Rant: Corporate headshots

[CreedThoughts]

Our company just did corporate headshots for everyone. The photographer they hired was not even specialized in corporate headshots.. he was more of a sports photographer.

The first set of people he did, he used a white background. Then because people hated it, he used a dark red background the next time. So half of the photos have a white background, and instead of reshooting those people, he did a hack photoshop job on the background to change the color.. it looks terrible.

The worst part, we paid him $6500 to shoot 30 employees.

Is that not overpriced?

[Exposure101]

A good price is what the company is willing for pay for the service. So while it might be overpriced to you/me/everyone here, it might not be overpriced for the company. They might even consider it cheap. Who knows...

[CreedThoughts]

I found out why the company hired him.. he was a friend of one of the employees. He used a 100mm 2.8 macro for all of the shots. I guess that's a good portrait lens but I would have thought something wider would have made the background blur more which would be better for portraits.

[FlyingPhotog]

I found out why the company hired him.. he was a friend of one of the employees. He used a 100mm 2.8 macro for all of the shots. I guess that's a good portrait lens but I would have thought something wider would have made the background blur more which would be better for portraits.

I was going to ask you why you didn't step up and offer to do the shots but .. nevermind.

[andrepaul]

I don't think that's overpriced. And if the background is a plain colour, blurring it won't do much for the photo, if anything at all.

[CreedThoughts]

maybe its that he had the people stand too close to the backdrop, but looking at the shots it looks like they were sitting in front of butcher paper.

[egordon99]

bw!

I was going to ask you why you didn't step up and offer to do the shots but .. nevermind.


Next time why don't YOU offer to do the shots for $5000 and save your company $1500 ;)

[Trainboy]

I was going to ask you why you didn't step up and offer to do the shots but .. nevermind.
Hahaha, ditto. Very much ditto.

[egordon99]

Shoot the headshots with a 10mm lens, you'll get a TON of background blur ;)

[canonnoob]

op.. I be quite honest... if you think he did a crap job. offer your supervisor an idea.. you shoot the photos for cheaper... dont complain when you didnt pay.. he may not have done a good job, but if you think its easy, try it out. For some reason I have a feeling like you will find out differently.

why not post a shot that he took... ?

[CreedThoughts]

not that i think i could do better, b/c frankly i don't have the experience nor the equipment, but there were several other local photographers that specialize in corporate headshots that could have done a much better job for less money.

When the photographer was taking my shot, I asked him does he normally shoot portraits and he said no, he does sports photography.

Here is one of the shots he took. I blurred out the face to protect the innocent. This is the final version after his editing.

[CreedThoughts]

I don't think that's overpriced. And if the background is a plain colour, blurring it won't do much for the photo, if anything at all.

Point taken, but I think placing the subjects further away from the background would help.

[egordon99]

That shot looks fine to me....Except for the not so good job with switching out the background, but that's what the client (ie your company) wanted.....

[matonanjin]

I was going to ask you why you didn't step up and offer to do the shots but .. nevermind.


Funny. And only a couple caught it;)

[egordon99]

I think the lighting is probably more important than the lens, and from the sample you posted, looks like he has the lighting figured out...

So again, what's your complaint?

I found out why the company hired him.. he was a friend of one of the employees. He used a 100mm 2.8 macro for all of the shots. I guess that's a good portrait lens but I would have thought something wider would have made the background blur more which would be better for portraits.

[CreedThoughts]

Okay you guys win. Apparently he's a good portrait photographer and its a fair price.

[FlyingPhotog]

Okay you guys win. Apparently he's a good portrait photographer and its a fair price.

Neither is absolutely true...

Apparently though, he knows how to market himself.