The HFC Marketing and Communications division can help HFC employees obtain a professional portrait (head shot) at different times throughout the year when we host photo shoots. These photos are provided at no charge to you, and you are free to use them for your professional purposes.

Reach out to Creative Lead Patti Sekulidis (pjsekulidis@hfcc.edu) for detailed information.

Professional portrait requirements for use on HFC website / materials

We encourage you to have a professional photo taken by one of our contract photographers (this service is free to you). If you wish to provide your own professional portrait, it must meet the following requirements.

  1. Subject: Upright posture, head balanced, eyes open and looking at the camera (can have head turned slightly, but must be looking at the camera). No lens glare if subject is wearing glasses. Body can be facing camera-left or camera-right in professional posture.
  2. Preferred size: 1200 x 1500 pixels -- may be larger, and does not have to be this exact shape
  3. Minimum size: 800 x 1000 pixels -- does not have to be this exact shape, but may not be smaller than these pixel dimensions
  4. Quality: High-resolution, sharp focus, clear facial detail. No blurs or soft-focus.
  5. File format: JPG (.jpg), RGB color mode
  6. Ratio: Vertical preferred (4:5) head-and-full-shoulders crop, leave space above the head, eyes in the upper third, generally centered (L to R). May be larger to provide flexibility for cropping
  7. Lighting - Indoor studio: Even, professional indoor studio lighting (no harsh shadows; all facial features clear and visible)
  8. Background: Neutral, professional background with dimensionality, preferably predominantly blue tones, without seams, wrinkles, or distractions. Consistent background color across departments helps with professionalism.
  9. No studio logos; no watermarks.
  10. Retouching standards - Natural and polished. Any retouching must be done by a professional photographer or graphic arts professional. Nothing artificial or visibly AI-generated. Minimal retouching is acceptable to remove minor blemishes, even skin tones, remove eyeglass glare, remove fly-away hair, and smooth small wrinkles in clothing.

Images we cannot accept

Photos submitted to us in the following condition(s) will not be usable for our website and other materials. In these situations, you will need to have a new portrait taken by one of our contract photographers.

  1. No photos that do not meet the above-defined standards.
  2. No photos with unacceptable retouching or artificial image generation: visibly AI-generated changes, overly-smoothed artificial-looking skin, changed body shape or facial features, artificial blur, overly-whitened teeth, artificial look overall.
  3. No selfies or phone-generated portraits
  4. No photos cropped from group shots or travel shots
  5. No social media downloads or compressed images
  6. No photos that are old (taken more than about 5 years ago)
  7. No blurry, low-resolution, too-small, or pixelated images
  8. No busy, cluttered, or virtual backgrounds
  9. No filters or obvious cut-out edits
  10. No images from Zoom, Teams, or other virtually-generated images

For any questions about professional portraits at HFC, reach out to Patti Sekulidis (pjsekulidis@hfcc.edu).