Jeremy Cowart

Jeremy Cowart is the founder of See University and OKDOTHIS. He’s an Emmy nominated celebrity photographer, teacher and entrepreneur. He’s also been named the Most Influential Photographer on the Internet by the Huffington Post, Forbes and Yahoo as well as the humanitarian award in 2012 by WPPI.

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Transcript

So these are just some random corporate shots I’ve done for I say corporate and by that it’s been a little more a little more you know formal. This my friend Donald Miller. He’s an author, you know, a nice simple lighting. I used a big soft light to light his face. The bigger the light you use are the more flattering.

So if you can find a source of light that’s large and soft, think of it like a cloudy day, the lights a lot more beautiful than harsh sunlight. So find a large source, your lighting.

Let’s see, I shot my friend Michael Hyatt. I did his headshots. Michael is a great speaker and author and Michael’s gift for an imam and this is a little more casual. He’s just hanging out on a binge but you know good natural smile there, you know. We did do some of the more formal stuff like this but then I also caught him like this. To me he shows a little more personality.

It’s a little more laid-back shows in a working environment with this computer, in his whole, this whole set up there which I think is cool. And then you know, I got him in front of a, what, I used a lot a ring light which is literally just a big ring of light.

I’m using one right now to light myself. This is a real simple shot of Michael and then I got him screaming and goofing off. And so Michael would probably never use this as his LinkedIn shot perhaps but it’s still a fun way to show his personality.

So just to jump in on that as well with the photo with him in front of his computer and Michael with his you know microphone and he’s obviously doing you know a lot of podcasting and online recording, so it kind of shows his workplace is, that, you know, should people, if they’re, you know, something, maybe a physical product should they be showing that in their photo? Can you talk to us a bit about that?

Yeah. I mean obviously depends on what you do for a living but you know, a lot of photographers will hold a camera in their photo and to me that can be a little over-the-top and cheesy but if you really want to communicate, “hey I’m a photographer”, then go for it.

So I don’t, I don’t think it’s super necessary in most professions to literally show what you do. I think as long as it’s a good natural photo of you showing whatever, whichever side of your personality is great but I just like things a little more laid-back.

This is a former editor-in-chief of Southern Living Magazine. Some shots that I did for him, a little more casual. These are some are more corporate. This is Dan Cathy from chick fil a. That’s obviously showing off a little bit more personality for him.

I don’t know that makes it great avatar because avatars usually you really do want to get crop right it up on as a square right on a face and so that might not be the best square but it’s still a fun photo to have. You know, this might be a better square crop he’s looking off camera but it’s still nicely lit and it shows some personality.

And then if we go into some other work, you know, like these are some modeling shots I have done. This to me would be if you, if you just want to show who you are outside of your work, shot of a girl riding a bike like that’s a fun, lifestyle type shot. I like this one, this is a good, that’s good showing personality.

You know that to me, is professional but still very fun and engaging and shows a lot of personality. Something along those lines what I refer, lifestyle usually means caught in a moment. Fun, happy to be good lifestyle type image too.

I’m just thinking in terms of those those lifestyle images, and you know there’s a lot of you know, people smiling and you know what makes a photo welcoming I mean, should you be smiling, should be looking away from the camera? I mean there’s obviously lots of ways to do this but what are some kind of key things that people should be thinking about?

I don’t think there are any rules per se. I mean, it just depends on what what kind of vibe you want to put out there. But you know, I think eye contact is certainly good to make a connection with a camera.

This is my friend, Mary Alice, she’s an actress. So the shoot I did for her and this is one of the few kind of more corporate, not corporate keep using that word. That’s a better word to use, but more lifestyle, kind of nice and natural. Then we go a little more serious here.

So to me, this would be a darker actor shot and the others would be four different type in you know, you could almost compare to her where she’s depends on what type of film she’s auditioning for.

So you could think of that the same way from a business standpoint as what kind of job are you looking for. Because say we went from these photos, nice and natural to, you know, some really dark darker moody kind of stuff. So I like to shoot across the board from dark and vibey to you know bright natural. So again those are just some random examples of some of my photos.