← All documentsDavid Bourne · prepared by Youell Systems Ltd
Photos for David Bourne
For David Bourne

What a good photo looks like

Your face will do more work on this website than any logo, headline or colour. People choosing a broker for a credit problem are deciding whether they can talk to you honestly, and they decide that from a photograph before they read a word. These are examples of the feel we're after — not of you, and not stock photos we'd use. They're a reference for when you take your own.

Six shots that would carry the site

Example: adviser at a desk turning towards the camera mid-conversation
Homepage hero

At your desk, mid-conversation

Turned toward the camera as if someone just walked in. Natural light from a window, room around you for the headline to sit.

Example: adviser talking with a client across a table with coffee
The best one

Talking to someone, over coffee

Shot over the other person's shoulder so they're anonymous. This is literally your "coffee, cake and a good chat" — it shows the job rather than describing it.

Example: clean friendly headshot against a plain wall
Google listing

A clean headshot

Plain wall, soft light, genuine smile. This one does double duty on your Google profile, LinkedIn and email signature.

Example: adviser explaining something at a laptop
How it works

Explaining something

Pointing at a screen mid-sentence. Useful next to the step-by-step section because it looks like work, not a pose.

Example: relaxed standing portrait in an office corridor
About page

Standing, relaxed

Hands loose, no folded arms. Three-quarter length shots feel more approachable than a tight head-and-shoulders.

Example: adviser outside a modern office building
Contact page

Outside the office

Puts you somewhere real. Helps with local searches too, because it shows you exist in a place.

What makes these work

  • Daylight, from a window. Never the overhead office strip lights, and never a flash.
  • Eyes engaged. Looking at the camera, or genuinely at someone else — never into the middle distance.
  • A real smile. The kind that creases the corners of your eyes. Ask whoever's shooting to make you laugh.
  • Space around you. Room for text to sit beside your head on the homepage.
  • Your actual surroundings. Your desk, your office, your street. It's proof.
  • Smart but not stiff. Open collar, jumper, sleeves rolled. You're the approachable one, not the bank.

What to avoid

  • The folded-arms suit photo. It reads as "I will be judging your credit file".
  • Stock photos of other people. Visitors spot them instantly and stop believing the rest of the page.
  • A cropped group photo from a wedding or an awards night — someone's shoulder is always still in it.
  • Heavy filters or phone beauty modes. They make skin look like plastic.
  • A cluttered background. Filing cabinets, cables, a whiteboard with someone's name on it.
  • Only one photo. We need several, or every page looks identical.
If you're shooting them yourself

A shot list for an hour's work

01
Desk, three-quarter turnSitting, body angled away, head turned back to camera. Window to one side. Take 20 and keep 2.
02
Headshot, plain wallTwo steps back from the wall so it goes soft. Phone at eye height, portrait mode off.
03
Standing, hands relaxedFull or three-quarter length. Shift your weight to one foot — it stops you looking braced.
04
Working shotAt the laptop, mid-explanation. Someone off camera asking you a real question helps.
05
With a colleague or willing clientOver their shoulder so they're unidentifiable. Get their permission in writing all the same.
06
Outside the buildingOn an overcast day, or in the hour before sunset. Never midday sun — it puts shadows under your eyes.

A modern phone is fine for all of these. Get a friend to shoot rather than using a timer, because you smile properly at a person. If you'd rather use a photographer, an hour or two locally will cover the lot — worth it given how long these will be up.

A note on these examples. The six photographs above were generated by AI to show the style. The man in them is not real and none of them will appear on your website. Everything on the live site will be a genuine photograph of you.