5 Essential Things to Consider for Your Next Office Headshot Shoot

More business is done online now than ever before. Many businesses today are discovering the value of having modern headshots of their employees on their website and other customer touch points - emails, online meetings, blogs and more.

Headshots add human element to their brand that builds trust and confidence from potential clients and customers. Humans identify with other humans much more so than logos, slogans and other typical corporate branding elements.

With that additional trust and human connection companies are finding they get more leads, better customer retention, and more referrals.

So how should you go about getting a photographer to come in and do headshots? What should you look for? What should you expect? How long will it take?

Who in your organization should get headshots?

While C-suite executives come top of mind - directors, VPs and other client or customer facing employees are also good candidates to have their headshots taken.

Anyone who is customer and client facing is important to have photographed. This might include your sales team, the VPs who frequently interface with potential clients or during the client contract. But it can also include general on-site employees such as on-site project and program managers who in many cases are the day-to-day face of your company.

Other employees to consider are HR staff that frequently interact with potential employees. Having a human element and connection on your hiring side is very important for attracting the human capital necessary in the current competitive environment.

What style of headshots?

Environmental Headshots are typically a bit wider and show off your office space and location a bit. These can look and work great when executed well and if the look and feel really fits your brand and industry. Great for more B2C centric companies that don't want an overly stuffy corporate look.

They do have their risks though since they do tend to be a bit more weather and lighting condition dependent. A good headshots photographer should be able to discuss those risks with you and provide some mitigation strategies to you - such as offering cutouts and digital backgrounds to achieve the desired result.

A studio look which usually just a plain gray, black or white background can be great for consistency, ease, and for creating a very clean professional look that fits very well for certain industries - like IT consulting and services. Backgrounds colors can be just about anything and can even be color matched with website colors to anchor the headshots to your brand and color scheme. It really quickly communicates that your business is attentive to detail and goes the extra mile.

Editorial Portraits can be great for smaller firms that do high end work for high end customers such as boutique law firms, PR firms, Advertising agencies and Lobbying and advocacy groups. Editorial portraits tend to be more involved and are designed to have the magazine quality, look, and feel.

This might involve props, dramatic lighting or high end painted canvas backdrops or even on location like a rooftop. This of course will depend on your industry and brand. Instead of deciding this for yourself it may be good to ask your potential headshots photographer for a consultation to discuss which might suit you best and discuss the costs and risks associated with each.

How much time to plan for?

For each person in the organization plan on about 10 minutes time per person unless you are looking for multiple looks per person. Not everyone will need the full time but some people may take longer to get a satisfactory headshot. Multiplying 10 minutes times the number of heads needing photos will give you a good idea of total time needed to shoot. If you need a lot of heads done that might mean shooting for multiple days.

Don't forget to factor in setup and tear down time. In general I recommend budgeting an hour of time for the photographer to setup and do test shots, and 30 minutes to tear down. So factor this in to the shooting schedule and deciding start and end times and when to schedule the first head to arrive.

While 10 minutes per person per look is ideal headshots certainly can be completed in faster timeframe. Sometimes you just need 50 people in a 2-3 hour window and that certainly can be done with decent results - but does have the risk of some people not being as happy with their headshots than others. Fast shoots like these are generally not retouched or have limited retouching since quantity takes precedence over quality.

When larger number of people is needed in a short time frame the costs involved can go up significantly. An assistant is often needed to increase efficiency and if the number of heads is high enough a second headshot station and photographer may be involved.

Have Dress Guidelines

One of the key outcomes of a good corporate headshot shoot is getting consistent headshots. Nothing kills the impact of a corporate headshot shoot than having people dressed a dozen different colors and styles of clothing. So have guidelines on colors of shirts and blouses. Colors of jackets and sweaters. It's helpful to have these align with company colors so keep company colors in mind when considering the dress code.

I always provide a custom headshot prep guide you can send out to employees prior to the shoot. I has tips on how to dress, hygiene and other ways they can make sure things go smooth.

Work with a photographer and plan

How successful a headshot shoot is will largely depend on how much preparation, planning goes into it. Having the end in mind and pre-visualizing what successful headshot shots look like will increase the success of your corporate headshot shoot.

Pre-visualizing and conceptualizing the shoot can be as simple as knowing you want ‘Bright. Happy. Inviting’ images or ‘Serious. Strong. Leader’ images. Searching and using stock images as a reference point can be a great way to get ideas and start to have a solid vision.

Lastly keep in mind that every headshot photographer is a bit different. Work with a photographer who wants to work and plan with you. Don’t be afraid to ask a photographer to talk on the phone and discuss ideas, concerns and challenges. Doing these things before the shoot can help the photographer, plan and prepare and provide you a more accurate quote for the job at hand.

Are you ready for a corporate headshot shoot? If so I am happy to help.

Jared Wolfe is a professional headshot photographer based in Alexandria VA where for 5 years he has been providing headshots for businesses, companies, entrepreneurs and career motivated individuals. He serves all the Washington DC area including Maryland and Virginia. Email me: [email protected] or call my cell: 703-401-0515

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