How to organize a team headshot day

01

How long it actually takes per person

Budget ten to twelve minutes per person for individual portraits with matched lighting, and fifteen to twenty if each person is getting dedicated one-to-one time. That includes them arriving, settling, being coached through a few expressions, and checking the back of the camera.

So a team of twelve is roughly a half day, and a team of thirty is a full one. The single most common planning error is booking a two-hour window for twenty people and then wondering why the last five look rushed. They were.

02

Build the schedule in slots, and overbook slightly

Put people in named time slots rather than announcing an open window. An open window produces a queue of eleven people at 9am and nobody at 11.

Group them by department or floor so nobody crosses the building twice, and leave two empty slots mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Those absorb the person who was on a call, the person who forgot, and the person who wants a second go. If nobody uses them, everyone finishes early, which has never once been a complaint.

03

What the space needs, and what it does not

I bring the lighting and the backdrop, so the room does not need to be a studio. What it does need is space: roughly ten feet by twelve as an absolute minimum, so the subject can sit far enough from the backdrop to avoid casting shadows on it.

A ceiling that is not too low helps. Windows are a bonus, not a requirement, and I will usually control them anyway. A quiet room matters more than a pretty one, because people relax faster when their colleagues are not watching.

A conference room with the table pushed aside is the standard answer and works fine. So does a lobby corner, an empty office, or outdoors if the weather is doing what it should.

• Minimum ten by twelve feet of clear floor
• A door that closes, or a corner out of the main traffic
• One power outlet within reach
• A mirror somewhere nearby for last checks
• Somewhere for people to leave bags and jackets

04

Tell people what to wear, a week ahead

The single highest-leverage thing you can do is send one short message a week before with clear wardrobe guidance. Not a policy document, three or four lines.

Aim for consistency without a uniform: same general formality, a colour family rather than an identical colour, no prominent logos. If everyone turns up in the same blue shirt the team page reads as a uniform, which strips out the individuality that makes people look approachable.

05

Decide the crop and the background before the day

Two decisions worth making in advance, because changing your mind afterwards means reshooting: how tight the crop is, and what is behind people.

Tight head-and-shoulders is the safe default for a staff directory and looks consistent at small sizes. A slightly wider crop with some environment reads warmer and suits a company that wants to look approachable rather than corporate. Black backdrop, white backdrop, or your own space are all fine, but pick one and hold it across the whole team.

06

Do not forget the group photo

If you want one, schedule it explicitly, immediately before or after the individual sessions while everyone is still in the building. Trying to reassemble thirty people at 4pm is its own small disaster.

A group photo is included in the Team + Individual package. In the standard Team Headshots package it is not, so it is worth being clear which one you have booked before the day arrives.

07

What it costs

Team pricing is per person and drops as the group grows: $175 each for 3 to 5 people, $150 for 6 to 10, and $125 for 11 or more. Everyone gets two fully retouched images, delivered in 7 to 10 business days.

The Team + Individual package adds dedicated one-to-one time for each person plus a group photo, at $225, $200 and $175 per person across the same brackets.