he explained, and an APS-C DSLR for portraiture. I didn’t get a good look at his lens; I wish I had. I should have asked. I’ve dabbled in portrait photography and have yet to figure out the focal length I like best for it. But anyway, his kit delivered terrifically sharp images. In the original full-size images, at 100% magnification the stubble on my face is sharp as a tack.
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