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Corporate/Executive Headshot

wmarson

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All ... I need to take a formal, executive/corporate headshot and need advise on what color suit to wear. Poking around the Internet, I see many Executives at Fortune 500 companies wearing very classic, dark colored suits, white shirt, tie. I don't own one of those, however, I do own a very nice, light grey Hugo Boss suit. Not that there are any rules -- a suit is a suit. But, these days, are light grey suits 'in style?' Thoughts/comments ...

Thanks in advance for your input and suggestions!
 

Blackhood

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Wear your light grey. Make sure you have a similar shade of tie.

Take the photo in black and white

Put it into Photoshop CS3 or later

Play with the B&W colour levels until the suit and tie look darker.

Rest assured that your photo will look classy and timeless for the next 5 years.
 

Pseudosyco

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Timeless for 5 years....?

When I had a corporate headshot done, I forgot the day and neglected to even bring a jacket downstairs to the shoot. I doubt the original poster will be able to call the editing shots, since presumably a professional would have been brought in to do it, instructed from the very top (unless he is already at the very top?).
 

bananananana

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Light grey suit is fine. Go with a white shirt and maybe a light purple/lilac tie.
 

Harold falcon

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Originally Posted by wmarson
All ... I need to take a formal, executive/corporate headshot and need advise on what color suit to wear. Poking around the Internet, I see many Executives at Fortune 500 companies wearing very classic, dark colored suits, white shirt, tie. I don't own one of those, however, I do own a very nice, light grey Hugo Boss suit. Not that there are any rules -- a suit is a suit. But, these days, are light grey suits 'in style?' Thoughts/comments ...

Thanks in advance for your input and suggestions!


Light grey suit is fine.

Consider a light blue shirt (or even better a white shirt with blue stripes) and a Repp tie (maybe navy/red/yellow combination) and you will be fine.
 

patrick_b

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I loved talking gear with our corporate photog at our national sales meetings. He photographed the events and did the head shots. He would often tell people (who asked) that a light colored suit photographs better than a charcoal or navy for head shots. I can't remember why.

Nice guy and loved talking shop. He had one of the first Nikon D3's when it first came out. He let me play around with it all night. Sure beat small talk with the sales rep from Omaha.
 

JayJay

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Solid navy suit with light blue shirt. This combo has always worked well for me.
 

cimabue

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Executive decisions are hard. Junior executive?
 

Icarus

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Make an executive decision!
 

Icarus

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Originally Posted by cimabue
Executive decisions are hard. Junior executive?

I caught that edit
 

Metlin

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Pardon my curiosity, but executive who has no darker suits?
confused.gif


What kind of suits do you usually wear? (genuinely interested!)
 

marco_rol

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Originally Posted by harvey_birdman
Light grey suit is fine.

Consider a light blue shirt (or even better a white shirt with blue stripes) and a Repp tie (maybe navy/red/yellow combination) and you will be fine.


A word of caution on this combo - if you go with any stripes (or ANY pattern) be careful that the stripes/pattern are not too small & close together. While it may look fine in real life, a digital camera may produce what is called a moire effect which will look awful. As a side note, we just had our corp head shots redone and we were instructed NO patterns/stripes of any kind. Solid white or blue shirt only.

Here's an example of what can happen with small patterns on clothing with a digital camera.
http://static.photo.net/attachments/...-108221584.jpg
(And it's not because he's using a cheap camera either - this was taken with a Canon 5D - it's just a fact of life with digital and there is only so much you can do post processing)
 

JayJay

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Originally Posted by marco_rol
A word of caution on this combo - if you go with any stripes (or ANY pattern) be careful that the stripes/pattern are not too small & close together. While it may look fine in real life, a digital camera may produce what is called a moire effect which will look awful. As a side note, we just had our corp head shots redone and we were instructed NO patterns/stripes of any kind. Solid white or blue shirt only.

This is the same advice I've always been given by professional photographers as well as when preparing for tv appearances. My pic was in the media earlier in the week, and my typical combo came off nicely, even if I have to say so myself.
tounge.gif
 

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