top of page

How many portraits do you actually need?


Have you ever wondered how many photos of you that you actually need at any time? I did, and I can tell you as a professional portrait photographer, 'not many'... that's not too specific, right? Unless you have a specific need to have multiple photos of you floating around at the same time (you might have your reasons) or you are trying to save some money on session fees and getting a bunch shot at once that you can use later (makes sense), you don't need more than 5 photos at a time. 3 is optimal 5 to 10, more the merrier, wait but why so many more?


The trouble with 'the more the merrier approach' to life is that we end up choosing things we don't need or can possibly use. Some photographers offer unlimited portraits or headshots in half an hour or an hour. Why would anyone need 30 headshots of themselves? - especially if in half of them you were caught blinking or looking like you were just about to swat a mosquito? Trust me, no one does...also especially if the photos are in their raw unusable form. Even if they are edited, usable photos it is an overkill, your money down the drain.


You are better off with a few usable photos taken once a year or two, the photos present you the way you look like in that period of time. It is like getting a haircut, you can't go whole hog on it, go for a single haircut in an year - you are better off going periodically, regularly and the same thing holds good for headshots and portraits too. Once every year or 6 months depending on how updated and fresh you would prefer your profile photo to be.


By the way, if your haircut (oops! your photo shoot) is due now, let me know. You can get 3 or 5 or more usable, edited photos of you edited to your liking.

bottom of page