Headshots & Personal Branding

Professional headshots are a crucial part of your online identity. They build trust, convey personality, and are a huge step towards solidifying your personal brand. Every professional in virtually any field needs a high quality professional portrait. A great headshot is also very important when job hunting! Many employers today actively seek out your social media accounts to ascertain your viability as a future employee. Don’t let an unflattering picture of you be their first impression, give them something to show you are up to the task.

Take Control of Your Brand.

Headshot Studio Pricing

• Session Retainer $150

  Low stress studio session with no time constraints. No limit on the number of looks & immediate review and selection of images upon completion of your session. These are booked as a two hour block, but most session take about an hour total from the time you arrive to the time you leave.

• Digital Image Files $50/ea

  Only buy what you love.

  Review your photos immediately and select the keepers. Selected final images are purchased at the end of your session with final retouched digital images delivered to you within a matter of days. Both full print resolution and social media resolution versions of purchased images included.

• Standard White/Grey/Black Background

  A high quality professional headshot focuses entirely on you without a distracting backdrop. Your choice of grey, white, and black backdrops throughout your session. Freely interchangeable throughout the session. We will mix and match backgrounds with outfits to get to the best combination.

• Full Print and Personal Use Rights

  All purchased digital files are not watermarked and include release rights for personal and professional use. You are free to use them for any personal, promotional, or professional applications.

Personal Branding Session

• Half Day Studio Session $450

  Sometimes you need more than a headshot. Personal branding sessions are a great option for creating a series of dynamic images to market your brand. Includes unlimited looks and a design and wardrobe consultation.

• Digital Image Files $50/ea

  Only buy what you love.

  Selected final images are purchased at the end of your session with final retouched digital images delivered to you within a matter of days. Both full print resolution and social media resolution versions of purchased images provided.

• Additional Person $99

  Do you have business partners? You can include them in a personal branding session for an additional fee.

Group Headshot Sessions at Your Location

• Location Fee $150

  We bring our mobile studio setup to your location. Additional fees for locations outside of the studio’s local area.

• 4-9 people $100/person

  Each person will get a personalized session and 1 fully retouched, high-resolution headshot.

• 10-20 people $75/person

  Each person will get a personalized session and 1 fully retouched, high-resolution headshot.

• 20+ people Contact Us

  Large teams, events, conferences. Groups of 20 or more may qualify for a special group rate, please contact us so we can provide you with a custom quote.

3 Elements of a Killer Headshot

Most of our communication as human beings is non-verbal, and we make judgments about a person and their mood based on their expression in a couple of milliseconds without even realizing it. So when that expression is frozen in a photograph, you HAVE to make sure that it is sending exactly the message you want.

Considering that fact, there are three qualities that I think every headshot should convey. It should show the person looking confident, approachable, and interesting. Confidence in your headshot shows that you are credible. So if you look scared or uncertain, I'm not going believe that you have what it takes to get the job done. Being approachable in your headshot conveys that you have likability. People work with people, and if you look mean, no one will want to work with you. The last is that you want to look interesting. This is where your personality comes out, and makes you stand apart from everyone else with a generic cheap headshot.

How to achieve all these in your headshot? It just so happens that all of them are controlled by your expression. It is also interesting that there are only three things on your face that you can move to change your expression! Those are your mouth, eyes, and eyebrows. Moving these three facial features in different ways together completely changes the personality you convey in your headshot, and what you want to communicate through it.

CONFIDENCE

Confidence comes from your eyes. Opening your eyes really wide, while it does show off the color, actually is not a good look for photos. In fact, this is referred to as the 'deer in headlights' look. Instinctively you open your eyes really wide when you are scared in order to take in as much of your surroundings as possible, so you can see any predators! But by slightly “squinching” your lower eyelids, you tighten the muscles, and that give the impression of increased confidence.

APPROACH-ABILITY

Approach-ability comes from the mouth. The bigger and more genuine the smile you have, the more approachable you are perceived. If you have no mouth expression, you have what is known as 'resting b**** face'--definitely not approachable. At the very least you must always have a slight smirk to convey that you aren't going to kick someone's butt. So depending on the personality you want to convey, this will help you decide how much smile you should have.

PERSONALITY

Lastly, you have your eyebrows which convey intention, emotion, and personality. Eyebrows are the biggest factor for changing expression, and it is the most overlooked thing in headshots. By engaging your brows, you will automatically stand out more than everyone else. Downward brow pressure towards the eyes can convey concern or intensity. Raising one eyebrow and lowering the other can look slightly sassy. Raising both can be surprised. You get the point. There are lots of different ways to move them, and combined with various eye and mouth movements, expressions can go exponential.

Whatever photogenic may mean to you, here’s my definition: when your self-confidence outweighs your insecurities. So think: when you are being yourself, and not worried about what you look like is when you are most attractive. Add a photographer who understands your best angles, and you see what I mean by a killer headshot. I think anyone can look incredible in pictures. It just takes an expert photographer who can get people to relax, laugh enough to capture real expressions, and be competent to coach them into something interesting and engaging.

Thank you, Dan Maki - Mandaki Photo LLC