5 Reasons you need a career-making headshot for your ERAS Medical Residency Application.

We’ve talked a lot about personal branding and how important it is to utilize your headshot photos on social media. Let’s take a moment to review the reasons you need an amazing headshot for your Medical Residency Application.

1. Keep in mind the program director and/or anyone looking at your application will see your headshot before you’re chosen for an interview.

2. If a paper application is used, yours will go in a pile with many other applications. Most applications are electronic now, but either way your headshot will be a key factor in your ability to stand out from the other applicants.

3. As your application process progresses, your application could be looked at for hours by faculty members as they’re deliberating your candidacy for residency. If they do that on a projector, then a professional headshot is going to stand out that much more. I wouldn’t want to risk my future by not having a professional headshot.

4. Medical residency is a minimum of three years for primary care physicians and up to five years for some surgical specialties. The photo from your application will be with you on everything at the hospital, from the residency webpage to the hospital roster, for the next 3 to 5 years.

Could a professional application photo really help my chances at being selected for a medical residency?

5. According to a Bias in Radiology Resident Selection study published by Association of American Medical Colleges, students applying to residency have a better rate of selection if they have headshots that show attractiveness, and have an URM status equivalent of 5-9 points or higher. So yes, an amazing headshot is extremely important and can absolutely be career making for you.

How do you show attractiveness in a headshot photo? It is not by being a model or extra fit. It is all about your expression. That is what I will help you with. The photo on the application is actually quite small so you need a professional to help make sure your expression is perfect.

The first group is women who have a detailed process of making-over their face every day. Foundation, concealer, possibly contouring, eyebrow shaping, various eye shadows & liners, mascara & added lashes, and lip liner and stunning lipstick. I view these women as face-artists, as all of that process is truly an art. Many women do a beautiful job on their makeup, and would never leave their house without it.

The second group is made of women like me. Who, somehow, have come to a point in life where makeup is not a part of it. Whether that comes from having too busy a life, or just being comfortable in your natural skin … I don’t know. For me it’s both. Painted skin and eyeshadows and liners and bright lipstick, while I think they look beautiful on other women, I feel like it looks fake on me. So my daily look is pretty much curled eyelashes with mascara on the uppers only.

So for those of you women in the second group, if you are coming in for a headshot session that is an authentic you, what should you do?

Have you ever been to a conference where you’re looking at the presenter’s marketing materials, and it looks nothing like her?

And not necessarily because the photo is old. In her headshot photo she has heavy, gorgeous makeup and her hair is blown-out and meticulously styled. But as you look at her at this conference, her hair is tied back, she has a touch of lip gloss & mascara and is in her “natural skin.”

Yes, I do Canadian passports and PR photos all the time

Permanent resident photos must be:

Taken by a commercial photographer.

50 mm wide X 70 mm high (2 inches wide x 2- 3/4 inches long) and sized so the height of the face measures between 31 mm (1- 1/4 inches) and 36 mm (1- 7/16 inches) from chin to crown of head (natural top of head).

Clear, sharp and in focus.

Taken with a neutral facial expression (eyes open and clearly visible, mouth closed, no smiling).

Taken with uniform lighting and not show shadows, glare or flash reflections.

Taken straight on, with face and shoulders centered and squared to the camera (i.e. the photographs must show the full front view of the person’s head and shoulders, showing full face centered in the middle of the photograph).

Taken in front of a plain white background with a clear difference between your face and the background. Photos must reflect/represent natural skin tones.

Original photos that are not altered in any way or taken from an existing photo.

Reflect your current appearance (taken within the last six months)

Professionally printed on plain, high quality photographic paper (photos printed at home and photos printed on heavy weight paper are not acceptable)

The back of one photo must include:

The subject’s name and date of birth

The name and complete address of the photography studio

The date the photograph was taken

The photographer may use a stamp or handwrite this information. Stick-on labels are unacceptable.

Extra details

Glasses may be worn in photos as long as the eyes are clearly visible and there is no glare in the glasses.

Sunglasses and tinted eye glasses are unacceptable.

Photos with the red-eye effect or red eye alterations are unacceptable.

Hats and head coverings must not be worn, unless they are worn daily for religious beliefs or medical reasons. However, your full face must be clearly visible and the head covering must not cast any shadows on your face.

4 Rules to Capturing the Perfect Instagram Photo

We all know that Instagram reformats our images after we post them. They get edited into a square frame (ugh!). Trust us, we know this can seem frustrating. We can help! We’ve put together a couple of tips in order to help you take the best possible photos for Instagram right from the start.

Before we go over advice for creating the perfect composition, lets quickly talk about taking the photo itself. The automatic camera app on your iPhone, as well as any extra camera app you may download, has the ability to directly take a square photo. If you know that you’re going to be posting this picture on Instagram, this is the way to go. When you take the photo in a square mode originally, it keeps you from having to crop it later. Cropping the photo later may result in a lower-quality photo on top of also having to change the original composition you worked so hard to create.

Now let’s talk about capturing the perfect square photo with a composition guaranteed to catch any viewers eye scrolling by.

Pittsburgh Photographer attended the 2019 Texas School of Professional Photograph

PITTSBURGH, PA, 2019 – Jen Barker Worley Photography announced that Jen and Dan Worley have attended the 2019 Texas School of Professional Photography.

Jen Worley received 7 days of intensive continued education from the World-renowned photographer Joel Grimes. The class shared Joel’s process and his passion as a Canon Explorer of Light.

Dan Worley attended the Video Production class at Texas School. As a class they produced a 15 min video that was received with a standing ovation from over 1000 photographers attending the closing ceremony of the class.

Pittsburgh actor portraits

Pittsburgh actor headshot

Pittsburgh photographer

About Jen Barker Worley Photography

Our company’s photographic journey goes as far back as the 1920’s, in Kaufmann’s Department store. I’m a second generation photographer and continuing the legacy of our family studio downtown Pittsburgh. My professional photography career started in 2002 and it has shaped how I look at the world ever since. Every aspect of our business has been geared toward helping busy professionals create images that grow their brand.