Organising corporate headshots? Make it Easy with this Process.

Organising large groups of people, whether it’s your colleagues or friends, to be in a particular place at a specific time isn’t easy - the phrase ‘herding cats’ springs to mind. However, there are certain things you can do that will make the process much simpler. Having worked on countless corporate shoots with a mix of businesses in different industries, I wanted to share with you the process that I have seen to be most effective for organising corporate headshots.

I will start by giving you a heads up - this will require time to get right, however it will keep disruption to your colleagues’ time to a minimum, you won’t have an idle photographer and crucially you’ll get some great headshots from the day. The process is broken down into preparation, the shoot and post production.

Preparation

1/ Choose the style of your corporate headshot

First, you should establish the type of headshots that you want. This should compliment the type of company you work for and the industry you’re in. For example, more corporate companies such as banks and consultants tend to choose smart attire on a plain background, while a more contemporary look and feel will move towards a more lifestyle portrait.

2/ Organising the date

As people have busy schedules, give colleagues 3-5 options of the most suitable date and run a poll on doodle to see what works best for them. Ensure that they have a few weeks notice of the shoot, so people are able to move around meetings if they need to.

3/ Creating a Schedule

Once you have a date locked in the diary, the next step is to create a schedule for the day. 

Whatever time you want the first headshot taken, allow 30 minutes for the photographer to get set up beforehand and allow 20 minutes to get the first headshot, so if it was 09.00, the photographer should get set up from 08.30 and should shoot the first headshot between 09.00 - 09.15. 

For the remaining headshots allow 10 minutes for each colleague to have their headshot taken. Remember, colleagues are likely to want to go to the bathroom and check they look presentable, so it’s important to let them know they should be ready prior to their time slot.

If you are doing a shoot with a few setups such as for lifestyle headshots, allow 20 minutes for each new set up.

4/ Choosing a location

There are two things to consider here, depending on the style of image you want. For a simple plain background space is the most important factor, so a large meeting room with little natural light or blinds is ideal. For a lifestyle portrait, having plenty of space is still vital but you also need choosing a suitable background(s).

5/ Attire, Hair & Make Up

Remember these photos are likely to be used for a number of years and could possibly be used in the public domain such as on websites, on Linkedin Profiles and possibly presentations. It’s important to be specific with how you want people to be dressed for the images to ensure individuals look presentable and there is consistency amongst the team. For example, do all the gentlemen need to wear a suit and tie or can they be smart casual? If it is smart casual, what does this mean?

A key tip on clothing, is that the clothing worn should not be the same colour as the background, i.e. a white shirt on a white back, as the individual will look like a floating head which will be scary more than anything else.

A couple of rules of thumb recommendations on hair and makeup is that straightened or tidied hair looks better and some, natural looking makeup can be better. However there are no hard rules on these as every individual is different - the key is for the individuals to have made an effort to be presentable and feel confident in themselves.

6/ Communication

My recommendation here is to communicate the date, time, location and attire a couple of times to your colleagues (ideally 2 weeks prior and then 2 days beforehand), as well as putting their time slot in their calendar. 

7/ Administration

If your company has policies relating to how they plan on using the images, such as GDPR, there may be some administrative forms that people need to complete on the day. It’s good to have these created and printed so individuals can read it and sign it before having their photo taken.

With the above finished, you’ve done the hardest part! There are a few things to cover off on the shoot itself and what happens afterwards.

The Shoot

This should be the most fun part, as you get to see the hard work from the above steps coming together. There are a couple of things that need to be dealt with on the day and I’ll take you through them below:

1/ Arrival & Equipment Drop Off

As mentioned above this will usually be 30-45 minutes prior to the first headshot for the set up. As there is camera and lighting equipment that will be transported to the location, if there is available parking or drop off near to the office or space that is ideal.

2/ Assistance

With the preparation steps, your colleagues should be ready to go at the right time. However for the day to run smoothly, it is really helpful to follow this up and ensure that there is a consistent flow of people ready to have their portraits taken. Essentially this means three things: 

• Keeping track of who has had their headshot taken (and ensuring they have filled in any administration they need to)

• Following up with someone if they haven’t turned up on time and if needs be readjusting the schedule

• Making sure that prior to them stepping in front of the camera they look presentable i.e. straightening ties, straightening shirts, etc… This might be as simple as sourcing a mirror for people to check in on themselves, however as you will have an idea of how everyone else has looked you are able to provide that consistency.

3/ The first Headshot

As mentioned the first headshot takes around 20 minutes, this is because the photographer will need to check in with you on how the lighting is set up and make sure you are happy with the composition of the image. Once you’re happy with the set up, the process can be repeated much more quickly for the remaining individuals.

Everything else on the day is really up to the photographer, so with the above covered we are good to go onto the next stage which is post production.

Post Production

1/ Image Selection

As I will shoot a number of images per person, you will need to choose which are the final images you want to go into post production. I will create an initial selection of images per person which will be shared with you via Dropbox. All you need to do is go through them and select the images that you want edited per person.

2/ Test Image

Before I go ahead and edit all the images, I will share a test image with you to make sure you are happy with them. If you have any feedback let me know and I can make the relevant adjustments then and there and can do the same for the remaining images.

3/ The Editing Process

There’s nothing for you to do here, it’s more to keep you informed as to what happens in the post production process. This part of the process takes actually longer than the taking the shoot itself as in each image I need colour correct the image, remove of blemishes, smooth the skin tones, sharpen features and edit the background. It’s a thorough process which typically takes 20 minutes per image.

4/ Delivery

I will deliver the final hi-resolution images via a Dropbox link to you. If you can’t access Dropbox for any reason, please let me know an we can find an alternative method of delivering the images such as wetransfer.

If you have a specific deadline delivery you need to hit, please let me know and I’ll look to accommodate this. If not, delivery will depend on the number of headshots that needs to be edited.

I hope you found this useful and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via email or phone which you can find on my contact page.