How to organise a portrait shoot

The main aim of creating photos for your business is to make your people and your company have a competitive advantage over the competition and be seen as the most professional and approachable to your clients. Here are the main things to consider when booking a portrait photo shoot.

Do you need to match a previous style or would you need a refresh? (Or a bit of both)

New photos can be taken to match the existing style of the company's previous photos by matching lighting, background, etc so both old and new photos can be used side by side. Alternatively if you'd like to select a new style that aligns with your business, it can make your company and it's people be seen as experts and leaders in your field. All photos should look professional and approachable but different companies have different themes that can be enhanced by aligning the style of photos to the company's theme. Some companies suit portraits that are bright, positive, dramatic, serious, fun, clean or clinical,

You can also do a new style of photo but also another setup with the original style in the same shoot.

How many photo setups does each person need?

A portrait shoot is made up of different shot setups which could be different locations or styles. For example, a few common setups could be a grey wall mid shot, a blurred office background head and shoulders crop or a sitting shot leaning towards the camera. Each setup generally takes about 10 mins per person and results in about 10 great photos with different expressions so they can choose their favourites. So if you wanted to have 5 people photographed with 3 setups each it would take 10 mins x 3 setups x 5 people which means you could schedule 30 mins per person at a total time of 2.5 hours.

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Do some people need more photos? eg the executive team, CEO, directors, etc

For some people it's a good idea to get more photos than others that can be used for different publications, articles, profile photos or email updates in the future. That way over the next couple of years when a new photo is required it can be downloaded from the gallery and added to the publication. For these people who need extra photos it's great to schedule in more 10 min blocks of time for the amount of extra setups they need. It's also a good idea to change up a shirt, jacket or tie for different setups so they look like they've been taken on different days too.

Do you need group shots?

Do you need any group shots of different teams, founders or partners for the website, newsletters, blog posts, PR stories, etc these should be scheduled in 10 min blocks too.

Do you need stock photos? (but real stock photos)

It can be a good idea to show clients what the team looks like when they're working together in the office although it's not recommended to use generic, purchased stock photo that's obviously not your team but is a fake group of people smiling while pointing to a whiteboard. Real photos of real people can be very beneficial to show the team in a more relaxed environment while having a bit of fun. It's actually a fun part to photograph and can be great way to attract new outside talent to expand the team and to show current clients a look inside your business.