What’s the difference between a portrait and a headshot?

Ok, so what is the difference between a portrait and a headshot?

I mean a headshot is a type of portrait right? If that’s what you are thinking, you are totally wrong. Just kidding! You are spot on. However, there are a few more intricacies to it. A headshot is certainly a type of a portrait, but Dallas headshot photography really is its own type and style of photography. I know I know, this can be a bit confusing, but I have a few descriptions below to help you see what the differences are between a headshot and a portrait. Hopefully this sheds a little light on things:

How they’re shot

More often than not, Dallas headshot photography is shot pretty tight on a person’s face. The final image shows from around the shoulders up, so you are mostly just seeing the subject’s face and the background is either a solid color background, or may be some sort of environment blurred out in the background. The backgrounds are usually soft like this so you can focus fully on the person’s face. There is also only one person in the photo.

A corporate portrait, on the other hand, is usually shot more loosely, such as a mid-waist shot, ¾ length or full length. There may only be one person in the shot, or there may be several, dozens or even hundreds. Oftentimes, the surrounding environment is very important, and will be much more recognizable than in a headshot, even if the background has a soft focus, or blurred look to it.

The purpose –

I would think the easiest way to say it is this: portraits help to give you faces and a sense of place, while a headshot helps to put a face to a name. Whenever I am capturing corporate portraits in Dallas, most of the time the background is helping to show the viewer something. It could be their name, logo, or show the type of work that they do. The entire point of a headshot is so that people know what you look like, and are able to read a few things about you. By seeing what you wear, how you are positioned and the kind of expression you have, people are able to make an initial judgment or observation, and then decide if they want to talk to you or keep looking elsewhere. That’s why clothing and expression are so critical for headshots, but that’s another blog topic all in itself.

Versatility –

Strong Dallas headshots can go a lot of places. Portraits are as important as headshots from a marketing perspective, but the versatility of a headshot is unmatched: it can be used in your LinkedIn profile; on a resume page; the bio section of a website your company’s intranet or even in a program or event app for a program you are presenting or speaking at.

Since it is such a tightly cropped and relatively compact image, you can see the image pretty clearly whether it’s blown up large or in thumbnail size, which means it reads really well on a computer screen, projection screen or in a brochure or on a smartphone or tablet screen. Basically wherever it is, it is going to carry impact. A portrait that is shot more loosely or has additional people in it may not be able to read with as much immediacy, or loses its impact when displayed at a small size. Your corporate portraits will carry much better impact when they are carried across a banner on a website, go full screen or fill the screen pretty well, or any other similar application where they are presented as large as possible.

I hope that this has helped you to understand the differences between regular portraits