Corporate headshots on location: how to approach it

A company asks you to photograph all its employees for the website, LinkedIn and the staff directory. Twenty, fifty or a hundred people, at their own office, preferably in one day. It is a great assignment, but only if the organisation is right: people need to know when it is their turn, the photos need to match, and you do not want to spend hours afterwards working out which photo belongs to whom.

Beforehand: agreements with your client

Start with a short conversation about the purpose. Where will the photos be used? A website with a fixed crop needs something different from a printed brochure. Agree on:

• The style: background (white, grey, office setting), clothing and crop. Ask whether there are existing photos the new ones need to match.
• The schedule: how many people, in which time slots, and whether there are departments or locations you want to keep separate.
• The selection: does everyone choose their own photo, or does the client choose? And how many retouches are included?
• The delivery: sizes, deadline and how long the photos can be downloaded online.

Put this in your quote, so there is no discussion afterwards about what was agreed.

The room and the set-up

Ask for a room where you can stay all day, preferably with daylight you can shut out. You want a set-up you get right once and then leave alone: that way all the photos look alike, including the ones taken at nine in the morning and at four in the afternoon.

A few practical tips:

• Mark with tape where the person stands or sits, and where your camera is.
• Work at a fixed distance and focal length, so heads are the same size everywhere.
• Put out a mirror and a comb. People feel more confident when they have had a quick look at themselves.

A fixed time per person

The biggest risk on a headshot day is waiting: a queue at the door, or nobody for half an hour. So let participants choose a time slot themselves. With a sign-up link or a QR code on the company intranet, everyone picks a free moment; a full time slot can no longer be chosen.

Allow a few minutes per person, plus some room for people who are late. A quarter of an hour of breathing space after every hour keeps the day manageable.

During the shoot: who is in front of the camera?

With dozens of people in a row, the name with the photo is what matters most. If you shoot tethered, you can have the file name changed per person, so every photo has the right name straight away. In Apertur Studio you click on whoever is next in the live queue: the name is then on your clipboard and Capture One uses it for the next captures.

You also see at a glance who has already been, who is still to come and whom you need to call.

After the shoot: selection and delivery

Deliver the photos in an online album, per department or location, with the name under every photo. Let people mark their favourite and request a retouch if needed. Agree how long the album stays online, and send a reminder before it goes offline.

In short

A successful headshot day on location comes down to three things: clear agreements beforehand, a set-up that stays the same all day, and a schedule in which everyone has their own time. When the name with every photo is right by itself, you do not spend the evening after the shoot sorting things out, but selecting.