Capturing Professional Presence: Maximizing the Impact of Your Headshot Across Platforms

High-quality headshots can positively impact your business or job prospects by creating a strong first impression. They enhance your professional image, convey confidence, and can be crucial for networking, job applications, or promoting your personal brand online. A polished headshot can help build trust and credibility with potential clients, employers, or collaborators.

Here are 10 ways you can maximize the use of your headshots:

1. Professional Networking: Use your headshot on professional networking platforms like LinkedIn to create a strong and approachable online presence.

2. Resume: Include your headshot on your resume to add a personal touch and make a memorable impression.

3. Business Cards: If you have business cards, consider adding your headshot for a more personalized and memorable touch.

4. Email Signature: Incorporate your headshot into your email signature to make your messages more personable and recognizable.

5. Social Media Profiles: Update your social media profiles with your headshot to maintain a consistent and professional online image.

6. Website or Blog: If you have a personal website or blog, use your headshot in the "About Me" section to connect with your audience.

7. Author Profiles: If you're an author, use your headshot on book covers, author profiles, or promotional materials.

8. Speaking Engagements: Include your headshot in promotional materials for speaking engagements or conferences to establish your identity.

9. Portfolio: If you're in a creative field, such as photography or design, showcase your headshot in your portfolio to add a personal touch.

10. Team Pages: If you're part of a team or organization, contribute your headshot to team pages or company profiles for a more human touch.

If you found this post helpful, spread the knowledge! Share it on your favorite social media platform and tag a friend who needs to see this.

Tips for Sizing Photos for Publications

When sharing photos to be published on professional blogs and magazines, it's important to send high-quality images that meet the publication's specific requirements. While these requirements can vary from one publication to another, there are some general guidelines you can follow:

1. Resolution: Photos should have a high resolution to ensure they look crisp and clear in print or on the web. A resolution of 300 dots per inch (DPI) is a common standard for print, while 72 DPI is typically used for web images.

2. Image dimensions: The actual dimensions of the image will depend on the layout of the publication. Ask the magazine or blog for their specific size requirements. For web use, images are often measured in pixels (e.g., 1200 x 800 pixels), while print images may be specified in inches (e.g., 8" x 10").

3. File format: Common image file formats for professional use include JPEG, TIFF, and PNG. JPEG is the most common format for web use, while TIFF is preferred for print due to its lossless compression and high quality. I usually save photos in JPEG when printing.

4. Color mode: For print, use the CMYK color mode, which is optimized for the four-color printing process (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). For web use, use RGB color mode.

5. File size: The file size should be large enough to meet the publication's requirements for resolution and print quality. However, it should not be excessively large, as this can cause issues with file transfer and storage. Typically, a high-resolution image will result in a larger file size.

6. Compression and quality: When saving images in formats like JPEG, you can adjust the compression level to balance image quality and file size. Choose a high-quality setting to minimize compression artifacts, especially for print.

7. Naming conventions: Use clear and descriptive file names, including your name, a brief description of the content, and possibly the publication's name or date. This makes it easier for editors to manage and find your images.

8. Submission guidelines: Always follow the submission guidelines provided by the magazine or blog. They may have specific preferences for file formats, delivery methods, and other details.

9. Metadata and captions: Include relevant metadata and captions with your images, especially if you're submitting them to a publication. This information can help editors understand the context and content of the images.

10. Image release forms: If your photos feature recognizable individuals or private property, you may need to provide signed model or property release forms to protect the publication from legal issues.

It's crucial to communicate with the magazine or blog's editorial team and ask for their specific requirements and preferences. Different publications may have varying standards, and adhering to their guidelines will increase your chances of having your photos published in a professional manner.

Story Time with Cristy Cross

How did you get started in your business?

It’s always a fun story to tell, and in July, I had the opportunity to share my story.

I started my business with not know exactly how I was going to do it, but I was determined to make it happen.

One thing I forgot to mention is, a several years back, I almost gave up my photography business. It was a scary moment when we realized my business needed to make more money to pay bills and it wasn’t.

I think that scare lit a fire under me and rebooted my business and thankfully here we are 15 yrs and going strong.

Are you starting a business, interested in starting a business or have questions about what I do?

Listen to the end of the video for the Q and A part, but also feel free to leave any questions in the comments here and I’ll get back with you.

How To Fake A Pool-Beach Look For A Product Shoot

Planning ideas for a product shoot can be extremely fun and hard at the same time.

The goal is to make sure my clients are 100% satisfied in the end. The professional photographs I provide for them are meant to connect their clientele-present and future, with the products they sell in hopes they become long time customers.

Sometimes the ideas might seem impossible. For example, I don’t live near the beach, or own a pool.

For one of my styled shoots, I wanted the setting to be at the beach or pool. So instead of it stopping my creative process, I made a beach/pool scene and I chose to shoot this outside to give it the high contrast light.

The tools used:

• Playsand

• Clear acrylic container

• blue poster board

• water hose

• beach props

• clients products

• white foamboard to reflect light on your subject and cancel out the warm tones from the brick.

• tripod

• Spray bottle with water to make the sand wet and condensation on products

Tips:

• As you are shooting, be aware of your own shadow

• Try several angles

• Move props around to try different looks

• Under-expose (darken) your photo when shooting outside. It’s hard to see the exposure correctly when shooting outside in the bright light.

• Shoot with a variety of lenses so you can get different looks

You can shoot these with your DSLR or iPhone. I hope you have fun creating.

If you have questions, leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Featured product: Pure and Coco

Bloggers! Use these tips for your next photo shoot with your iPhone

When you are doing your own photoshoot at home, take note of these four tools to create product photos.

1. Clamps

2. Masking tape

3. Wooden blocks

4. Dumbbells

Don’t just stand there! Revive Your Boring Poses

How do you revive your boring pose ideas when photographing portraits?

Add angles with your arms and legs.

When you do this, it creates movement to your photo and brings interest from your viewers.

Look at all of those triangles!

Try these poses out on yourself for a self-portrait or grab a friend and do a photoshoot.

Remember, practice makes perfect. So, don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work right away.

Tell me, do you think you’ll try it?

Three tools to use for better iPhone videos under $70

Videos are a must when sharing tips and tricks with your business. They are a great way to connect and get your information out to your viewers.

Here are three tools I recommend that are under $70.

Head to my Amazon store here to see more details.

1. Mounted tripod ring light

2. Selfie stick tripod with Bluetooth remote

3. Portable clip-on ring light

How to Style a Product Shoot

Styling for my clients product shoot is one of my favorite components I do for them.

Some things you have to think about before the shoot:

What is the clients objective? E-commerce (white photo background) or lifestyle photos?

What are the ingredients in the product? Knowing this will help you with prop ideas. Especially for this product, which was essential oils for Plant Juice Oils.

Know that the client will not always love the shots you love. They will love other photos, ones that you almost didn’t include in the gallery. And then you are thanking yourself for including them.

Brainstorm your set, colors, and material.

Use a variety of textures-smooth, rough, cotton, stones, plexiglass, silk, wood, balloons, etc.

Do your products include food related items? If so, use those for props. For example, sugar cookie essential oil mask spray for kids, use sugar real sugar cookies.

Also, have an actual list ready to go so it makes shooting a little easier, but also welcome spontaneous ideas.

Have any questions about how a product shoot works? I’d love to chat with you. Leave a comment below.

Are you more the ‘life of the party’ or ‘table for one?

Are you more the ‘life of the party’ or ‘table for one?
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I think I’m at my most productive when my favorite Spotify station is playing and I'm working by myself. It helps me stay on task, but I also love to work in a group and surround by the buzz of busy people.

This week a brand new co-working space is opening up downtown and I am so excited. A co-working space is great for people who usually work from home, but would like to have a change of scenery for their workspace. It can also be the place to work when you don’t have a home office at all.

The Firehouse Workspace has many things to offer, including a podcast studio, conference room, and photography studio among private offices to rent and open seating desks.

What are benefits of a co-working space?

-Meeting new people

-Possible collaborations to grow your business

-Office parties, which is so fun when normally you are a solo entrepreneur

-Water cooler talk :)

-Office comradery

Have you ever been interested in working in a place like this?

Do You Want To Look Good On Social Media?

Planning for social media is a battle when you don’t have a picture to post. Am I right?
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Let me help you out! Grab your five free organic and nature inspired stock photos to plan out your social media content. Click the photo below and enjoy!

How can I use stock photos?

• Instagram and Facebook posts

• Newsletters

• Slideshow presentation

• Ebook

• iPhone Wallpaper

• Instastories background with quote

• Load in Canva and add text box