Andi Hake is the executive director of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce. I met Andi when I joined the Chamber a couple years ago and have served with her on the Chamber Membership committee since then. This fall she asked me to update her headshots, a job we were easily able to accomplish in my home studio.

Andi needed new images for Chamber publicity and for her online social media profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). I recommended that she bring a couple outfits along and indicated that the session would take about an hour. In that time, she'd be able to change clothes and I'd photograph her with a few different lighting setups. This would give her a variety of images and styles from which to choose.

I almost always start with a simple one-light setup on a white background, which gives us a look like the one below.  

This gives my clients an image with a very clean, contemporary look. It works great for online profiles. I also deliver the files in both the rectangular format that comes out of the camera as well as in a square crop. The square works especially well online, since many social media sites—like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—display your avatar image in a square.

Andi, like all of my headshot clients, also received her files in both color and black & white versions. This gives her the option of using either version for her profiles, and ensures that the look of her images is preserved when she needs to send a black & white version out for publication. If she had only a color version, she'd be at the mercy of folks on the other end to convert it to black & white—which may not produce the best result. This way, she knows the image looks great.

After the session, Andi's proofs were posted to a private online gallery where she could select her favorites that would then be processed. Turnaround usually takes just a day or two.

While I'm partial to square crops for headshots, my favorite frame from Andi's session was the image at the top of the post. A simple, professional black & white headshot—one of the best ways to tell the world that you're a professional, too.

Want some ideas on how to get your own business portrait?

Read my article with tips for a great business headshot.