Fear of a Headshot - how photographes can help.
The fear of having your photo taken is a very real situation for many people. Sometimes publicly referred to as Cameraphobia or Photophobia (which is actually the abnormal sensitivity to light), but officially there is no clinically identified phobia of having your photo taken.
To clarify,
“A phobia is an uncontrollable, irrational, and lasting fear of a certain object, situation, or activity. This fear can be so overwhelming that a person may go to great lengths to avoid the source of this fear. One response can be a panic attack. This is a sudden, intense fear that lasts for several minutes. It happens when there is no real danger.” Johns Hopkins Medicine
Interesting and fascinating stuff but true phobias are not something a portrait headshot photographer is trained to manage.
Consider for a moment, if someone has arachnophobia (fear of spiders) would you throw a spider at them to make them “get over it”? No way! Same for someone who has a true phobia around photos of themselves, you wouldn’t just stick a camera in their face and say “Smile!” to get a headshot. Nope. Not going to turn out well.
How Headshot Photographers CAN Help
A good headshot photographer should be able to help individuals who are camera shy, camera adverse or even worried about something they have never done. If that is you, we got ya!
Most of the time we find that when people are camera shy, unsure or apprehensive of having their photo taken, it’s because of what they “don’t know” - or better stated, “don’t YET know”.
People don’t like looking bad. Their fear is that the camera will capture bad images of them. If they never had someone guide them to great photos then that makes perfect sense. Most people have never experienced a professional headshot session before and are a bit apprehensive because they don’t know what to expect. This fear will not just go away when a professional photographer says “Relax - I got ya!”
Think of a first date or the first day of a new job - you are nervous until you get the know the people or the situation. Once you KNOW what to expect it’s not so bad - unless of course, it is the date or job from hell!! (sorry we can’t help you there!! LOL)
So here is how we help the camera shy / camera adverse / worried about their session people - We communicate with them.
Infinite Eye looks at the fears people have and takes steps to help alleviate those feelings and calm the worries that people may have.
Taking Time to Explain Things
Getting clear information so you KNOW what will happen is so important. This allows you, as the person having your photo taken, to calm yourself and be more relaxed. Relaxing then allows a better portrait to be captured.
Infinite Eye uses the following details to help decrease your stress and increase your headshot understanding;
Web Page - provide good details of what’s offered - session time, number of images (both proofs and final retouched images)
Headshot Session Prep - prior to your Headshot Session, we send out our Headshot Guide on what to wear and how to look your best.
Our Headshot Session - a guided process of not just a “turn head here” - CLICK - “turn head there” - CLICK. Our goal is to guide you through the full experience explaining what we are doing and how this will help your final headshot that you choose.
Session Follow-Up - after your session, we explain what happens next like how long it will take for edits to happen, delivery of your headshot gallery, how to make choosing favourite images easier on you and how to make and get your final images
When you have a better understanding of what your experience will be, you start to trust and understand your photographer. This allows for both a better experience and better images of you! Great headshots give you a positive introduction to people when you are not around!
If you are worried about having headshots done for you, why not give us a call and see if we can assist you.
Give us a call - Always happy to help!
