Headshots are an essential part of your professional image, whether for internal staff directories, LinkedIn profiles, or marketing materials. When planning a corporate headshot photoshoot, efficiency and preparation are key to ensuring smooth operations while delivering high-quality images that represent your brand well. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to prepare for a corporate headshot session, whether you’re organizing it for a large company or a small team, and offer tips on how to get the best results from each person within a short amount of time.

1. Set Clear Expectations: Time is Limited

Corporate headshots often need to be done in a tight window, especially if you’re working with a large team. While some people are comfortable having their photo taken quickly, others might need more time to feel at ease in front of the camera.

If you want to keep things moving efficiently, it’s important to set a strict time limit upfront. Ideally, 5 minutes per person should be enough for a headshot session, but you may encounter individuals who are more particular and request more shots, want to review them on the spot, or even come back for retakes. This can slow down the process.

A practical solution is to have someone from your team managing the flow, ensuring everyone knows they only have a 5-minute slot and guiding them through the process. However, if time allows, budgeting 15 minutes per person can be safer to avoid delays. For larger teams, keeping things on schedule might be a challenge, but clear communication and team coordination can make all the difference.

2. Pre-Session Preparation: What to Bring

For the best results, preparation begins long before the day of the shoot. Advise participants to bring their outfits rather than wear them to the office. Wearing clothes all day can lead to wrinkles, which are challenging to fix later. Although Photoshop can correct many imperfections, it’s always better to get things right in the camera. Having everyone change into their outfits before their turn ensures fresh, wrinkle-free looks.

3. Grooming Essentials: Look Polished on Camera

To ensure each participant looks their best, it’s wise to have grooming tools on hand, such as:

Mirror: Essential for last-minute checks.
Comb or brush: Hair can easily become messy during the workday, so offering a quick touch-up tool can help.
Hairspray: For anyone with flyaways or unruly hair.
Lint roller: Particularly important if people are wearing dark clothes to remove dust, hair, or lint.
Makeup wipes or powder: Useful for reducing shine on oily skin, especially under bright lighting.
It’s a good idea to have someone check each participant before they step in front of the camera. This will save time during the session by preventing back-and-forth adjustments.

4. Wardrobe Guidelines: Keep It Simple and Professional

To avoid a chaotic, mismatched look in the final headshots, provide participants with wardrobe guidelines ahead of time. A cohesive look is essential, particularly if the photos will be used on the same website or within the same marketing materials.

Here are some general wardrobe tips:

Avoid bright colors and loud patterns. Stick to neutral tones or solid colors, as they are less distracting and more professional.
Layered outfits work well. A well-fitted blazer or jacket over a shirt or blouse adds depth to the shot without being overwhelming.
Jewelry should be minimal. Large, flashy accessories can distract from the person’s face, which is the focus of a headshot.
Ensure clothing is well-pressed. Wrinkles and creases are hard to ignore in headshots, so a fresh outfit will always look better.
By setting a color scheme or recommending a specific style (like business casual), you ensure that the headshots look uniform, polished, and professional.

5. The Flow of the Shoot: Keep Things Moving

As mentioned earlier, keeping the session moving is crucial. Having a team member to manage the flow of participants will help. Here’s how to make it smooth:

Create a sign-up sheet: Each person should know their time slot, so they can arrive prepared. This also prevents bottlenecks and ensures that people aren’t waiting around unnecessarily.
Set up a waiting area: While one person is being photographed, the next should be ready to step in. This minimizes downtime between shots.
Review on a monitor: For larger shoots, consider setting up a monitor where participants can quickly review their photos and choose one they like. This minimizes back-and-forth requests to reshoot and gives the subject peace of mind.

6. Pose Coaching: Help Everyone Feel Confident

For many people, being in front of the camera can be uncomfortable. You don’t want this to show in the final headshots. That’s why a little coaching can go a long way. Simple tips like asking them to roll their shoulders back, sit up straight, or tilt their chin slightly can transform an image.

Encourage participants to relax their faces and breathe deeply if they feel tense. A genuine smile or a confident, neutral expression will always look better than a stiff, awkward one.

Here are some simple posing suggestions to ensure they look their best:

Keep the shoulders relaxed. Tension in the shoulders is often noticeable in headshots, so remind participants to let go of any stiffness.
Chin slightly forward. This prevents the dreaded double chin and creates a more flattering angle.
Gentle smile or neutral expression. Depending on the look they’re going for, a slight smile can make a huge difference in creating a warm, approachable headshot.

7. Lighting and Background Setup: Keep It Clean and Consistent

The technical setup for corporate headshots is just as important as preparing the subjects. While you’ll handle most of this, it’s important to set expectations for your clients.

A clean, neutral background works best for corporate headshots—think light gray, white, or beige. These colors ensure that the focus remains on the individual, not the setting. Avoid busy or cluttered backgrounds that could detract from the person in the photo.

Lighting is crucial, too. Even lighting across the face eliminates harsh shadows and creates a professional, polished look. A three-point lighting setup with a key light, fill light, and backlight will ensure everyone looks their best.

8. Post-Production: Getting the Best Results

While a lot of the work happens during the photoshoot itself, post-production is where you can perfect the image. Light retouching to remove stray hairs, blemishes, or wrinkles in clothing is standard. However, heavy editing is not advisable for corporate headshots. The goal is for the individual to look like themselves—just the best version of themselves.

Here are some standard post-production tasks for corporate headshots:

Color correction. Ensure the skin tones look natural and the lighting is balanced.
Light retouching. Remove temporary blemishes or smooth minor imperfections, but avoid altering the person’s appearance.
Cropping and resizing. Each headshot should be cropped consistently and sized appropriately for the intended use (e.g., website profiles, LinkedIn, etc.).

9. Communication is Key

Throughout the process, clear communication is essential. Before the day of the shoot, provide participants with information on what to expect, what to wear, and how long it will take. This ensures that no one is surprised on the day and that everyone is prepared, saving valuable time.

Consider sending out an email a week before the shoot, outlining the wardrobe guidelines, tips for grooming, and any other relevant details. This gives everyone ample time to prepare.

Additionally, it’s helpful to let the team know that retakes or extra photos should be minimized due to time constraints. By setting expectations upfront, you’ll avoid delays and keep the session moving smoothly.

10. Final Thoughts: Efficiency and Professionalism

A corporate headshot photoshoot requires careful planning, but by setting expectations, preparing participants in advance, and managing the flow on the day of the shoot, you can complete it smoothly and efficiently. With the right preparation, your subjects will look professional and polished, and the headshots will reflect well on both the individual and the company.

Whether you’re shooting a team of 5 or 50, following these guidelines ensures that the process is stress-free and delivers fantastic results for everyone involved. Remember, the goal is to make everyone feel confident and comfortable while maintaining efficiency—a balance that can be achieved with the right approach.

In conclusion, proper preparation and communication can turn what might feel like a daunting task into a well-organized, streamlined process that yields impressive, high-quality corporate headshots.