Olivia Holmes Photography

It is important to have a great profile picture if you are  using social networking to help improve your business.  One way to make sure your photo is fabulous and shows your personality is to hire a professional.  You have to make sure the professional has retouching skills and will give you the image on a DVD.  The image should be in at least two sizes, a web and email friendly size and a print size that works for the newspaper,  magazines and brochures. I will also give my clients a thumbnail in addition.

It is important to  feel comfortable and like your photographer because that is how to get your personality to show up in the photo.  Know what you want from your photo.  Actors need a photo where their energy  jumps out to a tired agent who has been looking at about a 1000 different photos just this morning.  Actors also have to be concerned about what market they are hoping to get work in because commercial work is photographed different than stage work.  Business people  need their head shot to look dynamic and  above all trust worthy.  For  groups such as  linked-in you need a shot similar as business people with a little more personality because it is so small.

Always discuss what you are wearing with your photographer. You should have your hair  nicely done and a little make up.  I always suggest bringing different ties. a couple of jackets and even shirts for the gentlemen.  For women I suggest bringing different jewelry, a few different blouses with different necklines, and if for business a few choices of jackets also.  It is very important to like what you bring because when you feel attractive you look more attractive.  Also get a good night sleep the night before.

I have photographed hundreds of different types of  head shots for every kind of need.  They are retouched and wonderful and it is always fun.  I  get to meet really interesting people.  But guess who doesn’t have a decent profile picture or head shot?  Me!  I really need to set up my tripod put on some makeup and work my magic on myself.  I’m using a picture from a vacation my husband took probably 4 years ago and it would be an example of what not to use as a profile picture.  Oh well maybe I’ll get to it this weekend.

Below are some examples of great head shots which could also be used for profile pictures.

I love black and white images. They are so powereful and bring you right into what the artist is capturing at the moment.  In the old days we used black and white film but now with the birth of digital

any image can be changed to black and white.  How do you decide? Well here are some tips to help you with that descision.

You know when you have a family gathering and you want to get a portrait of everyone? Aunt Sara of course is waring hot pink and Uncle Ernie is waring plaid, the wall color isn’t helping and the baby stained his white shirt.  When you see your photos all the different colors and patterns are distracting. By turning your portrait to BW you immediately see more of the family and less of the clothes.  Here is a few examples of  color or black and white. You are the artist so take a second look at your work and decide for yourself which you like better. You can’t make a mistake you can only improve.

Newborn