One of the most overlooked yet crucial aspects of becoming a successful headshot and portrait photographer is the photographer’s personality. In fact, I would argue that your personality as a photographer can be the determining factor in success when working with clients.
Before I continue, it’s important to define the word personality, since it can have a number of meanings, and what I am referring to in the accompanying video is probably not what you think. Often, you will hear people say things like, “she has a great personality,” or, "I don't like his personality," and the like, but this is not at all what I mean by the term. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word personality as: “the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics,” and this definition hits closer to what I discuss in the video. I'm not talking about having a boisterous or loud personality per se, but instead embracing your own unique personality, whatever it may be.
In my personal experience, success as a photographer began when I stopped trying to act like someone else, and just decided to be me when working with my clients. Early on, I tried to emulate my mentor in speech and mannerisms, but quickly realized that it didn't work for me, because it wasn't me. In the video, I discuss these issues in detail. I hope you enjoy it!
Yep. Be me. As a young man I got a passport photo in a lokal photographers studio. I was planing to be serious. This photographer made smile with no effort. He was dry. But he knew how to make people smile. Myself I have traveled around Norway and taken many thousands headshots of school children, ages ago. I am more silly and make bad jokes. But I normally will get a good smile. Sometimes I take bridal images, I always make them kiss. Not so much for the kiss as for the facial expression after. With portraits a good laughter often leads to more relaxed pictures after.