Great executive brand photos will help you stand out and leave a lasting impact on customers, employees, partners, and other stakeholders. An authentic, dynamic representation of your best self online will resonate tenfold.
Once you have defined your executive brand, you need photos to match who you are and what you bring to the table. To make your photos really attractive, you need to pick your location, looks and outfits. Have this covered? It’s time to think about how to pose for your executive brand shots.
8 Great Poses for Your Executive Brand Photo Shoot
Here are some helpful tips on how to pose for your executive brand photos.
1. Smile Sincerely
A sincere smile communicates genuineness and competence
Smiling communicates sincerity, sociability, and perceived competence, according to Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychology professor. All of these are important attributes. Not only do your employees relate better with you, but so do your partners or stakeholders.
If you aren’t in the mood to smile, breathe deeply as you count to ten, and as you exhale, think of one thing you are grateful for.
Smiling makes you feel and look great!
2. Pose with Your Hand on Your Chin
Placing your hand on your chin brings your face into focus and accentuates your eyes.
The hand-on-chin pose frames your face and brings it into focus.
The pose draws attention to your eyes so it’s important to ensure you are thinking of something pleasant to avoid having “dead eyes” in the photo.
3. Cross Your Arms
Arms crossed shows power and confidence
This is a popular pose for executive brand photos. It’s associated with power.
When done right, you can get an elegant, professional-looking image, but if you cross the arms too tightly, you can communicate insecurity, unfriendliness, or unwillingness to cooperate.
To get a great cross-armed photo, relax your shoulders and arms. For a slimming effect, half turn to the camera and lower a shoulder slightly.
4. Tilt your head
This pose exudes confidence. When you feel confident, you command an air of influence.
Tilting your head brings out your jawline, which is a modified version of a “masculine pose” that brings a sense of power and playfulness to your photos. It also makes your face look a bit slimmer.
5. Play with your hair
Playing with hair makes you look fierce
You will look more confident in a picture when you play with your hair with your head tilted slightly or your gaze directed to the side, away from the camera.
This pose makes you both approachable and fierce. You can also use this pose to add motion to your headshot photos.
6. Look down
Looking down makes you appear reliable and thoughtful
You can use this pose to appear in your element, deep in thought.
Point your chin down slightly and push the face forward. This is a quick way to hide a double chin.
A photographer can also experiment with different light, color, and shadow patterns to make you more intriguing.
7. Move
Motion poses make for great executive photos.
Both studio and outdoor headshots are more engaging when they have some dynamics. Motion poses make the picture lively. These portray you as an active, enthusiastic person.
Stands with your legs together can convey that you are attentive, neutral, honest, and confident as well.
8. Pay attention to your background
Blurred background ensures the focus is fully on you
It’s important to pick a background that represents your brand. However, a great photo with a busy background redirects the attention of your audience from you to your background. Blurring it ensures you remain the main focus on your executive brand photo.
Conclusion
A great executive photo can make a big difference in how you connect emotively with your audience. Try out some of these poses in your next executive brand photoshoot.
Need help building your executive brand? We can help! Reach out to us to get started.
