I regularly visit professionals in their workspaces in and around Montreal to update their corporate portrait. Almost without fail, the need for the portrait is immediate, last-minute, rushed. There are many reasons for this:
- I was nominated for an award and I won! Eek!
- I am being featured in an article on the company website
- My department/team hit a major milestone and we want a group photo
- I was recently promoted and the announcement comes out in 3 days!
- Our company will be featured in an upcoming news story and they need a new photo of me!
The list goes on and on, but the end result is always the same. I come to the office with a small, convenient professional lighting setup (with seamless backdrops in grey and white), pass a few pleasantries with my subject, shoot a series of portraits (head and shoulders, full body, tight crops around the face, etc) and quickly submit proofs online so the client can immediately choose one, have me edit it and send it out in time to reach the impending deadline.
As you can imagine, waiting to the last-minute and putting a rush order on everything has an impact on the price, as it may entail shifting around other less urgent contracts and/or other accommodations.
A good idea and easy way to save on your corporate portrait or LinkedIn profile picture is to work with your HR resource in-house and have them schedule a half or full day shoot in your office. Any day can work, your time commitment is minimal (usually no more than 20 minutes) and even if you are paying out of your own pocket, you will benefit from a group rate as it is much more economical to shoot several portraits in one day in one location, than one or two here and there over the course of many days. It is not unrealistic to gain an 80% reduction in the price of a portrait, simply by coordinating internally to have at least 5 other people in your company have their portraits taken on the same day.
October and November are great months to book a portrait session so that your profile picture is updated and ready to whirl out into cyberspace once 2014 rolls around (it’s sooner than you think!)
