Professional Portraits for your Office. The “Do’s & Don'ts” Guide.

There are tons of ways to do this for your office and in this post I am going to cover some ways that will make your job easier and cause you fewer future headaches.

Employee portraits are very common these days as a lot of companies are trying to subconsciously break barriers with potential clients. With portraits on their websites and social media pages companies get to showcase exactly who potential clients may be doing business with and that will make clients feel more at home. So when you want to present your company to the world there are a few details to consider that can make it look better, last longer and feel more cohesive. Let’s get started!

Having a vision or idea for how the imagery should look:

-Corporate Structure. It’s perfectly okay to have different styles of imagery based on positions and company hierarchy. For example your VP of Operations may have a more upscale portrait than your customer service agent. It’s also okay for them to have the same type of image but the prior concept will make your presentation look more dynamic and thought out when someone is scrolling through your site.

-Lighting can say a lot! There are tons of options at your disposal for the overall feel of your imagery and depending on what type of company you are, your corporate culture and how you want to be perceived by current and potential clients should all be weighed when making the decision on a “look”. Are you a more traditional company or are you a start up trying to appeal to a younger audience? Are you a financial institution, in a blue collar industry or perhaps you own a tattoo parlor? Who and what you are should be considered when deciding what the finished image should look like.

-What is this being used for? What we want to consider here is the purpose of the images because that sets some parameters on how they are shot as well as how people are posed. Are these images strictly for the website? Decide on a format ( most will choose portrait over landscape for traditional headshots) and then figure out if you need or want conformity. You can have everyone facing the same way or you can even mix it up but ‘caveat lectur’ my friends…. ‘reader beware’ you will need to think this part through. If you want to or allow your employees to use these images for social media profiles, customer service chats or one of many options you will want to make sure they are facing the right way. AGAIN, you will want to make sure that they are facing the right way in photos. What do I mean? Most but not all social media platforms put the profile picture on the left. Business cards are a mix of left and right. Customer service chat can be top, right and left. Print materials can be just about anywhere…. So here is what we should go by. Always try to plan and arrange it so that your subject’s body is facing in the direction of what is being conveyed. In other words do not put your subject’s back to what you are advertising or presenting. In some ad pages you can literally see people from one ad drawing attention with their body language to someone else’s ad. Funny…. but not funny at all right?

Choosing the right photographer: This is key to the success and future of your office photos! It’s okay to interview people and make sure you have confidence in what they can do.

-Availability I have heard a lot of stories of a photographer coming into an office and making a lot of money for the initial project to photograph everyone but when new employees come or the few that could not make the initial shoot day are now ready the photographer cannot be reached or bothered to come back. That my friends is how we lose our consistency in our imagery. Every photographer has their own style so now that staff page on your website that looked so uniform and gorgeous is a hodgepodge of different photo styles with some standing out more than others. When you choose your photographer make sure that you have confidence in them to come back on a regular basis. Now to be fair, we come with a ton of gear so coming for 1 or 2 people that need photos is a lot to ask but it can be done! As the client you just need to realize that it may cost more for those sessions than the ones that had a full day schedule.

-Will they come to you? Each and every photographer works differently. Some will come to your office and to shoot and some may not. When you hire one that is willing to drag their gear to your location be sure to do a few things for them:

-Make sure someone is there to open up. For a full day shoot we generally start pretty early with setting up so if the first appointment is at 8am someone may need to be there by 6:30am to open the door and show the photographer to their shoot location.

-Choose an appropriate space. This should be a conversation you have prior to shoot day and each photographer may have different requirements. Just remember there is a lot to set up and it will take a good amount of space to create a dynamic image. You will also want to pick a space that is out of the way with very little traffic so power cords aren’t being tripped over or subjects aren’t feeling uncomfortable due to on lookers.

-Have the shoot location clear. Remove chairs and tables but also be sure to ask the photographer if they would like a table and chair(s) to remain for their computer and editing with clients.

-***Bonus points*** Set up a small table with refreshments (water, soda, chips) for your photographer and employees. In general most people don’t love being photographed so go the extra step to make them feel welcome, comfortable and on their way to having fun. With the right photographer this can feel more like a party than a flashing torture chamber.

-Consistency One way to give yourself the best chance of building a working relationship with photographer is to find someone within 1-2 hours of your location that you like. When you select someone coming from 3 states away chances are they are not going to be that interested in traveling to you for the 1 or 2 new people that need a shot…. not even for an increased rate. If you are in a situation that is 100% a one time only shoot you can get your photographer from anywhere but outside of that you’ll want to look for one in your relative immediate area.

-Skill-set This of course will depend on your budget but hiring the best photographer you can afford will save you some money in the long run. A great photographer can look at his portrait subject and analyze their facial features for the best angle to shoot from. A great photographer can get the shot within 10 clicks if the subject needs no coaxing to bring out a good smile. The same will go for sitting down and editing an image with the subject. From shoot start to final image an efficient photographer can take as little as a half hour. That’s a fully edited image in 30 minutes. That translates to 30 minute sessions and a lunch break for the day. On the flip side if a novice photographer needs 1 hour sessions for the same result because it took 30 clicks to get “the shot” and 40 minutes to edit the image… well you just turned a 1 day shoot into 2 days and possibly gave up the room you needed for an additional shoot day. Example: Photographer “A” Is charging $1,500 for a one day shoot and Photographer “B” is charging about the same amount for a 2 day shoot. Or even if photographer “B” charges a little less the cost of using the space and having each subject not doing their actual job for a longer period of time ultimately costs you more. Hire the best your budget can afford and it will pay off in many ways. Now, let’s talk about pay…

Who’s paying?… we have options? Depending on the type of business you have and the type of photographer you can find you’ve actually got some options!

-Do you have employees or contractors? This is a key question! In my experience the office sets up the shoot dates 99% of the time. Some offices have a mix of office staff as well as contractors (1099’s). A real estate office would be a perfect example of this because the agents use the images for their advertising (business cards, yard signs, social media profiles…. the list goes on) and the office itself wants the website to look professional and as uniform as possible. In my experience the agents (contractors) usually pay for themselves and then that image belongs to them to use any way they see fit. The office will usually cover the office staff itself but there are lots of different scenarios that can be played out. The takeaway is to know and discuss this up front so everyone is on the same page. Confident photographers with lots of experience will work out a plan so that everyone gets what they need so there is no risk to setting up that photo session because they know statistically you are going to love what they do and the contractors will purchase the rights to use the imagery.

Where’s the party?

-Spread the word and have fun with your photographer! Every time I am in an office shooting by lunch time (if not before) there is a buzz about the “magic man” taking pictures. This should be a fun day for everyone involved and by the end of it the people that didn’t sign up yet are usually scrambling trying to get themselves on the schedule. If you are not getting this vibe please scroll up and revisit “Choosing the right photographer”.

The Group Shot dilemma:

-It’s a fast food world and the specials change weekly! That is to say… in some work places the “team” can change pretty quickly and before you know it that team picture is outdated because of 8 original subjects only 3 remain. So what do we do about that? Repeat after me, “Extraction” ….. now you say it. “____________”! Extraction is your friend. It may cost a little more up front but in the long run it is going to save you some headaches I promise. What I am suggesting is this process: 1. Plan how you want the shot to look and capture it with your cell phone to show your photographer. 2. On shoot day show the group picture on your cellphone to the photographer and then email it to them. 3. Let your photographer shoot each person individually and then build the image in post production. A good photographer already knows exactly what to do and not do with the lighting and poses. Now, the next time someone is added or removed from your team all you have to do is have that one person photographed on the next scheduled shoot day and have them added to the layered PNG image your photographer already has….. because guess what?! You’ve followed all the steps and advice above and you have a photographer you can depend on to come back! You’re doing great!!! Another benefit of doing this is each subject will be lit better in the photo AND it looks much more comfortable because 10 people aren’t trying to squeeze onto set together. Okay…. let’s say it together one last time….. “extraction!”.

Learn more about extraction here>>

Let’s do it again!

If you are worried about a photographer’s availability try to make things easier. Before they leave your office think about setting up the next shoot day. It could be in a month or in 6 months. That also helps you when all those people start emailing you because they swear the didn’t see the 10 emails you sent before this picture day asking them to sign up for a slot. Now you can just say ‘okay, no problem, they will be doing it again on * insert date here * and here is the link to sign up’. Your’e laughing but you know this is going to happen and when it does I want you to come back here and tell me all about it!

I’m going to spell out this “don’t” so it is crystal clear.

In all seriousness, this is your corporate image we are talking about. Whatever you do… do not tell your people to just go and get portraits done on their own and then send a copy in. Well I mean… you could do this…. if you want that ‘about us’ page to look like Godzilla spit his flaming green puke all over it…. I mean go for it!… everybody has a their thing I guess. If by chance it is not your thing and you just can’t work it into the budget you can still have fun and get it done. Just pick a concept and look that is fitting. Find a cool place in the office and then find the person with the best camera on their phone. Have them do all of the pictures (all from the same phone) and try not to make them look like they were done by a pro. Instead indulge that smart phone and have some fun creating a style that can be used for everyone’s picture.

Let’s Review:

Dream a little, plan, search, interview, discuss, communicate , advertise, HAVE FUN and….. repeat. It’s not meant to be hard and if you do it right you will earn rock star status amongst your peers!

Good luck everyone! You’ve got this!

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Learn more about how Ex Voto Studio can work in your office>>