Finding clientele for business / corporate headshot photography.

[awilliamsphoto]

<p>I am a portrait photographer located in the Midwest United States. I just began shooting professionally in 2010, and my business has been primarily focused on high school senior portraits. I've also done some promotional work for local talent (aspiring models, actors, and musicians). I find that one of my favorite parts of each session involves shooting portraits in a focused, "headshot-like" manner (even if we're not taking formal headshots).</p>

<p>As I continue to grow and refine my business I would love to procure more headshot work. I'm especially interested in beginning to shoot with business professionals (realty agents, lawyers, etc.). The thing is, I'm not quite sure what the best method for approaching this demographic would be. Also, what exactly is the market like for this type of work?</p>

<p>If you are someone who works in this field, I would be very grateful for any advice you could offer. How did you get started? What percentage of this sort of work do you do? Thank you in advance for any and all responses. </p>

[norrellphotography]

<p>I did a little of this work last year. In my experience, a company may want a shot of, for example, a salesman. They want the background to match the backgrounds of all the other salesman photos already on their website, and they don't much care for artistic flare. And most importantly, they don't want to pay much. The sessions I did along these lines last year were billed as "short sessions" at a slightly reduced rate (websites, ID cards, etc). Typically only a few shots were taken and they want a lower resolution file on a disk.<br>

Perhaps in some professions there is more gratifying work. I did get one inquiry for a musician wanting a shot for a brochure. I haven't heard back yet. Good luck.<br>

- Greg<br>

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[joe_dolen]

<p>I don't focus on this type of work, but I have had a few jobs doing it. One job came to me from being involved in a networking organization. The individual that I know from the organization is a financial planner for a large, well-known nationwide company. He invited me to one of their large quarterly gatherings to shoot commercial headshots. He sent out an email blast to everyone that was attending to let them know that I was going to be there. He even went ahead and made a pre-list for me of everyone that said they were interested in a headshot. I went to the meeting, set up my gear, and had a constant flow of people to get their headshots. I set a special rate at $40 per person, which was paid up front by the person being photographed. I clicked a couple of frames of each person and walked out with a substantial amount of money in my pocket for about 3 hours of work. I then processed the images, did basic retouch on the image I thought was best, then sent each person their image via email. I only had a couple of people ask to see some additional images instead of the one I chose, which I was fine with. After all was said and done some of the people's colleagues who didn't get their picture taken contacted me for a headshot at my studio, which was a lot more than $40!</p>