How a Photoshoot at Peter Hurley’s Studio Left Me With a New Understanding of My Appearance
How a Photoshoot at Peter Hurley’s Studio Left Me With a New Understanding of My Appearance
Your facial expression matters more than you think.
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I did a photoshoot recently. It was at a studio in New York City that specializes in headshots. And if there is one place you should go for your next profile photo, Peter Hurley Photography is it.
As a self-taught photographer, Peter Hurley has been taking headshots for over 25 years now. He is also considered to be a pioneer in the field of headshot photography. So when I first read a Wall Street Journal article about how he charges $1,500 for a single photo shoot, I was both shocked at the price and intrigued.
When I learned that I was going to be in New York for a few days in March, I decided to book a session to see if he could work his magic on me as well.
Perception is Reality in Consulting
This photoshoot was part of a larger rebranding effort to grow my consulting business. I’ve cleaned up my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles to only point to All-In Consulting and shifted my content strategy to discussing engineering issues more.
This photoshoot was the final piece in this rebrand because in client-facing fields like consulting, your profile photo can make or break your business.
A mentor once told me that consulting is all about perception management. Clients are constantly sizing you up to see if they trust you and want to work with you. Everything from:
the way you dress
your video background
how many people show up to the meeting
and whether you use a Gmail account vs. your consulting website’s domain
can all add or detract from your credibility and affect your chances of winning a deal.
I learned this the hard way.
Why I Started to Manage Perceptions More
In January I lost a 6-figure consulting deal to another agency because I mismanaged my consultancy’s appearance in the initial meeting.
In the sales pitch, 6 people showed up on their side, and only I showed up representing mine. This numerical difference of 6 vs. 1 created an imbalance in the power dynamic and casted doubt on whether my consultancy could deliver on the results needed.
I was certain I could build their product for them better than any other agency could, but that’s when I realized that expertise alone won’t win clients. Their perception of me mattered as well.
Vowing to never lose a deal because of appearances again, I began to put more effort into managing my perception to clients.
It started first with managing perceptions in client meetings - like making sure I knew who was going to be in the meeting from the client’s side beforehand and bringing the right people from the team with me to the calls.
Then I began to clean-up my LinkedIn and Twitter profile.
It was also around that time when I started wondering if my old profile photo was costing me as well. I worried that the old photo was too casual and didn’t convey the authority needed to win larger deals.
I felt with a more professional profile photo, I could attract more clients and charge higher prices.
With that in mind, I showed up at Peter Hurley’s studio with a fresh haircut and a suitcase full of different outfits, ready for my transformation.
How the Photoshoot Went
The studio was on the 12th floor of a building that housed several other photography studios. Brittney, his assistant, greeted me at the door and led me to their makeup room so I could fix my hair and iron my clothes before I went on set.
The shoot itself was relaxed. We’d take a bunch of photos with slight variations in facial expressions and review them. When we got a few that looked promising, I’d go into the changing room to switch outfits and repeat the process all over again.
After the photoshoot finished, I sat down with Brittney to go through the photos and decide which ones we wanted to keep.
A week later, they sent me a Zip File after they did some post-processing on them.
You can see the final results below.
What I Learned From This Photoshoot
I left the photoshoot with more than new profile pictures; I left with a renewed understanding of my own appearance.
First off, I learned from this photoshoot just how important facial expressions are in communication. A large portion of the photoshoot was spent with Brittney coaching me on what facial expression to hold while taking my photos.
She told me that “confidence is in the eyes; friendliness is in the mouth”.
This means squinting my eyes a little bit, and having a slight-closed mouth smile for approachability.
This corresponds with what I’ve heard before about how communication is about a lot more than the words you say. Dr. Albert Mehrabian, a body language researcher, once said that your words only constitute 7% of communication, your voice and tone constitute 38%, and your body language constitute the remaining 55%.
Before, I thought my normal expression was friendly, but when she showed me the first few photos before her coaching, I realized I looked like a deer in the headlights with how blank my face looked. Her coaching helped make the photos look way more captivating and expressive.
So the majority of communication is non-verbal, and we should pay attention more to the non-verbals like facial expressions than even the words we say!
Now in my normal conversations, I’m more conscious of my facial expressions and “squinch” when listening to others to look more engaged.
Second, the photoshoot was a lesson in self-acceptance.
After the shoot, I asked if Brittney could photoshop out some of the flaws on my skin, like particular moles or the sunspots on my face, and she recommended against it.
The only time they edit stuff out is if it’s not something that would last on your face for more than two weeks, like a pimple.
“The flaws are what make you, you” she explained.
In line with this, I found it particularly curious that one of the photos I liked the most was an unplanned photo where she told me a joke that got me to laugh and she captured it on camera.
So despite all that coaching, one of the best photos came when I WASN’T squinching. This was a nice reminder to stay true to my authentic self, and that good things can happen when you go off-script - whether it’s at a photoshoot, or in life as well.
Lastly, the photoshoot was a reminder to wear more sunscreen. When Brittney zoomed in to examine the photos with me, I realized just how many sunspots I had on my face from childhood sunburns.
Normally it’s hard to see these things in a mirror, but under the bright photography lights and with a High-Definition camera, the sunspots were really apparent.
Wear more sunscreen folks!
Final Thoughts
I’ve begun using these photos in my marketing material, and it’s already making a difference. For example if you compare these two images, the old image had a 1.1% Click to Impression ratio (or click-thru rate), while the new image has a 3.5% click-through rate.
Although the impressions are likely not statistically significant yet, it indicates to me that swapping the other photos to see which ones yield the highest click-through-rates could be an area worth testing.
I also put a vote out to everyone on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to see what the general public thought would be the best profile picture. The reception was very positive and supportive, and the favorite by far was #3.
What I found surprising was how conflicting the opinions were. For example, notice how different people are telling me I should pick 1 or 3 “for sure.”
Even more shocking was some people telling me to keep my old photo instead! 🤯
So with that said, I want to hear your opinion. Of these photos, which one do you like the most?
Let me know by commenting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 below.
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