How can you make head and shoulder shots look professional and be less embarrassing for the subject? If you are being photographed, how can you get a result to be proud of?

With the increasing availability of digital cameras it is becoming common for companies to take their own photos, whether these are for staff IDs, board member pictures, or to accompany publicity and PR articles. Unfortunately the staff member taking them rarely has any training and we end up with badly posed, uncomfortable looking subjects with far too many chins and a light fitting growing out of their head.

5 tips for better photos

1) Use a three-quarters pose to avoid the police mug-shot effect. Ask the subject to stand in front of you then turn so they are facing diagonally to the side, halfway between face-on and sideways. They then turn just their face back towards you. This looks natural and stops people worrying about their shoulders and arms. It is very flattering as it stretches the neck and the body is more compact.

2) Stand on something and take the photograph from a foot or so above the subject. When they tilt their head up at you, any extra chins will disappear and the perspective will emphasise their eyes!

3) It may sound obvious but double check what is behind them. If that wall uplighter has been there for years you wont notice that your subject is wearing a rather odd hat until too late. You have to stop and make a conscious effort to really see the background.

4) If your subject is seated and wearing a suit jacket, get them tuck the tail under and sit on it. Sounds bizarre but this will smooth out the wrinkles and odd crumples you invariably get around the shoulders. They will look well-groomed and a far better shape.

5) Fixed smiles look awful. Dont ask for cheeeeese unless you want a strange grimace. Ask them to say a long slow Mondaaaaaaaay and you will get a really nice natural smile in the photo. Take plenty of shots. The first few will be fixed and awful but once people relax the photos will get better. Make a quip and get them to laugh snap them while they are laughing, and while they have that just-finished-laughing relaxed smile.

Groups

Do not under any circumstances put people in a line shoulder to shoulder. Form groups and collections of people, you can have some seated and some standing if that helps. Do not be shy about bossing everyone around and making the shorter people come to the front and the taller people go to the back. Remember the tip above about turning diagonally on to the camera.

A nice way of shooting a small group of people is to get them to line up directly behind each other in height order (as if they were queuing). Then get the second person in the queue to take one step to the side, the third person to take two steps to the side, and so on. Then take the photo from a slight angle and you get an overlapping row of people, all clearly visible over the edge of each others shoulders. You can also try having the most important person (to the story that is) standing 3 or 4 feet in front of a group of others.

By Fiona Bailey of Pebble Communications. www.pebblecommunications.co.uk - PR and copywriting services for SMEs.