Organising Headshots For Your Company
A Brief Guide
Every company needs professional headshots. But, organising headshots for your company can feel like a daunting task. In this guide I’m going to give you some helpful tips and tricks that will make organising headshots for your company easy and painless.
Finding a suitable date in the diary
This can often be one of the most taxing parts of organising headshots for your company. If you have a large workforce, ensuring all your personnel are available on the same day and in the same place, could prove challenging. Ensure you give yourself enough notice to align diaries and avoid peak holiday season in July and August, as well as other school holiday times.
Alternatively, if you’re having a team building day, a summer/Christmas get-together or any other reason the company is gathering en-masse, this can be an ideal opportunity to capture headshots for your company.
Making sure everyone is in the know
Once the date is set, and everyone has it firmly in their diaries, it’s wise to send out reminders at regular intervals as the date approaches. Many people hate having their photo taken – even if it’s only simple headshots at work – and excuses may come in thick and fast on the day if there haven’t been enough reminders to show up!
“We were looking for some professional photos to revamp our company website. Georgina made the experience fun and relaxing for our members of staff and took the time to listen to what we wanted and as such the results were better than we could have expected. Many thanks Georgina, would highly recommend your friendly, professional and efficient service and look forward to using your talent again in the future.”
Louisa – Hitchell Finance
Choosing the right look & style for your headshots
Another thing to consider when you’re organising headshots for your company is the look and style of the headshot itself. It might be that your company has specific brand guidelines on the backdrop, colour, dress code and perhaps also the orientation of the image – be it portrait, landscape or square. But if you don’t have clear guidelines, it’s important to know what look and feel you want to capture in the headshots. There are lots of options; you can go for traditional corporate with a plain backdrop, or perhaps a more modern look with an environmental backdrop would suit your company better. You may want just head and shoulders, or you may feel that three quarter length or waist-up shots allow more space to introduce your workforce. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, I can help pin down the best look for your company.
Choosing the right location for your headshots
If you’re going for environmental business portraits with a room/office/building etc backdrop, then this will most likely dictate where you want capture the headshots. However, generally I advise that wherever possible, the location be away from prying eyes or teasing work banter! As I mentioned earlier in this article, many people hate having their photo taken, and if they are being watched, their whole experience could potentially be very negative. If the headshots are to be against a plain backdrop, a (preferably) large meeting room with a door is ideal to allow for the mobile studio equipment to be set up and a sense of privacy with the closed door to be achieved. If a meeting room isn’t an option, somewhere out of the way, where there isn’t a great deal of traffic would work well.
Preparing your workforce
The job of a good photographer is to ensure that all subjects feel at ease in front of the camera. A large part of this process is making sure everyone is prepared in advance and knows what is going to happen. Many people worry about posing, how to sit or stand, what to wear, what to do with their hair, where to put their hands etc etc. But a little bit of information and preparedness goes a long way to alleviate these worries. A good photographer will provide a guide on how best to prepare for a headshot session which you can share with your workforce in advance of their session. The guide will provide advice on what to wear, what to do with hair and make-up as well as explain that the photographer will guide each person through the shoot so they don’t need to worry about how to pose. Your company headshots will run much more smoothly and speedily when subjects arrive prepared and as relaxed as they can be.
“Georgina is incredibly professional and very good at what she does. She is very speedy to respond to correspondence and very efficient. She also spent a lot of time getting things right before the shoot and was very kind and considerate during the shoot. Our photos when they arrived were fantastic and simple to download and keep. I would highly recommend her. She has a human touch whilst still getting the job done.”
Julia Maitland, The Yoga House
Further headshot sessions
If you have a large workforce, it’s often impossible to get everyone together on the same day. Or, even with the best planning, something last minute will crop up meaning one or two people won’t make it in on the day. It’s therefore, wise to plan and budget for further sessions at various intervals during the year where you can capture those who missed out or indeed, any new starters. Using the same photographer who knows the set up can help to make follow up sessions quick and painless.
Find out more about headshot photoshoots here…
If this article has galvanised you into organising headshots for your company and you would like to have a chat about your own headshot session, please do get in touch to book in a call.
Who is your Headshot Photographer?
It’s Me! Hi, I’m Georgina.
I have a genuine passion for photographing people. My clients tells me time and again how much they hate having their photo taken. By the end of their sessions, they are telling me how much fun it was!
I pride myself in putting people at ease in front of the camera and making each and every photoshoot as much fun as possible.
I have photographed teams of accountants, education specialists, yoga instrutors, lawyers, insurance providers and many others besides. If you would like to chat about your own headshot photo shoot, please do get in touch.