I took over the management of CopperPoint's on-site studio in 2018. The space was once a sound stage for the production of safety videos. It was packed with professional-grade camera equipment, most of it woefully worn and outdated. Three years ago I began the task of gutting the space, pulling out every piece of equipment, taking apart every light, plugging in every cord, configuring and re-configuring the portrait setup.
Along the way, I took more than 250 employee headshots; some of them stunning, many of them not.
If I learned anything from those 250 sessions, and from the training, planning, and setup that precluded them, it is this: you don't look like your headshot.
I don't say this because I am an expert at my craft, I say this because:
I've taken enough hideous photos of beautiful people to know that photography is a seriously flawed medium.
Humans are enthralled by the power of pictures and, like most photographers, I am obsessed with my own ability to produce powerful images in seemingly mundane settings. However, while we all delight in photography's ability to augment the dull, it can also dull the brilliant. Quite simply:
Photography isn't reality, and photographers and subjects alike need to be open about its flaws.
As the photographer, it is my job to work with my equipment to shore up those flaws. I angle my subject, I angle myself, I change my lights, and I change my subject's position. I am teaching the equipment to see my subject the way I do. Sometimes this process is quick and easy, and sometimes it is long and tedious.
However, nothing about the process of capturing a good headshot means anything about the actual beauty of the subject.
When subjects accept that photography isn't perfect they become empowered to work with it. Everyone has a best angle and a best side. Know yours or press your photographer to discern them. Photography is rude, it can make you look sloppy and unkempt. Demand better of it, ask for more retakes.
It might feel easier to run from bad photos or to write yourself off as un-photogenic, but the truth is: photography only works when we work with it. Pushing it to provide you with something that you like is not deceitful, it accommodates an imperfect technology and an often imperfect operator.