Organizing group headshots for the team can often be challenging. If it’s a company first, or you’re an experienced photo session organizer, creating a comfortable, productive and efficient headshot photography day is super important for many reasons.
Whether your headshot photo session is in Jacksonville or further afield, a fun, relaxed photo session will always result in the best headshots as the staff will look more natural and comfortable in your new headshots or branding photos.
As with many group endeavors, a well organized professional photography session will keep things on time, eliminate frustrations, make the team look amazing while making you look like a champ and the go to person! With everything under control, getting your headshots for the company website, LinkedIn profile photos, team photos and other marketing related photos needs will be. a breeze.
Here’s my step by step guide on how to efficiently organize your staff headshot photo session for high quality results and minimum disruption!
JACKSONVILLE PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO OR ON-LOCATION
One of the initial decisions to be made is where your group headshots will be taken, in our photo studio or at your office location.
It’s almost always better to have your photo session at your office space. It is usually more efficient and economical with minimal disruption to production and staff schedules for us to photograph your headshots at your location.
We have a complete mobile studio setup which means your team gets a full studio experience, state-of-the-art lighting, backdrop choices, cutting edge mirrorless camera technology and more. With my ability to make everyone feel relaxed in front of the camera, creativity, natural expression coaching and posing will result in the first class professionally shot and retouched digital images that you’ll be proud to use while driving results for your brand and marketing initiatives.
WHERE TO SHOOT AT YOUR LOCATION?
Picking the right place at your site or office for us to shoot in is one of the most important decisions to make as it could affect conference room schedules or people working in the same area. An empty room or conference room, your reception area or even a large hallway could all work and I’m always available to help with walk throughs and weighing up the pros and cons of each spot.
PHOTOGRAPHERS BUSINESS INSURANCE
An often overlooked question “do you carry business insurance for photographers?” We all know the importance of being insured to cover any unforeseen incidents etc.
At Cottrell Photographers we carry $2M of Business Liability insurance to cover damage, medical and injury to clients, their staff or their premises. A copy of our Certificate of Coverage is available upon request.
While we have never had to utilize the insurance it should be comforting to know we have it.
PHOTO SESSION DATE
We recommend scheduling your executive headshot photography at least a week in advance to allow staff members to get haircuts, outfits and their schedules organized to accommodate the photo day.
EMPLOYEES & SCHEDULING
Scheduling employees for team headshots needn’t be a challenge! We have an easy to use online system where a link is sent out to each employee and they book themselves in for their new professional headshots. Once booked in they’ll get a confirmation email and a couple of reminder emails leading up to their self selected time slot on your group headshot days.
A spreadsheet type list with time spots for each person could be used, but is not as straightforward or efficient as our online team headshot booking system.
Once everyone has booked their team headshot in our system we’ll forward the organizer a copy of the roster for the day.
AMOUNT OF TIME NEEDED
We see an average of around 5-8 minutes per person. However if there’s more than one look, say business casual and a business formal look, you need to adjust the amount of time needed accordingly. Additionally, if you are planning professional headshots at your annual leadership conference, you may need to plan around the presentations. In either scenario I’m always available to help with scheduling an adequate amount of time while working with your event itinerary.
HEADSHOT PHOTO SELECTIONS
By photographing connected to the computer you’re be able to see your photos popping up in real-time! After each team members photo session they’ll be able to select the photos they love, we’ll note which ones they would like retouched. The selection can be made by the employee, marketing, HR or if you’re super busy we can help by selecting for you or with you.
WHAT TO WEAR AND BRAND COLORS
We will provide resources to help you choose what to wear. I feel adhering to the company look, colors – it’s brand – is important, we can provide color palettes that will help determine which colors will work best with your existing brand.
Depending on your business and industry you may be considering a business formal look or something more casual. Whichever way you go I’m here to help advise on the best way to get the look you want while keeping you on-brand!
Bottom line with wardrobe choice is be comfortable, so you feel relaxed! Wear outfits that are familiar to you, ones you love and would like to see in your photos.
I always advise wearing long sleeves, they will look better in the finished photos. Avoid loud patterns and colors that might clash with the team member or brand.
HAIR AND MAKEUP
I recommend hiring a makeup artist to help both female and male employees look their best on photo day! I’ve worked with some of the best local salons and independent hair and makeup artists in the Jacksonville and beyond area. I, like my clients, feel it’s worth the little extra investment to look and feel great on the day.
If makeup and hair services are not in your budget, no worries as I can help with makeup and hair suggestions prior to the photo shoots.
Additionally, I can provide a mirror, lint roller and blotters etc to help everyone on the day.
BACKDROPS AND YOUR BRAND
One of the most important considerations is the backdrop. We have a large selection of contemporary backdrops that work with our mobile system, plus we can bring more traditional looking backdrops for your use.
Office windows, walls or distinct features of your workspace are also possibilities that can be used. We advise discussing backdrops and the look with us well before photo day.
PHOTO RETOUCHING – THE PROCESS
We retouch, (often called editing) all of our work in-house. Using the latest software applications and professional retouching techniques we can enhance your photos by:
Adjusting color, contrast and exposure. Eye and teeth brightening or whitening, hair/fly away removal, skin softening, blemish removal. Even up skin tones across face and redness removal and more. If needed face/body shaping, contouring and more.
BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS
Every entity has different needs and priorities which will impact the cost of a photo session. Having as much detail as possible upfront will enable us to create a custom proposal that is accurate and flexible and keeps everyone on the same page to avoid any surprises down the road. For smaller companies it’s often more cost effective to come in to our studio, but for the majority of organizations on-location makes most sense.
We include in the cost of a photo session a pre photo session consultation, a walk through, travel expenses, insurance costs, retouching costs, assistants and any other miscellaneous items that might be needed to fulfill the clients RFP.
We can work with you to create a bespoke corporate headshot photo session that keeps your marketing objectives, project brief and costs in mind. Corporate headshots usually have a 2-3 year life, so it’s important to create on brand, contemporary looking high-resolution images that will stand the test of time.
NEXT STEPS
Now you have an excellent idea of how to get started and plan your group headshot photo session. The next step would be to contact us to set up a time to discuss your project requirements or fill out the “Get a Quote” form. Once we have details like, number of staff member to be photographed, number of looks, brand considerations etc. we can then create and send over a detailed proposal to you.
