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How Much Time for Headshots?
So this is a sanity check. I do a lot of corporate and academic headshots. My process starts with a sign in where the client writes their name on a sheet of paper. The initial photo is with that sheet in front of them, mugshot style and kept as an identifier. Usually that's an opportunity to meet them, break the ice. and do a quick assessment of the client's characteristics... is one eye smaller than the other? Any obvious shiny spots? Asymmetries? Scars that might be better hidden? Once I start shooting, I usually do a few shots of them from 3/4 right, straight on and 3/4 left. Depending on weight and stature I may also do some from a higher or lower perspective. Finally, since I'm shooting tethered, the client can see what we just shot and make their selections. Occasionally, I'll get someone who may not be happy with the results and may be asked to shoot some more which I'm happy to do. From start to finish it's anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes. If I'm pressed, 5 to 10. I just got a client who would like me to do 60 subjects in 3 hours. That's 3 minutes each. They'd like me to do some other work on the same day and that time limit is something they think would make that possible. Even in the unlikely event that all the subjects all show up precisely on time, that doesn't leave much time to get it right. Can I do it? Sure. My hesitation is that they'd look like passport photos and really compromise the quality of my work. Not a road I want to go down on. For the record, I've turned down that timeline and am negotiating for a more reasonable schedule. What's your perspective? Sep 06 23 12:55 pm Link Masciandaro Photography wrote: I don't think that three minutes is long enough to walk on, sit own, write their name, and walk off. Sep 06 23 01:11 pm Link Masciandaro Photography wrote: I too would op for time to do it right. In my view, that client has little respect for you or the subjects. Reminds me of "school pics". Then too,maybe it's just or ID tags. Sure sounds like it. Sep 06 23 01:14 pm Link To properly give each subject enough time to relax for a picture, I like to have at least 5 or 10 minutes, and 15 minutes is even better especially with the children I have photographed. It's too much of an assembly line feel otherwise. There is absolutely no way I'd take a gig of shooting 60 subjects in such a short time! I know from experience that shooting 54 in a 9 hour day with no breaks is not worth it! That is shooting non stop giving each subject no more than 10 minutes. It's do able, I know because I did it for Olan Mills one Saturaday, then after the last customer was out the door, I called my manager and quit on the spot! We call these photo studios "institutionals" for a reason! In your favor is that you are getting single subjects while I had to adjust for anything from a family of 4 to a solo of a baby to a group of 12 people to 3 chlidren to a bride in her gown then back to a family of 4 in a matter of 10 minutes which includes set up! What you will be doing is more like when I shot a graduation ceremony where I only had one shot at each student in line. It's do-able, but you are not going to be producing your best work. I'm not doing such gigs anymore unless I'm getting paid a lot of money! That includes weddings! Sep 06 23 02:49 pm Link Masciandaro Photography wrote: Is the client looking for a consistency or variety? I have done university academic headshots at that rate. If you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and you have a set up that allows for multiple angles without resetting lights, it is easy with experience to take a sufficient number of shots in a minute in front of the camera. The problem or x-factor is the amount of time that an individual takes in selecting their preferred shot. Sep 07 23 03:47 am Link Sounds like a workflow challenge, or a pricing thing. I too do a lot of headshots. I don’t see 3 minutes a subject as impossible, but I would view it as an undesirable job. I am guessing that the 3 hours time window probably stems from only wanting to pay your hourly rate for three hours. Could be other logistics like it’s a conference that has a fixed time window. The thing is, I don’t do headshots because I intend to be the future Olan Mills (although I can think of worse things) I do them as a loss leader to find bigger jobs from the subjects. Someone has a daughter or cousin that is getting married, or having a quiencinera , or is a n aspiring model or artist, or has a new baby or kid with a grandma that adores pictures of them. . 3 minutes per subject on set would absolutely not provide any time to chat up a prospect….and out of 60, I almost guarantee one of the subjects is at least casually shopping for a photographer. I don’t think I have billed a one hour increment for people work for years - technical setups and bulk jobs may go out by the hour, but my half day rate is attractively discounted compared to my egregious and eye watering expensive hourly that I don’t actually want to sell anyway. I actually want to book full days, and if not, half days. But my headshot loss leader is by the subject, not by the hour at all. First five are at one rate, rate reduces as number of subjects goes up. I’d say for a production line thing like this sounds like, a 5 minute budget per subject is completely reasonable, so long as I have a couple of “staff” photographers/assistants with me to help with logistics - I might be shooting, I might be doing intake and handing the shots off to the staff shooter. I’d want two if possible so everyone can get a break, but could do it in one. I wouldn’t take on the job if the budget didn’t allow for staff. If I am making a bad assumption with the motivation for the three hour window, apologies to you and your client….but if they are just trying to save money by overloading you with that time window, Scroom. I promise there is one Craigslist amateur that will underbid you anyway for the job, and probably punt it somehow. Cheap clients are the worst….always more work to please, and always a lot more work to get paid by afterward. Sep 07 23 06:52 am Link Yeah it's not so much a pricing thing as an unrealistic assessment of how long things take. The afternoon... another 3-4 hours, is set aside for some fairly complex lifestyle shots involving locations and large groups. Certainly nothing I'd want to tackle after a morning like that. The issue isn't so much can I do it... I know I can. It's more that the results would be passport photos and snapshots which essentially makes the whole point of hiring a professional moot. Sep 07 23 12:25 pm Link You are being asked to do two days work in a single afternoon . . . . Charge Accordingly ! Sep 07 23 12:44 pm Link Masciandaro Photography wrote: sounds more like your complaint is with the lifestyle shots, not the headshots. Sep 07 23 01:47 pm Link Totally agree with you. I assume these are corporate head shots, or faculty head shots. Those should take on average, at least 10 minutes, each, to do a decent job.............especially since the subjects themselves rarely put any effort into preparing for the head shot, and indeed often come in looking lousy, and you have to compensate for their lack of effort, if at all possible. Especially faculty these days. Rick Sep 07 23 03:41 pm Link Lallure Photographic wrote: Thanks Rick, my thoughts exactly. Otherwise what's the point of hiring a pro? Sep 07 23 04:00 pm Link I was going to say what Dan Howell said. What does the client want? Uniform mug shots or individual portraits that reflect their personality? What about no shows? if an employee isnt there how do they want to handle reshoots? Are you looking to upsell prints or portrait settings. Sep 08 23 09:49 am Link For clients with specific movements, with direction requirements, you just need to work on how to get a generalized fit for the lighting and communicate that to the client in real time in the online results. Clients without a specific action, then you'd better confirm this before their makeup, and can give them some advice before preparation, such as the need to cover the area away from the front, think the left side is better than the right side of the person may also consider the option to put the better side close to the camera, of course, three minutes a little bit nervous, good work needs to capture the mood, and communicate with the client over and over again. Considering that many customers will make some operation of the expected action, in the lighting before shooting you should consider the attenuation of the light, to prevent the subject has obvious brightness over, or underexposure and so on. (I'm not sure if you're talking about a simple headshot or a portrait with various hats, or hand motions, as I'm thinking) More often than not it still requires you to look at a fair amount of work, and all these years of photography have proven that the reason many action classics don't die out is because it does bring out the better side of the client, so if you're constantly faced with a similar client for three minutes it's kind of an acceptable result, especially considering you have on-line shooting, and in group shots using the same lighting system, often individual discordance is There is very little, it's kind of a psychological thing, but many people will suppress the individual's need for trace amounts because of group pressure, compliments, etc. The truth is that photography is often not just about the photography itself, it's more about meeting some of the clients' small demands on top of your level, such as the need to make the right side of the face look better than the left, or the arms too fat, getting rid of scars, and other small problems. In fact, I think that for the group photo, you need to design a different lighting program, strictly speaking a set of plus modification of the second set of lighting program to meet the needs of different customers between the fat and thin, if you can persuade customers to shoot in accordance with the order of the fat and thin, then you will not be busy repeatedly for customers to add a black reflector for the unity of the requirements of the headshot, which is enough, but of course, you have to meet the class in three minutes! Everyone's good does require a lot of wisdom, in addition to what I said to meet some of their small needs, but also different from each other to stimulate their characteristics, not everyone smiles so naturally, not everyone likes to look at the camera, in short, as a job he is not very difficult, but if you say to yourself and requirements, want to shoot the same group photo of the different individual differences, or in other words, so that more than 80% of the customers recognize you is a very important thing, but it is also a very important thing. In other words, to get 80% or more of your clients to recognize you is quite a challenge! Sep 10 23 05:27 pm Link |
