Why one portrait usually isn’t enough
Your portrait works harder than most. It’s on the sign, the card, the listing, the mailer and the building directory. Most people’s professional photo gets looked at once. Yours gets looked at by people deciding whether to call you.
But the portrait’s only half of it. What agents actually run out of is everything else: you at an open house, walking a property, handing over keys, at the closing table, out in the neighbourhood you sell. That’s the stuff your social calendar eats through, and it’s what makes a feed look like a working agent instead of a stock photo.
So I usually do both in one session. The portrait, and a set of real frames of you doing the job.
What the portrait has to do
- Look like you on the day you answer the door. A photo that flatters you into somebody else creates a small awkward moment at the first showing.
- Read at a distance. A sign gets seen from a car. Detail that works on a screen disappears at forty feet, which is the argument for simple backgrounds and clear contrast.
- Survive a crop you don’t control. Brokerages crop to circles, squares and banner strips. Frames with room around the head come through that fine. Tight ones don’t.
What the lifestyle frames are for
Listings, yes, but mostly everything around them. Social posts, the about page, the mailer, the sponsorship ad in the school program. Having thirty of your own photos means you stop reaching for stock, and people can tell the difference.
How often should I replace it?
When it stops looking like you, which is usually sooner than folks think. A photo that’s visibly a decade old says something you didn’t mean to say.
What about brokerage requirements?
Most brokerages specify a background, a crop and sometimes a dress code. Send me the spec ahead of time and I’ll match it, then take a second version you own outright for everything outside their system.
How long does it take?
An hour or so for portraits alone. Add a couple more if you want the lifestyle set, and I will build it around a property or an open house you’ve already got on the calendar.
