You know the situation: it hasn’t been long since the last professional photoshoot, already there are new team members and a need for fresh employee portraits. Up-to-date, high-quality photos are essential for branding and communication, but the coordination effort is high and the budget quickly strained.
That’s why more and more companies are turning to DIY solutions with powerful smartphone cameras. But beware: without the necessary know-how, the results quickly fall short of expectations. Quality is simply non-negotiable when it comes to business portraits.
To ensure you achieve the best results even without a photographer, we’ve developed the service “smartportrait”. We support you in taking high-quality, professional portraits with your smartphone. So you can be sure that your employee photos will shine in studio quality.
What does it take for a good smartportrait?
Good preparation is everything
- Plan about 30 minutes for the photo creation.
- Find a person to take your photo (e.g. friend, partner, employee).
- Use a modern smartphone, no matter what brand.
The right place and background
You can take your photo (almost) anywhere. In the office, at home, in the meeting room, etc. However, it is important that you are indoors, as it is much more difficult to control the light outside.
Choose a calm, neutral background (e.g. a wall or door). Windows are completely unsuitable as a background, as they create backlighting. Also make sure that the background is not the same color as your hair.
Natural light
The best light for your smartportrait is soft daylight shining through a large window. This helps evade harsh shadows and sharp outlines. You will get the most beautiful portrait if you turn your face towards the window. Avoid artificial light from ceiling or floor lamps, flash and bright sunlight.
Choose the clothes you will wear when you meet your customers
From business to business-casual or casual – make sure your clothes are clean, wrinkle-free but comfortable. You need to feel comfortable in your clothes. Only then you will move naturally, exude confidence and convey it to your photo.
Posing
Stand directly in front of the window and turn (depending on your favorite leg) approx. 30° to the left or right.
Pay attention to your hands for an upright posture. You can hold your thumb with one hand and bend your arms slightly. This automatically helps you assume the correct posture. If you like, you can also put your hands in your trouser pockets – but keep your thumbs out. Or you can place your fingertips on top of each other in the so-called “Merkel pose”, see photo.
Turn only your head towards the camera and look directly into the lens. However, your upper body should remain slightly turned away.
Give the other person a smile and imagine something beautiful. Either your last vacation or your upcoming trip to the mountains.
Image detail and resolution
Check the following points:
- Take photos in the highest possible resolution
- The smartphone camera should be held at the “model’s” eye level
- Hold your smartphone horizontally (in landscape format).
- There should be some space around the “model” at the edge of the picture
Take enough pictures
Take lots of shots with different poses and facial expressions to choose the best one.
Editing
Light editing of employee photos is important to correct small imperfections and optimize the end result to best reflect your company’s professionalism and brand identity.
If you use smartportrait, you can upload your favorite to our platform. We will retouch the image professionally by hand. You also have the option of uploading your own backgrounds. This ensures that the employee portraits match your corporate identity and offer a consistent appearance. Or we can deliver the optimized portrait to you cropped.
One picture, countless possibilities
Either way, your smartportrait is versatile: whether on the team page of your homepage, as a profile picture for LinkedIn and social media, in pitch decks and presentations or for use on internal channels such as Slack and Teams as well as other collaborative platforms and much more!
Presentations
Social Media
