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Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

Lesson 28 from: 28 Days of Portrait Photography

Sue Bryce

Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

Lesson 28 from: 28 Days of Portrait Photography

Sue Bryce

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Lesson Info

28. Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

First 2 Years: The Truth

1:23:37
2

Teaching 2 Photographers in 28 Days

1:10:45
3

Rate Your Business

1:05:08
4

Year One in Business

1:00:34

Day 2

5

28 Challenges

1:21:39
6

Fear

1:04:07
7

Price & Value

1:10:17
8

Checklist, Challenges, and Next Steps

26:35

Day 3

9

Day 1: The Natural Light Studio

38:09

Day 4

10

Day 2: Mapping Your Set and Outfits

1:54:32

Day 5

11

Day 3: One Composition - Five Poses

35:49

Day 6

12

Day 4: Flow Posing

49:31

Day 7

13

Day 5: Posing Couples

55:55

Day 8

14

Day 6: Capturing Beautiful Connection & Expression

40:47

Day 9

15

Day 7: The Rules - Chin, Shoulders, Hands

56:24

Day 10

16

First Weekly Q&A Session

1:00:15
17

Day 8: Rules - Hourglass, Body Language, Asymmetry, Connection

28:39

Day 11

18

Day 9: Styling & Wardrobe

40:50

Day 12

19

Day 10: Shooting Curves

48:40

Day 13

20

Day 11: Posing & Shooting - Groups of 2, 3, and 4

28:46

Day 14

21

Day 12: Posing & Shooting Families

28:36

Day 15

22

Day 13: Products & Price List

56:53

Day 16

23

Day 14: Marketing & Shooting the Before & After

41:20

Day 17

24

Day 15: Phone Coaching & Scripting

52:56

Day 18

25

Second Weekly Q&A Session

1:02:21
26

Day 16: Posing Young Teens

43:02

Day 19

27

Day 17: Marketing & Shooting - Family First Demographic

33:14

Day 20

28

Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

1:05:43

Day 21

29

Day 19: Glamour Shoot on Location & Shooting with Flare

53:56
30

Photoshop Video: Glamour Shoot on Location & Shooting with Flare

11:06

Day 22

31

Day 20: Photoshop - Warping & the Two Minute Rule

1:22:22

Day 23

32

Day 21: Posing Mothers & Daughters

42:22

Day 24

33

Third Weekly Q&A Session

1:31:41
34

Day 22: Marketing & Shooting - 50 & Fabulous Demographic

1:04:00

Day 25

35

Day 23: Shooting into the Backlight

58:22
36

Bonus: Shooting into the Backlight

06:52

Day 26

37

Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

39:17
38

Photoshop Video: Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

1:07:21

Day 27

39

Day 25: The Beauty Shot

46:32
40

Bonus: Vintage Backdrop

04:54

Day 28

41

Day 26: Marketing & Shooting - Independent Women Demographic

49:40

Day 29

42

Day 27: Sales & Production

54:30

Day 30

43

Day 28: Posing Men

52:19

Day 31

44

Bonus: Pricing

42:32
45

Introduction

11:36
46

Photography, Style, Brand, and Price Part 1

1:06:49
47

Photography, Style, Brand, and Price Part 2

47:24
48

Marketing Part 1

38:01
49

Marketing Part 2

1:12:04
50

Money: What's Blocking You?

49:15
51

Bonus: The Folio Shoot

52:29

Day 32

52

Photo Critiques Images 1 through 10

23:11
53

Photo Critiques Images 11 through 27

25:01
54

Photo Critiques Images 28 through 45

30:19
55

Photo Critiques Images 47 through 67

36:47
56

Photo Critiques Images 68 through 84

23:22
57

Photo Critiques Images 85 through 105

36:01
58

Photo Critiques Images 106 through 130

34:49
59

Photo Critiques Images 131 through 141

13:45
60

Photo Critiques Images 142 through 167

25:27
61

Photo Critiques Images 168 through 197

29:13
62

Photo Critiques Images 198 through 216

25:51

Day 33

63

Identify Your Challenges

35:06
64

Identify Your Strengths

22:16
65

Getting Started Q&A

22:54
66

Rate Your Business

31:29
67

Marketing Vs Pricing

33:26
68

Facing Fear

23:45
69

The 28 Day Study Group

15:02
70

Selling Points

40:35
71

Interview with Susan Stripling

18:03
72

Emotional Honesty

29:09

Day 34

73

Sue's Evolution

18:36
74

28 Days Review

15:14
75

Student Pitches

11:28
76

28 Days Testimonial: Mapuana Reed

09:02
77

How to Pitch: Starting a Conversation

37:28
78

Your Block: Seeing is What You're Being

35:30
79

Your Block: Valuing and Receiving

37:09
80

Building Confidence: Your Own Stories

20:45
81

Building Confidence: Your Self Worth

36:05
82

Pitching An Experience

34:16
83

Pitching An Experience: Your Intentions

18:15
84

Pitching An Experience: Social Media

30:14
85

Final Thoughts

24:35

Lesson Info

Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

One of the most significant marketing engines in my business in the early days was selling corporate headshots to people. Because my brand and my style of photography was all about simplicity, and people were really drawn to it. They would ring me all of the time to get corporate headshots. So what I realized was instead of turning them away because they were only potentially three or $400 clients, I would bring them into the studio and then market to their families. So today, I'm gonna take you through posing. I'm gonna take you through shooting, and I'm gonna take you through marketing to the corporate headshot and turning them into other shoots. Hi, everyone. Today's challenge is the corporate headshot. Just wanna talk about the corporate headshot. It's something that has existed in my portrait studio and has been there for my entire career, which is 23 years. And there's a couple of things about this that I wanted to make a challenge. The reason being is I find a lot of people no l...

onger offer this, and I find that this is what I call advertising on the periphery. It means that I can gain portrait clients through advertising in a different means, and it's also a product that is a little bit cheaper than portrait photography in the sense that the package is smaller. So let's discuss it and why I think it's a challenge and why I want you to offer it in your studio. I'm always looking to advertise to offer different avenues of photography without actually putting that on my website. So if somebody looks at my website now, clearly, it's a stylish-type glamor photography website, but I want to be able to offer contemporary, corporate images without writing that on my website. So basically meaning that the advertising I'm sending out is going directly to corporate clients and it's advertising directly to corporates and I'm not actually advertising that I'm doing it on my website. I want me genre and my website to look very clean, contemporary, and very focused on one genre. However, I know that I can market on the periphery to bring people to my studio to that genre. So here it is, the corporate headshot. I have been doing the corporate headshot, men and women, for about 20 years. And in the studio, we have always offered the corporate headshot as a product. As I said to you in products and pricing, the corporate headshot has always been $300 for a man, and that comes with the top three images, and I would actually send them a little contact sheet and they would choose the three images to be printed. Now that was 20 years ago. We were selling a corporate headshot for $300 20 years ago and we used to shoot five a week, easy. Now, they take 15 minutes to shoot for the boys, 15 minutes to shoot for the girls, and it's $400 for the girls if you include hair and makeup, 'cause that's $100 for your hair and makeup artist. Now, this slide here says posing men. And posing men is one of the last challenges, and yes, differently, I do talk about corporate, as well, but today, all of the posing and behind the scenes you're seeing are for corporate posing for men and women. So the posing men challenge at the end is really for posing for portraiture and I have added some corporate style in there, but mostly, I want it to be about posing men for portrait. So today, we're gonna talk about just having a contemporary look. A contemporary, executive, corporate style. Now you know I shoot in natural light, so all of my images for corporate are shot in natural light. That is a choice I make. If you wanna shoot this in artificial light or flash light, you can. Obviously, it's good to have nice, sharp, clean images, but most people book me because they like the contemporary feel of my images, not so much the old-style blue background flash-lit feel. So that's your choice. I think the corporate look is about posing, simplicity, and expression. Now posing meaning there are very limited poses that you can put people in in corporate headshots, men and women. So today, we're gonna show you what they all are. I believe simplicity is just about having one plain background, nice and simple, and maybe a colored chair, like I've showed you, and also keeping your expression at the smallest range. So we go from having just a connected look in the eyes with a tiny little smirk to just a little bit more friendly, to an easy smile. But very rarely do we do anything sultry, anything sexy, or anything big grinny. Okay, we're kind of in that middle realm of expression that's open, and you want it to be friendly, but kick ass and take names. All of the same rules apply. It's about posture, lifting up, chin forward, the men, chin forward. You can do all of the power stances as I'll show you a little grid at the end here of the different poses we can use to open up on the wall, to make it look stylish, but not sexy or anything to do with model-y. Now there are a lot of businesses now that are a little bit more a startup business or internet business or corporate, modern corporate, that don't require the suit and tie that we can make a little bit more friendly. You can do jeans and a polo neck, make it suit the business that they're in, but tell them to bring two or three outfits. And for the men, a change of shirt, a different suit, and a change of tie. For the girls, they can bring in one suit, but they can bring in a colored scarf, a different colored blouse, or a second business sort of jacket change. So I think all the primary colors look good, they look great in red, white, black, blue, gray. It's very corporate, it's very strong. All we have to do is do two or three shoots and show them, but they are really getting their top three shots for corporate. It's an easy $300. It's a quick shoot, and now, you have their undivided attention in your studio to market to. So, in 1993, we were selling a corporate headshot for $300, and that was for three five by sevens. Now we were shooting back then on the medium-format Hasselblad film. We would shoot one roll of 12 film, which is a full row. 12 photographs, you never knew if you hit a blink or not because you couldn't see in the shot and once you clicked it, so you had to watch for blinks. We would get a first run strip back, so we would process it for eight dollars, and then we would scan the images, and, well, first, okay. Back 23 years ago, we would print it as a first run, and they came out five by five inches. We would show them all 12, and they would pick the top three for 300, and then they would say, "Can I have the rest?" And the rest were $100 each. So we had been selling corporate head shots in my portrait studio since 1993 for that price. Now that is more than most of you charge for a photo shoot. And now that you are lifting yourself into this professional realm, it is time to charge more and do this right. So then, as we started to progress, before we went digital in the later 90s, what we would do is we would process the film, but not print it into first run. Then we would scan the negative, and then we were starting to learn Photoshop, so we could fix anything, do dust spots, et cetera, bags under the eyes, and then we would show them the top 12 images on the computer, on the projector, and then they would choose their three, and then we would only pick the three. That was $300, and we would only pay the $8 processing fee, the $8 film charge, and then the processing of three images, which is about $2.50. So, it still had a good profitability, especially if you were doing five a week, but more importantly, it was the avenue to open another network, a new studio, of more corporates, of real estate agents, of people that wanted really good, quality photographs. And then you could give them a voucher to come back and have family portraits done, a glamor shoot done, kid's portraits done, so this is a great little network to open up if you're marketing to it properly. The corporate marketing giant. I put this slide in here as a little reminder. Recently, I was in Sydney, and I went into corporate Sydney, which I don't usually go into that area, and there were all the gray suits were, and I walked into a massive corporate building to meet a photographer for lunch who was doing a big, corporate campaign in one of the big high rises. When I was in the cafeteria waiting for him, I just saw thousands and thousands of women walking past in suits. And I thought to myself, one of these buildings can host up to a thousand, sometimes more people, and all of these people need to be marketed to. How would I get my glamor business into this building? And then I thought to myself, if I was smart, I would go in the same door that would get everybody to my studio, and that is the corporate headshot. Then, I can win them over as clients, and then I can offer them something else. Or, I can shoot the top line of executives and instead of taking payment, I can ask that all of the staff receive gift vouchers for glamor shoots, family portrait shoots, et cetera, et cetera. We need to start thinking a little bit wider in our periphery and making sure that we're creating advertising and work that is gonna service our portrait industry. Now marketing on the periphery is when you market a product, but you're doing it on the periphery of what you do. So I would think corporate marketing and corporate headshots is a perfect example of what I call marketing on the periphery, so even though I'm a glamor photographer, I'm saying I have gorgeous corporate shoots, and then I market on the periphery to those people. So it's about not saying, "Come and get a glamor shoot done." It's about winning them over a different way. So your challenge today is to create a corporate marketing campaign that you can start marketing to the corporate world around you, so that you can take these simple, gorgeous shots, you can make three to $400, where your makeup artist is gonna take home 100, and you can start advertising and marketing to a whole new genre that's gonna bring bums on seat, and people into your studio. Now let's look at how, another really good one. I call this slide executive mother guilt. (chuckles) This one's kind of funny for me. I've got a few girlfriends that are executives. Lawyers, big executive, corporate executives in New Zealand, and they started to have children in their later 30s, and they juggle their executive career and they juggle motherhood, as well. They also juggle husbands that also have executive careers. So it's pandemonium. Like anybody who tries to have children and a career, you know that they both require a huge amount of your time and energy, and somebody always suffers in that equation. It's either going to, usually be you and your partner. But I realized that all of the executive mothers had massive mother guilt about not spending enough time with their children. Two of my girlfriends have nannies who, you know, with the children a lot of the time. So one of my friends in Melbourne is a really great kid's portrait photographer, and she started to create this amazing package for that executive mom, because she realized that they had so much mother guilt, they were happy to pay a lot of money for beautiful folios of their kids because they weren't there all of the time. So think about all the ways in which you can connect with the needs of these people. I'm not saying I want you to go and give them more executive mother guilt. I just want you to say if this is something you notice, if it exists, and it's something you notice, then you can create an advertising campaign around it because marketing is about solving people's problems, and solving people's problems and answering their questions, not about advertising yourself going, "I'm the best kid's photographer in the world", but saying, "You don't get to spend a lot of time "with your beautiful children. "Let us create a video for you "so that you can enjoy this. "You can give this to mom", et cetera, et cetera. It's just when you see something, you can create a campaign out of it. Creating a market campaign for corporates is your challenge today. I want you to shoot a female and a male corporate. I want you to follow all of these rules, I want you to make it stylie, make it a little bit GQ, shoot it in natural light. No reflector for the boys, all open-bodied positions for the boys, and more for the women, so let's talk about that. And I want you to create it, and I want you to start marketing it to anybody you know that works in a corporate field, in a corporate industry. You should not be charging less than $300. We've been doing this for 23 years. Why would you charge less now? You know what, 23 years ago, what $300 was worth? And I want you to look at your current database. How much of your current database are in business? How much of them can you reconnect with? How many of them can you send vouchers to? Maybe you give them $100 off and they just do it for $200, just to get you started. They must pay when they come in, so that is set up as a deposit paid. They choose their three images. That's how you're going to shoot it. Shooting the corporate headshot, right. Today, I've given you three examples. I'm showing you the male corporate headshot, very GQ-style, a little bit more stylie. I'm gonna show you what to wear, what to bring, and basic poses. This here is a little grid of nine poses that I want you to focus on. You can pretty much lean them against the wall. You can bring the shoulder around, you can shop the shoulder, you can arms folded, and you can just keep it very simple. Try not to do anything too sexy. With the men, they don't bring the elbows out and the lean down. They can just stand upright, they can go hands into their pockets, and as you see, when I shoot George, he is sitting in a big, executive chair that I borrowed, and that's that president shot. I've shot that square. I've done lots of sitting upright, chin, posture, pushing his chin forward, and then I've turned sideways. He's got his feet apart, knees apart, elbows onto his knees. I've crossed his hands, I'm watching hands. No connection to the chin for the boys, only with the women. With Arlene, I actually photographed Arlene for the 50 and fabulous demographic, and she had a black suit on, and the black suit was really gorgeous, so we photographed her first in a corporate style, just very straight up and down, a little bit of shape into her body with the pink shirt underneath, as you would for corporate. Then, she took the pink top off and she did more of a slinky black suit with no top underneath. I loved the juxtaposition between watching that get a little bit more sexy and you may have somebody corporate that's quite stylie that wants that little edge, and then we took the black jacket off and did a nice, standard headshot in the pink top. So you'll get to see all three, and then we'll photograph Susan in her suit following a similar pattern to George. More CEO, more sort of GQ-esque, more Vanity Fair-esque. Made it a little bit more modern, the hair is up in these modern poses, and we're gonna talk about that. So following these poses with Susan, and now you can watch the shoot and how I did this, and how I finish this, I want you to create your marketing campaign. Get it out there to your corporates, and then, when I put a call out, I want you to tell me how much work you're getting from your corporate shoots, how you've opened this up, how you're giving them gift vouchers, how you're looking at a whole new genre in your studio, and how you are making this work for you and your business. Good luck, enjoy doing this. I have been doing this for years. I think it is all-part, ties into your marketing. Think it's gonna be a great avenue for you to work on. I'm repeating myself now, and go and enjoy. Thank you very much. I'm gonna incorporate a corporate shot for my client today, because I want to do a corporate shot. I want to then use the jacket as a sexy shot, and then I'm gonna take that off and take a really beautiful, casual portrait in the pink top. So I'm gonna use exactly what you're wearing now three times, so for your portrait, for your corporate portrait, I want you just to turn away a little bit more and lean back, no, this way. And lean back with the back of your shoulder and then fold your arms. Fold your arms, but in a comfortable, sort of corporate-y type way. That's exactly right. So maybe a little bit more of a lean. You can actually take your weight on the wall. So no, I want you to change the weight of your feet and lean back with this shoulder. That's exactly right, so that you're just leaning there. All right. And I want you, instead of holding your elbows, to be a little bit more business. So, I need, yeah. That's exactly right. Good, that's a kick-ass, take-names corporate Arlene. Push your chin forward towards me now, and then this way, and just towards me a little bit more and down. Okay, I'm gonna start off with no smile, and then I'm going to just, just soften your eyes down just a touch. Good girl, perfect. All right, now just an easy, light, friendly smile, okay? Corporate is not about having a huge smile. I feel like this elbow is right up, so push it in for me, and a little bit lower. That's better. Okay, right down again where it was. Now this hand, don't be splayed out in the front. Can come up, this one. That's right, so just maybe tuck it in here, and then long chin. So long chin, good lean, there. Now, I feel like I'm gonna show you what I'm getting, guys, 'cause I feel like I'm dominating with this hand. Can you swap hands in your cross? Yes, I know, it's a weird thing to do that. Okay, from here, I like that, 'cause I can see that ring, and I just feel like let me take this shot again, push your chin forward, Arlene, towards me and down. That's exactly right. Good, that's awesome. I see a lot of corporate shots, a lot of bad corporate shots, a lot of flash-lit corporate shots, and I always think to myself, why don't people just treat it like a really contemporary shot, just tip this way a little, wee bit more, but just take the body language down a little wee bit. So also I find just about all of my clients, no matter what demographic they are, all of my corporate clients want to have a good corporate shot. So if I can incorporate it by telling them, "Do you need to do anything like that? "Do you need to do a suit shot? "Do you need to do anything else "while you're having your other portraits taken?" They can just bring in a suit like this and now she has this gorgeous portrait that she can use on her corporate website and on her card that is professional and clean and is done really well. I also would take the hands down from cross and just do my standard, but the difference being is take the weight onto your back foot again so that you can pull your bum off the wall a little wee bit. So step away from the wall and just lean back with your shoulder. That's it. Feels weird, but take your weight on your shoulder on the wall. So lean right back, there it is, and I just want you to turn this hand here. This hand comes up onto your thigh, slide it up, and elbow back, and I just want you to turn your body away from me just ever-so slightly, just your body. Circle like that, not that way. That's perfect. Now, long chin towards me and down. What's important is that I get this gap here to show her body line because then I can show her waistline, which looks really flattering. So I'm just gonna take this shot. It's a straight up-and-down standard corporate, smart portrait. Bring your chin around to me, Arlene, push it forward this way. Push it forward and down. That's it. Tiny little smile. That is not a portrait. That is what I would use for corporate. So what I want you to do is push your chin down towards me a little, that's it. I just want you to soften your eyes, just a little wee bit more. Nice, easy, approachable, half smile, go for it. Nice, easy one. Just let it go. Okay, now I wanna see a nice, easy half-teeth smile. That's it, perfect. I love that. Everybody hates their corporate shot. You're gonna love yours. Now what I want you to do is to go and take that rose top off, and we'll do exactly the same scenario, and we'll do more of a portrait look with the black suit. So exactly the same scenario, we haven't changed anything. All I'm gonna do is change her body language and her pose, and see if I can create more of an elegant portrait from her corporate look. We took away the rose top and we put a gorgeous gold necklace, which is hers, on, and so now I want you to do is step that foot away from me even more. Your back left foot and over there a little bit more, away from the wall, that's it. Now lean back. So this one requires you to do a big lean, that's it. Now turn your hips away from me, that way, and put this hand just here on the back. So now I want you to lean down until your shoulder touches the wall. So at the moment, that's exactly right. Now more hip away from me. This hand goes onto your thigh and then slides up. So just bring your hip back to me a little wee bit more, and I want to see this hand in the front. So if you need to bring it around, and then it goes up and your elbow goes back, and I just want to make sure that that pin is not showing in the front, 'cause I can see it, but that's okay. Now from here, I want you to very gently stay in this position. I'm gonna move you, that's it. I'm just gonna pull you towards me. I love doing that. Slims down the arm, gives me beautiful waist shape, long chin towards me and down. Now when we change this body language, we've worked her body more. We've given her more chin, more body line. I can see a perfect line in her waist. I think her hands look gorgeous, and now I just need to bring this chin down as soon as she engages that gorgeous expression. I love this. Now instead of cropping her more central, I'm gonna bring her head to the top of my crop and all I need is a tiny little smile and sexy eyes, which I already have looking right at me. That's absolutely perfect, stay there. And now, I just wanna take you down a little wee bit and kinda come back, chin down towards your shoulder a little wee bit more. Push that chin towards me until it feels uncomfortable, and you wanna send me a bill for the chiropractor. (chuckles) 'Cause you know that I will. Okay, from here, lips, that's it right there. Oh my gosh, that's gorgeous. So just like that, I've changed that, I've turned it into just from a corporate look to an elegant portrait. Now, I want you to swap back into the pink top, leave the necklace on, black jacket off, and we'll friendly it up even more. So exactly the same again, but this time, I'm gonna get you on a little bit more of a recline, so elbow behind your back there, hand behind your back, elbow down on the wall, elbow behind your butt. That would have been interesting. (both chuckling) Okay, take your weight on your back foot and lean back with the back of your arm, so more like that. So pull your feet away and then lean back. Okay now, I want your feet to go back that way, so scooch away, and then that way. 'Kay, keep coming, good girl. Now very gently rotate everything around to me, perfect. Now this elbow comes forward, and then I can go very like, gently. Gonna pull you down like a little teapot there, a bit more. So you're gonna come down the wall like that. Perfect, now push forward here, tuck in here, relax this hand. Bring this hand up here on this side, and just sort of half way up, that's it, and then tuck back. Now nice and tall, long chin towards me, and then push forward and down. So at the moment, your side arm is quite dominant to me, so I'm gonna show you the difference, because this is something everybody does. I'm gonna show you the difference between one move. So now what I want you to do is I'm gonna hold your arm, is I want you to roll off the wall towards me, stop. Okay, now, her whole body just turned towards me and she rolled up onto her arms. So I call it tucking in the arm, and I'm gonna show you the difference between the shot from the front. Now that I've brought that arm forward, now just long chin towards me and down, keep coming down. That's it, stay there, and chin this way. Now from here, I can now retake this shot, and I just wanna show you the difference between these two shots. So see? She was arm forward, and I brought her body around. Now I'm gonna do it one more time. Stay here and just roll towards me. Not, yes, that's it, keep going, keep going, stop. Now this hand goes up higher, elbow back, and then I need some space here, so kick forward, don't move. Now I've got her on a 45 angle that feels odd to her, but looks really good to me. Chin down a little bit, this way. Stop, and a tiny, little, easy smile. You got it. Okay, softer eyes, Arlene. Don't open them up to me too much. There you go. Drop your eyebrows, that's it. Stay there. Okay, from here, I'm gonna look at one, two, three, and have a look at her arm open up to me. So she was too open in the arm. Isn't it funny how, when you see these images together, and the first one I'm looking at, an armpit, and it looks like her arm is bigger? As she comes around to me, her body slims down and gets to that perfect line. Love that, that's beautiful. Right there, I've got a perfect body line, and I just got you on a little blink, so long chin down to your shoulder to me now, and just a soft, easy, little smile. Got it. Chin this way a little bit more, keep going. Keep going, stop, there it is. Love that. Okay, nice little half-smile, good girl. And I wanna see some teeth, just a nice, easy smile. That's gorgeous. From here, just bring your elbows up again, like you were with your corporate look, but you're going to change it so that this hand here is on your body, and that one there, and you're gonna work your shoulder up, and you're gonna long neck, long chin down. That's perfect from here. And I'm just gonna come in nice and close, chin this way. That's it, and chin down just a tickle, tiny little smile. Good girl, that's gorgeous. And from there, I want you just to touch the wall on both sides, so hands down. Don't move anything else, and long chin towards me. And I'm coming around this way. Oh, I love that a lot. And follow me around with your chin a bit more, keep coming around. That's it, stay there. Nice, relax those eyes down. Good girl, beautiful, beautiful big smile. Love that. And there we go. So I don't want to squash your head on the wall, so come away. That's it, now come back half way, and it's right there. Good girl, that's lovely. Lips together now. That's it. Okay, I adore that. I love that. Now I wanna see those three shots in sequence for you so that you can see corporate, sexy, and nice and casual, gorgeous portrait right there. Today, we're gonna pose George in our three CEO positions, and then I'm gonna talk to you about how to market to the corporate world, and how to bring in more market through marketing to corporate headshots. This is something that I've been doing in my portrait studio for nearly 20 years. It's always worked for me, so it's about shooting the boys and the corporate girls, getting great, contemporary shots of them, kind of Vanity Fair-esque. We would just wanna make it look really modern, really stylish, and we're using natural light. So the one thing you'll see today is that I've upped the contrast in this room by blocking down all my light and just having a very small slither of light. Because George is a guy, he wants to look stronger in the face. He has no reflector, and if I was to shoot a female CEO, exactly the same way, but I would open one more curtain and put a reflector in down the other side to lighten up her face. The guys look stronger with a harder light and it looks better and contrasty, really easy to shoot. Corporate headshot would take under an hour, half an hour, if that. Three looks, so we're gonna educate you also in how to educate your clients to bring the right outfits to get the right shots for the corporate look, whatever their corporate look is. So maybe they're a internet startup, so they want to look more casual. We'll go to more casualness now. So right now, we've got our GQ look for GV. (George chuckles) We've got our executive chair, which I've borrowed from ZUM Gym, so I went down to the gym here in Seattle to ZUM. (mumbles) Great gym. I've been working out there for the last month that I've been in Seattle, and I saw this chair in their lobby, and I said, "Now that is the chair for a CEO." So please lend it to me for a shoot, and they let me take it home. So thank you ZUM in Seattle. Awesome, let's get started. As you can see, my eye-line today is way lower than normal, okay? I'm gonna shoot the boys and I'm gonna shoot the corporate looks shooting up. So I want that very low, modern look. Not that portrait look, so I've dropped it down. Whenever I'm shooting low, it's about being more commercial, more fashion. So today, I want a CEO look, but I want it to be lower. What I've done is I have put George in the chair there and I'm shooting this horizontally because I'm going to crop all of these images square. I just feel like the square component brings just a more sort of medium format look, and I just think it looks great. So I asked George before, when he sat down, to just sit comfortably, and he instantly went into his comfortable position. So the way you sat before, when you sit comfortably, do that again. You brought one leg up onto your knee and you just sat comfortably. So I started here. Really important, one of the most important things to remember is just to watch that the boys' suits don't get too high up around the neck, and even though I'm shooting up on them, I want him to lift up nice and tall, so coming straight up through your neck and shoulders, even though you're in a relaxed position, and then bring your chin forward. Perfect. I liked your hand, leave your left hand there, but I kinda, actually, no. Actually, go back to where you were. All right. As long as I can see the hands, that's all, but they're not disappearing into his lap. So there I am there. I'm just gonna focus on his eyes and take that shot. And I just kinda start around here. Now what I'm gonna get him to do, okay, one more, I'm just gonna focus, is lifting up nice and tall, push chin forward. Okay, so even the guys are wearing shirts and ties right up to their neck. It's really important that you're lifting up through their posture and they're pushing the chin forward as far as it goes and then down just a touch. I get, want a tiny little smile in the eyes. Not too much, just a little bit. Okay, we don't wanna look too authoritative. So bring the chin down a little wee bit more, and just give me a little bit more smile. Perfect, George, that's excellent. Okay, from here, I'm then going to get him to put his leg back down, so his right leg a bit down, and I want you to come forward onto your knees with your elbows. That's exactly right. So don't project too much with your upper body. Sit comfortably, and let the hands the go, so that they're not folded together. That's it, and I can be right there. Pull back with your shoulders a little wee bit more. That's the one. I'm gonna shoot that, and just to make sure I didn't get my blink, 'cause I'm in live view for you. A little bit more of a smirk, perfect. Okay, lips together, smirk. That's it, stay there. I really like this pose, but I think I should turn the chair, so let's have a look at it. I like this on the 45. If you just jump up, I'll turn it this way, and go back down, exactly the same position. So the reason I like this at the is I think the back of the chair's really good. I'm just gonna stop and refocus. So it's gonna go up to Sean's camera. I'm gonna pull up just a little wee bit, and I'm gonna pull across it here. So I'm just gonna move away from him, just a little wee bit more. I'm sitting right on that square crop still. So I'm just gonna refocus my camera so I can show you how I'm gonna pose him in live view. I'm back here, I'm start. Right, straight away, he's in a position that I like. I think it looks really, really good. I'm just gonna bring his chin around to me, stop. Just a little wee bit more. So remember, with the guys, we're not connecting the chin and the shoulder, ever. All of those positions are feminine. What I will get him to do is bring his elbows wider into the end of his knees. Not so wide, more to the end, that's it, stop. And this time, George, I want you to relax your hands down. So you can still, that's it, perfect. Okay. I don't mind the left hand projecting towards me. He can swap over if the hands bother you. That's perfect. And then his other hand's away. Relax your thumb down, make sure both hands are relaxed. That's great, and just chin up, nice and long, and tall first, and then bring your chin down towards me, a little wee bit more. Stop, tiny little smile in the eyes. There it is. Okay, hang on. I'm just gonna do that again. I'm just gonna lift up, 'cause I am shooting this horizontally, and just give him a little bit more headroom. I just wanna turn this hand in, George, so this one is facing me. That's it, not yet, the other way. That's it. And now let it go, fingers down. Okay, just watch the guy's hands. We don't wanna draw too much attention to the hands. And from here, just wanna check my focus. And I'm gonna take a still here. So just a tiny little smile. Okay, you can come forward in the chair. So actually, slide out of the chair, that's it. Now come forward onto your knees, and we can put an apple box into here. I really like this, so let's see if this works better. That's exactly right. I like that a lot. I'm just gonna bring this over to here, and I'm shoot that there. Tiny little smile in the eyes, just that's it, perfect. From there, George, turn away from me a little bit more so your whole body, stop, and then bring your chin back towards me. All right, I'm gonna shift my position. I'm gonna show you how much. So I'm gonna stay live, I'm gonna pull back, and I'm gonna go a little bit to the left. So he's turned, so I'm gonna turn, but I still wanna go straight back to that backdrop, okay? I'm just gonna recheck my focus, and from here, let me stop. Go to Sean's camera, all right. Now, I've turned him away, and now he's looking back at me, so it's really important that I get him to sit up and bring his chin around to me, because if anybody's gonna look at you through their collar like that, they're going to pinch their collar. The collar's gonna pinch into his neck, so really tall through your neck and shoulders, George, and bring your chin that way. Not so far. Okay, straighten up, forward. Put your feet apart a little bit more and slide your feet away. (exclaims) Not too much away from me, this, away from you. That's it, perfect, sorry. (George chuckles) Yeah. (chuckles) Backwards today. Chin this way. Okay, stop. Not too far. And relax those hands down, okay? So just watching the hands, don't get repositioned anywhere, and just bring this front elbow towards me. That's the one. Now he's in a really relaxed position. I can see him sitting comfortably. He's got a nice, wide shoulder, nice, wide elbows, which are definitely more masculine, so make sure you're taking all of the guys to there. Sitting up nice and tall, pushing that chin forward. Start with a serious face, exactly the same, but we don't wanna be too scary, 'cause we want to kick ass and take names, but not terrify our staff. (George chuckles) Tiny little smile. Okay, if you're gonna make the guys smile, try and get them to smile naturally. Guys are shockers at smiling for photographs. They always do a fake smile. Okay, keep it simple. No big, cheesy grins. For corporate, we want it to be soft, approachable. Kind of stylie, but not too serious, not too smiley. Unless they have that sort of job. All right, I like that. Chin that way a little bit, that's it, perfect, and let's go lips together. Just a little bit of a smirk, and that's it, perfect, there it is. Okay, I like that. I like our corporate shot. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go back to Sean's camera. I'm gonna take this off the pod, and I'm gonna just take kind of a very sort of Annie Leibovitz for GQ shot, just to take it to the next level. I'm gonna put my camera up into portrait, and I'm gonna hand-hold it so you can see me on the other camera. I'm just gonna stop out from there. So now I'm gonna get you to sit back in your chair. That's exactly right. So the way you were very comfortably sitting back in the chair, that's it. Just find your groove this way and just bring your chin around to me this way. All right. So I'm still in live mode, so I'm just gonna take out of that. And come into here. All right. The whole point of this one, and I'll show you the reference for this shot, is something that I just found in Vanity Fair, which I absolutely love. Shot by Annie Leibovitz, great chair. And I'm just gonna pull back. All right, let's go side on, a little wee bit more. (George mumbles) Um, yeah, we'll leave them on for this one. Just turn this way, jump up, George, so I can turn this chair, and I'm just gonna put you inside and side on to me again. So sit in there, and just scooch your bum forward so that you can wiggle down in that chair, a little wee bit more, that's it. And bring your leg back up to where it was, so where you comfortably sit. That's it, stay there. Okay, and bring your chin around to me this way. Okay, lifting up nice and tall through your neck and shoulders, and that's it. Chin around to me this way, more, more. Keep coming around, stop. Okay, chin down now. All right, so here we are, and I'm side on. So I'm just pulling up this whole chair. Have a look at this crop. I'm still sitting nice and low, so I'm at 2.8. I'm right on his glass line, focusing on his eyes. So I just wanted to get something a little bit more traditional on turn, and then work that for you, see, you can see it. Sorry, that was a blink. All right, from here, just one more where your foot comes down, and you lean forward on your elbows again. Okay, so from this angle, I'm coming in to here on the vertical. 'Kay, and we'll see if that gets us a different line that we're getting from the horizontal. Chin this way, just a touch. Stop, there it is. 'Kay, and I just want one where I pull back to here. And the light, this chair. Perfect, good smirk. 'Kay. Excellent. Right. From here, I like what I've done. Let's have a look at all of those horizontal images. I'll show you how I'm cropping and retouching so that they've got that nice, square, corporate look. And I like the contrast and the use of the chair. And let's go and start to casual it up a little bit, so I'm gonna get George to get changed, and we're going to go into a sort of more of a day suit blue with a lighter shirt and tie, and we're gonna take the CEO chair away. We're gonna keep the dark background and use boxes instead. So what we're going to do now is exactly the same pose as in the CEO chair, assuming you don't have one or can't afford one or can't borrow one like I just did. We're just gonna use two apple boxes. So just turning a little bit this way, George, away from me, and I've put a second apple box, as you can see, on camera one, down on the floor. So just using that knee, if you feel like that knee is too high, you have two choices. One of them is to slide that box towards me, so this way. And so, stop, not too far, so that you can still put your foot on it, but it's dropping your knee forward. So (chuckles) your foot forward. Sometimes, the CEOs are quite hard at giving direction to, 'cause they're used to being the boss. Put your foot up there, and slide it, slide it, (George mumbles) slide it out towards me. Your foot, and stop. Okay. Soon as I drop his knee down, I open that body line up, so drop it down a little wee bit more, George. No, towards me. Yeah, see his knees going down? If his knee goes down any lower, I can bring that elbow forward to the edge of the knee and I'm sitting there. Now, when he brings his elbow forward, he doesn't need to bring his face forward. So, you know, you can stay upright. (both chuckling) All right, be serious. Okay, no. Relax your hands down. As you can see, the bottom of my crop is right on the apple box. It doesn't really matter what they're sitting on. It can be an adjustable bar stool or anything that goes up and down. And the apple boxes work really great. I'm going to crop it right at their knees anyway. I'm shooting this horizontally, and all I need to do is sit up nice and tall, and right up through the back and bring your chin towards me, and then your chin that way, ever so slightly. So I love the blue suit. I like the traditional background. I'm just gonna take a little series here, in case you're watching, always, the eyes, making sure the eyes have got a little bit of a smile. So just be careful when you do a little smirk, George, you really come up on your left side. So just smiling through the eyes, okay. I like real smiles, so make sure that if you get them, that you capture them. Okay, too easy. Okay, lips together, that's it. Just a tiny little smirk. Both sides of your mouth, that's the one. You're gonna naturally come up on your left side, anyway. So just talk them through a couple of easy expressions. I really like that, watch the hands. Make sure the hands don't get too stiff or into a fist. Make sure that they stay relaxed. I really like this. Let's open his body language up and see what happens. I want you to rotate towards me a little wee bit more, and move the box with you. Okay, really important in body language that you don't do a crotch shot. You don't wanna do that whole, the body language is the crotch display, so right now, if he comes forward a little wee bit more, and then pushes that box towards me with his foot, stop, then it drops his knee down, and then his hands go down. And see how the hands are asymmetrical? They're asymmetrical because I put his right foot up. I think that works a lot better. I like this front on, keep it simple, nice and tall. Pushing the chin forward. Also notice, I chose to take his glasses off, so when you come chin forward, just go down a little wee bit. Just give me a little bit more of a serious expression to start. Oh, not too serious. (chuckling) All right, so from here, remember, take it to the out. Let's put our glasses back on, if you've got them with you. Ah, you're cool. So I just want you to put your glasses back on. I don't mind opening this position up, so just that knee, but just making sure that it's not too leaning forward. This also works standing. Push that box away from, towards me a little wee bit more, George, stop. Okay, now lean forward a little wee bit more, and just relax the hands down. So instead of being in the grip, that's exactly right. Now they're down, that looks better. So just getting your focal point there. Let me stop, go to camera one. I'm just gonna make sure my focus, 'cause I wanna show you in live view, and I know that it's not hitting a focus, manual focus in live view, so once I refocus nice and sharp on the glasses, I like this look a lot. This looks great, George. Okay, so he's got a nice contrast on his face. It looks very masculine. I love the colors. I think the blue's sitting really nice, bouncing on that gray. It looks good, so taking him now into a standing position, I'm just gonna go here. Just look in the camera one more time just watching you, and I just want a really light, easy smile, go. Okay, this time, a really light, easy smile with the teeth. That's it, stay there, you got it. Okay, perfect. So let's stop and stand up and refocus. So what I'm gonna do here is there's only a few standing positions we can really do with our corporate look. So I think that we wanna keep masculine, and a lot of guys don't have the ability to bring their hands up into the frame, just like a lot of girls don't with beauty shots. So I'll try one thing is I want you to turn to the camera, George, so if you just turn your feet that way, that's exactly right. And looking at the camera that way. So, if he's in a standing position, I probably only have two or three options. One of them is to start here, and if you take your hands out of your pockets, it doesn't really work. He's got no where for his hands to go. If he holds his hands here, exactly what you just did, when you adjusted your cuffs, so yeah, there, you can shoot there, but that's kind of more male model than corporate, (George chuckles) and it doesn't really work. The other option is to fold your arms. And obviously, in a suit, it's actually one of the hardest things to do in a suit. And it can, it looks okay. Turn front onto me, and there, that way. So I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take this off live view because the live view's giving me that traditional posing look, but I think the only way that I'm gonna be able to shoot this is going more GQ-style. So I'm just gonna fashion it up a bit. I'm gonna stop my live view, and I'm gonna pull it off there, off my tripod, and the only way I think I can really work this kind of more standing, casual style of corporate look is if I shoot it more like this. So I'm gonna shoot it a low. I'm gonna shoot it low and I'm gonna shoot it exactly the same way as I shot the fashion section. All right, stay there. Right, from here, I just want you to push your chin towards me here. Looking for asymmetry, love that. Okay, as you can see, bringing your chin forward and down. So I know that you're not supposed to do up your second button, but when you fold your arms, it just splays out. So fold your arms back again, that's it. And second comes up, there you go. So shoulders drop down, nice and low in your elbows. That's it, push down, push chin forward. Okay, so with the guys, it's not about coming forward and down. It's about pushing it forward to find that face. Okay, less smile there. No, less smile. Sorry, I can't help it. (chuckling) All right, so if he's gonna be cheeky, then I want you to cross a foot. So cross that way. Uh, okay. Yeah, that's the one. And just drop your shoulders down nice and low, push chin forward. Okay. Now you can do that. (chuckles) That works, okay. Go back to strong stance, okay. (chuckles) Don't fall over. Okay, strong stance and give me serious face. Okay, arms folded. That's it, that's it. Drop shoulders down. Nice and tall through the neck and shoulders. Push chin forward, stay there. All right, there we go. Here we go, there. Oh, sorry, my bad, blink. No smiling, no smiling. Okay, but not a rugby shot, not a football shot. Push your chin, push your chin forward. Okay, chin forward, chin forward and down towards me. That's it, lips together just a tiny little, that's it. Stay there. All right, from here, we're gonna go there. Then I just want you to turn this way, all right? So just at a 45-degree stance. You can put your hands into your pockets, okay? 'Cause it just relaxes the shoulders and just bring your chin towards me a little bit more. All right, so standing at a 45 is quite formal, but let's have a look how it looks. Obviously, it works. Open your body up to me a little wee bit more, just stop. Okay, push chin forward. All right, so that's very formal CEO standing. And if you want to do that, what you did with your cuffs before, I'm gonna shoot low and I'm gonna shoot to here, chin this way little wee bit more. Okay. (laughing) Stop laughing. I'm sorry. 'Cause I called you a male model. (laughing) Okay, not laughing, not laughing. Okay, push chin forward. All right, chin forward, chin forward, chin forward. No smile whatsoever. Okay, serious face. (laughing) Not too serious. Chin forward, chin forward. All right, oh, my bad, blink. Okay, lips together. No smile, that's the one. Drop your shoulders. That's it, perfect. That's it right there. All right. Formal, standing, standing, standing. Using the apple box, using the CEO chair, now we're going to get him to go down to a sports coat. Maybe more of relaxed trousers. Just a nice, neutral shirt. Sort of, you know, just a little less corporate, but still stylish. I'm gonna take him off the traditional background, put him on the white corner and see what we get from there. Thank you, that was perfect. Thank you, Sue. So what we're gonna do now is go a little bit dressed down, little bit more casual, casual poses so we can drop it down somewhere in between corporate headshot and our family posing that we did with the boys, which is coming up in posing men. I would never get somebody in a corporate suit to lean, but we can when it's more of a corporate casual. So let's do a couple more casual poses and we're gonna use the plain, white wall. So this time, what I get you to do, George, is turn 45 degrees this way, no, this way, mirror me. And just lean back against the wall. So 45, not side on. That's it, that's it. Now, you're gonna lean, kick out with that foot there. There you go. Now just turn your body away from me now. Everything goes away. Okay, so unlike the girls, this is where the boys can step away, but no hip movement, no shoulder movement. So I want your feet to go back away from me, so keep your shoulder there. So just take a step back, little bit more, little bit more. Just, yeah, that's it. Keep going, little bit more. Okay, so he's leaning towards me on a 45. This foot can come up and relax. It's gonna drop your front shoulder down, and I want you to lift up nice and tall through your shoulders, and bring your chin around this way and down. Okay, that's about as far as I'm gonna get him to lean now. Because he's moved, I'm gonna stop, take it off live view, and shoot this in portrait. So, I want you to see this angle. What's really important here for this shot, and I'll come into here so that you can see, is that I'm getting this angle here. Okay, I love this. This is actually a really cool shot. All right, I'm just gonna put it on auto focus, and I'm gonna take this shot here. So pushing your chin forward just a little wee bit more, there it is, sorry. Oh, I did it again. Just lay your blinks down. Okay, push your chin forward a little wee bit more and down. All right, if I'm just capturing this here, I like the standing angle, I like this. Okay, we can just soften this up a little wee bit. Not too smiley, just go lips together, kind of more smirk. That's the one. All right, you can turn him sideways. So you bring your body around and just kick this foot out, and lean onto there. So again, I don't think I would so much do this in a suit, but I think you can get away with it here if you get the top of the pant. So I just want you to drop that shoulder down. Perfect, and just bring your chin towards me just a little wee bit more. Okay, and down this way. Okay, straighten your head up a little wee bit more and then bring your chin forward. Chin, chin, stop. Okay, I like this, too. So this is a great shot. Chin down just a little touch. Now fold your arms. Okay, this is where it works. So we can do a nice, easy lean. So keep your foot kicked out, and then lean against there. But just lower on the arms so it's more casual. So not so much, "I mean business", but just sort of, that's it. Okay, so drop the shoulder down the wall again. Straighten your head up to me, and just bring your chin forward just a touch. This way, chin, chin. Now, not up, forward. Okay, there it is. Now I'm starting, chin forward just a little bit more. Okay, less smile. We're starting to look a little bit Ralph Lauren here. (George chuckles) So (chuckling) okay, I want chin forward, chin forward. Okay, 'cause I'm shooting below him. So I'm shooting below him so he looks bigger and stronger, and I need you to keep pushing your chin towards me in that way. From side on, it looks weird, but from front on, looks really good. Okay, that's exactly right. Nice, easy smile, way to go. Okay. Not too easy. Okay, chin forward a little wee bit more, and just relax your mouth, lips together, and just a chin forward and down, follow me down, that's it, and just a smirk. Just go, stay here, thumbs, oh, thumbs. Hands into your pockets so you can open your deck just a little bit. That's it. Lean, okay, but more lean than normal. So, yeah, (groans) maybe not that much lean. Come back half way. Yeah, all right. So (chuckles) don't lean your head on the wall. Okay, put your foot up, that's it. So just cross it over, 'cause it's gonna give you a drop here. Push that one down, stop. Straighten your head up to me, bring your chin towards me. All right, so no shape in the body with the boys. Okay, pushing the chin towards me. Chin forward and down. Down, down, stop. There it is. A nice, easy smile there. Cropping nice and low, just get the top of the trousers. Okay, chin forward, chin forward, less smile, more of a smirk. That's the one. Perfect, chin down now. That's it, straighten your head up to me this way. Sorry, that way. Ah, not that far. Chin this way, stop. There it is. All right, and I can come into nice and close here. All right, from here, ooh, sorry, blinking. All right. Let's go into the apple box, so I can bring this in, but what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna use the wall. So instead of him just free styling, come and sit there, and I'm gonna get you to put this leg up this time. And turn 45 degrees this way, away from the camera, camera's at the front. So turn this way. Put this foot up here, that one. That's it. All right, now we've opened up his body language to the front, but I can use that wall. Okay, I don't want you to sit so upright. So it's about, and push that, push that, yeah. No, upright meaning too straight back. Your posture's too good. (George mumbles) Yeah, no. I want you in a lazy posture. Sorry, I want you (chuckles) no. I want you there with that elbow forward. That's it. Okay. Now bring your chin around to me this way. There it is. Okay, so exactly the same. See, I've got no reflector. I'm coming down nice and low. I'm gonna sit here now, just push your chin towards me 'cause I'm shooting you quite low, that's it. Chin towards (chuckles) chin towards me. Chin towards me a little bit more. More, more, more, more. And down this way, stop. That's as far to the shoulder as I'm gonna take this. Just watch your hands, straighten your hands up. And just roll your shoulders forward, George. Bring your left elbow out to the outside of your knee. Okay, the wider we take the boys' elbows and shoulders, the better they look in the upper body. That's better. Push your chin towards me now. That's exactly right, and chin towards me now and down. More, more, more, less smile. Okay. There is such a thing as looking too friendly in your corporate shot. (George chuckles) All right, there it is, and I'm gonna go horizontal so I can crop this square. No smile, just that's it. Nice and easy, nice and light. Exactly as we were in the blue chair. Same as the apple box and the CEO shot, so just keeping it real simple. If you want to take something a little bit more personal for the guys here, they can lean back against the wall. You can put them into masculine hands and start following all of the posing men rules that we have done for the posing men challenge. Remember, this is about taking a really great shot for a CEO and advertising to your corporate clients so that you can then book their wives, their girlfriends, both, their children, and for photo shoots. Their moms, their family shoots. Just like the girls, the boys are also in network, and a really great corporate network, as well. So let's talk about marketing this genre. Susan Roderick said she would never wear a suit ever again when she became a photographer, and now I just made her do it for the female corporate look. (laughing) She's hating every minute of it. All right, the female corporate look. Let's model a very similar corner of what we did with George's GQ sort of male CEO look. We're not gonna take the body lines, the female body lines too feminine, so I'm gonna show you how far we can push that and make it stylish, and then we'll do what we did with Arlene. We'll take the shirt off and we'll take something even a little bit more contemporary and push that line a little bit more. I feel like the modern CEO nowadays can have the hair down, can have curls, can have jewelry, can have colored scarves, or even can be photographed in, you know, jeans and a nice, casual outfit. I just want to make this look contemporary and not too posey, a little bit corporate, so this is the female version, and remember, George had no reflector to make his face look hard. Susan's gonna have a reflector to lighten her up. That's what we do for the girls, not for boys. So basic posing 101 is the back of the shoulder touches the wall. That's it, and we wanna create some space here. And because the suit is often quite blocky and not one of the easiest things to photograph, I know a white shirt's not. We just wanna make sure we've got our collars. We wanna do exactly the same rules applies in normal posing shot, meaning we're looking for hourglass. We're gonna turn her here, and I'm gonna work her body through a series of poses. So let's go. So from this position here, I just wanna bring her chin around to the front. Now from here, I've picked a nice, easy hairstyle. I actually really love this. I think it looks great. Let me take one more. I just adjust my exposure. As you can see, I'm shooting right on her eye line, as usual. I'm just gonna open her collar a little wee bit more. With the girls and the guys, the collars sit right up there and give them no neck. It's really easy to pull that down. You can bring her collar out or tuck it into the suit, but bring it down. Just create some space, just watch you don't give them too much cleavage. Make sure you dip that line down there so that one works really well. And from here, I can come up to this side here. So just there. That's where I want to start. Pull back a little. Give you some space around the top, and then we do, you know, three easy looks. A tiny little bit more smile. Nice and friendly. And then just an easy teeth smile right there, that's it. It's not to be too grinny. It's just sort of kick ass. Okay. Chin goes, head goes that way a little wee bit more, and I can come in side on, and I'm gonna be about there. That's my corporate headshot. From here, she can keep this position and simply fold arms. So everybody does this hand to the camera, we'll swap over, and because it's not holding, it's more folded. It has to turn in, so actual turn in, that's it. Exactly right. Drop down the shoulder, get a nice line through that body. Long chin towards me, and we can style this up here. So I'm just gonna step away, so I'm shooting 45, get her chin to come with me. That's it, and just drop that thumb back at the back, Susan. There it is. Oh, sorry, blink. Top of the head back a little wee bit. Stop, this way, that's a girl, stop. Chin down a little bit more. Nice, easy smile. Way to go, perfect. Okay, a little half smile. Okay, with teeth. Excellent, there's my little corporate wall shot. So exactly the same pose, hand back, elbow back, exactly there. Have a look from the front, it's about creating the space. If you have a look from Sean's angle, you can tell that she doesn't look particularly comfortable, but that's the whole point of that shot right there. Just keep it simple. From here, we can go side on, we can sit into a chair, but another one I like would be back of the wall. We did this with George, as well. Come straight back, arms folded. Okay, so actually, arms folded properly. You're doing portrait elbows. That's it, so a bit lower than your breast line. So that's it. So we don't want to fold arms up over the boobs because a lot of people do that and they sit up out here, so a bit lower. Relax the shoulders, lifting nice and tall. And I'm just going to recompose this live view so that you can see this. There and I'm just going to refocus because I'm shooting this in live view so that you can see me posing her in live view, which looks good, and I'm gonna rerecord that. Okay, so I'm gonna shoot this a little bit low. One of the things that I'm going to do here is shoot it asymmetrically, and another thing I'm going to do is push her chin forward. So push your chin forward, and let's kick out into one hip. We're allowed to shape the body a little bit. Not too much. We want to definitely make this sort of really cool looking. Chin down just a touch more. That's it, I like that. Little bit more of a smile. I think this works with the girls and the guys, and let's do a nice, easy, just nice, easy teeth. That's perfect. Chin up a little wee bit, perfect, there you go. I really like that. We can do sitting in our CEO chair. We can do the girl version of that. We can do legs crossed sitting on the box. We can do any of our poses, as long as we're keeping quite straight up and down, so let's just take a series and create a little bit of a posing map from here. I'm going to get the stool. Okay, no different than our normal sitting staggered shot. From here, her knee can come up, depending on where the foot is. So if the foot slides out, the knee comes up higher. She can lean forward onto that knee. Let's keep it CEO. Let's make sure that you've got a good recompose here. We're always looking for hands. Always looking to get our hands right, and remember if they're going to be front on to the camera, we want to turn them this way. And there, we don't wanna have a hand on the crotch, so we need to bring this forward. That's it, little bit there. Bringing the elbows down. Still creating an hourglass. No different, just want it to be a little bit more corporate. Lifting up nice and tall through the neck and shoulders. That's the one, and then pushing your chin towards me. There it is, very good, there I am. Just gonna focus. I'm on her right eye. And I'm just gonna bring that down. Perfect, I'm shooting nice and low for this because I like this angle. I'm just gonna turn that hand away from me. Very good. Here it is, nice, easy, light smile. Very good, nice. A little bit more. Good girl, perfect. Remember the corporate looks have to be quick. They have to be efficient, they have to take two or three good shots and get them out of there. Really should only take you 15 minutes to shoot maybe 20 images. You want all of them to be good. Little bit of variation. Let's try without the black jacket, just the white shirt. Are you tucked into your trousers? Oh no, it's a blouse. So just put your jacket there, and let's put you back into this, exactly the same position here, and just get a completely different look, so let's keep our hip out. Okay, let me recompose this. There. So from my live view, all I have to do is bring this hand back to your thigh, turn your body away from me a little wee bit more, so hips go away from me, as well. So push away with that hip, good girl. Bring your chin back to me. And we're not that far, but this isn't perfect. We're gonna repeat that, chin down just a touch, and we're gonna do it just with the white shirt, see if that makes a difference. If you find that the white shirt she's wearing is too dressy, chin around a little bit more, that's it, at least it gives her an option. I think it's nice to have a second option, and like I said, corporates these days can, they've got a pretty cool style. And then from there, I would swap out. How about you get changed into your black jacket without the white shirt, and just do black jacket? And let's see what completely other look we get. So we're in exactly the same position now. We've just switched out the white shirt. I just want you to not take your hand back so far behind you, that's it. Now, turn your hips away from me. Your hand can still touch your bum there to close that gap, and maybe just slide this hand back not so much. Lower, that's it. Now bring your chin around and gauge your chin there. So there we are then. Let me take a still of that. Just don't bring that hand behind your bum so far there. That's one now. Bring your chin forward and down. We're just back and down, 'cause you've come forward too much. So lift it up, and now just bring your chin down. Stop, there it is. Okay, it's a little wee smile in the eyes there. 'Kay, little bit more than that. And I like this. I think it's simple. Nice, easy smile, go. I think it's a nice, simple corporate shot. Arms folded, push your hips back to the wall just a little wee bit more, and CEO fold, not hold portrait fold. So yeah, that's exactly right. Turn your body away from me. Right, and then bring your shoulder towards me a little bit more, that's the one. Bring your chin around, and then we can be here. So just bring your head back a little bit. You've come too far, chin down now, and tip the top of your head, that's the one. Top of the head to the wall a bit more. Nice, easy smile there, Susan, thank you. Perfect. Just like that, it's an easy sequence. Let me come over here so I can finish it off. What we did with Arlene was we were photographing Arlene with the black jacket on, and then she had the pink blouse. Then we photographed her with just the black jacket, and it was a bit more sexy and a bit more elegant portrait as opposed to corporate. And then we took the black jacket off and we went with the pink blouse. With Susan, we did black jacket, white blouse, white blouse on its own, and then a simple, and she could have even gone without a blouse and just maybe put a pin in here, and just done a little bit more of a sexy black suit look. I do mix it up, because I think it's important to show them those. Remember, they're only here for a corporate look. 15, 20 minutes tops. One hour if she's had her hair and makeup done, as well. The boys are only in 15 minutes tops. They're usually buying three images for $300, and what they're going to do is spread the word so this is about getting more clients and making this a new avenue to market with, and this is about just broadening your range, but not so much advertising for corporate, but advertising to corporates. So enjoy practicing all of those. Let's have a look at our results.

Class Materials

bonus material

Business Checklist
Keynote Part 1
Keynote Part 2
Posing Guide: Set Map and Outfit
Posing Guide: Flow Posing
Posing Guide: Couples Posing
Posing Guide: Curves
Posing Guide: Teen Posing
Posing Guide: Family Posing
Posing Guide: Over 50 Demographic
Posing Guide: Beauty Shot
Posing Guide: Posing Men
Workbook
How It Works
Styling and Wardrobe

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I have purchased four of Sue's courses and love them all. I have learned so much. I found the lesson on connecting with people thru their eyes has made a huge difference in my photos already. Her before and after's made me cry. I want to be able to take these kinds of photos for my family and friends. I just love what she does. She is such a great teacher. I learn much better seeing things done, so this was the perfect choice for me to learn. I love Sue's humor, her honesty, her detailed teaching and sweet and wonderful personality. Her sessions will or should not disappoint anyone. It is the best money I have ever spent on self-help teaching. Thanks a million creative live. You GOTTA LOVE SUE!

katie
 

Pure gold. Sue Bryce is likable, talented, funny, and an amazing teacher. She calls you on your BS (your excuses for why you aren't succeeding), gives you business, posing, marketing, pricing and LIFE advice. The class is 58 hours long - and you spend the majority of it looking right over her shoulder, through her lens and watch her walk through many, many photoshoots. She verbally and clearly repeats several critical formulas for success so it's imprinted in your mind. Her advice is crystal clear and your photography will dramatically improve after this class. Before Creative Live, you'd NEVER have had the opportunity to shadow a photographer of her quality... hands down the best photography class I've ever taken.

JRomkee
 

I have just began this course and I am excited to see how following her model will help me to improve and get my business started. I have been through the first two days and there is lots of information to absorb and things to get in order before I begin the actual challenges. I am thankful that there are photographers out there who are will to reveal there secrets ad are truly invested in others improving themselves in all aspects of their life and not just their photography skills. Thanks Sue Bryce for your passion for empowering woman and your knowledge of creating and sustaining a business by being true to who you and commitment to the improvement of others! I am excited to grow myself and my business, I am confident this will be worth every penny! Were the templates for the email PDF included in this course

Student Work

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