How to Plan Corporate Headshots for Your Team: 8 Decisions That Make the Whole Page Match

A team page is judged as one image. A visitor scrolls past twenty faces in a second or two and reads the grid before reading a single name.

When those photos come from twenty different places, the grid shows it. One person stands against a white wall. Another has been cropped out of a wedding photo. Someone else is lit by a laptop screen. The company looks assembled, not built.

Corporate headshots fix that when they’re planned as one job. Taking the photos is the short part. Most of what determines the result happens before I unload the car, from booking the room to sending the team one clear note.

Here are the eight decisions, in the order an office manager should make them.

Set the frame before you set the date

1. One backdrop, one light, one crop

Every person stands in the same spot against the same backdrop, under the same light and cropped at the same height.

Why it matters: matching is the product. It makes a grid of strangers read as one company.

The mistake: offering people a choice. Two backdrop colors may sound generous, but they split the team page down the middle. Pick one look for the team. Save the variety for the leadership page.

2. The real headcount, including who will be out

Count everyone who belongs on the website. Then mark who is traveling, on leave or starting next month.

Why it matters: per-person pricing depends on the headcount. Anyone who misses the day will still need a matching photo.

The mistake: rescheduling the whole team around two calendars. Photograph the people who are there. The rest can book a short session later with the same setup, and nobody can tell which photos came second.

Plan the room and the hours

3. A room with ten by twelve feet of floor

Use a conference room or training room. A corner of the lobby can work too. You need clear floor and one power outlet.

Why it matters: ten by twelve feet gives me room for the backdrop and two lights, plus enough shooting distance to avoid distortion.

The mistake: choosing the room with the best window. I bring the light. A glass wall mostly gives me reflections to manage, so I’d take the quiet room at the end of the hall.

4. A window of hours, not a schedule

Pick a block of time and let people stop by whenever they're free. Each turn takes five minutes or so, so it fits between two meetings.

Why it matters: nobody rearranges their day around a photo. The setup stays up, people wander in, and the ones who are nervous get to watch a colleague go first.

The mistake: building a minute-by-minute timetable. Meetings run over, slots get missed, and the office manager spends the morning chasing people. Post the hours, send one reminder, and let the room do the rest.

Brief the team once

5. A wardrobe note that sets one dress level

Ask for solid colors and no logos. People should dress the way they want to appear on the company website. Then settle the formality in one line: jackets or no jackets.

Why it matters: color is forgiving. Formality isn’t. One blazer in a row of T-shirts is the first thing people notice.

The mistake: sending no note and asking people to guess. Their guesses never agree.

6. The group photo, planned before lunch

Decide where and when the group photo will happen. The end of the session usually works best because everyone is still in the building.

Why it matters: this is the easiest frame to forget and the hardest to recreate. Getting twenty people into one room twice is its own project.

The mistake: leaving it until the afternoon. By then, half the team is in meetings.

Decide what happens after the shoot

7. Who picks the finals

Each person can receive a proof gallery and choose two favorites. Or one point of contact can choose for everyone.

Why it matters: people are particular about their own faces. Letting them choose can stop a reshoot request before it starts.

The mistake: splitting the difference. Choose one approach and put it in the wardrobe note, so nobody waits for a decision that someone else believes is theirs.

8. How next year’s hire will match

Write the setup down: which backdrop, where the lights stood, how tight the crop was.

Why it matters: a team page is never finished. Someone will join in March, and their photo should look as though it came from the same session.

The mistake: treating the shoot as a one-off. Six months later, a new hire sends a phone photo taken against a kitchen cabinet. And the grid starts coming apart.

The shoot is the easy part

I’ve been photographing people for twenty-six years. The team days that run smoothly have the groundwork done before I arrive: the room is booked and everyone has read one short note.

If your office is on the SF Peninsula and your team page needs to match, book a corporate headshot day. I bring the backdrop and lights to your office. The per-person price is on the page, and booking is online.

The camera takes five minutes a person. The planning is what makes the page.