How to Organise Team Headshots for Your London Office (And Why the Person You’re Most Nervous About Will Probably Be Fine)

It happens very frequently that when booking for a whole office shoot there is one person that everyone knows is going to be very particular, or straight up doesn’t want to get their photo taken.

If you’re reading this then it’s either because you’re looking for the logistics of organising team headshots (more info below) or you want some reassurance that all areas are covered for a disaster free day.

If there is one person that you’re nervous about, usually someone senior that you’d really rather not disappoint, then you are not alone. This is one of the first things that anyone organising the shoot will say to me on the day, “so and so is very particular about their photos”, “this person was very reluctant to agree to this, so they may be a bit tricky”.

The good news, and I mean this genuinely: it’s never been a problem. Often, if someone is building something up as being bad in their head, then when the shoot is either good, okay or even just neutral, then by comparison you’ve had a winner. They’ll leave with a sense of relief and maybe even a little skip in their step.

I’ll cover this more down the page, but for now, the more practical stuff.

The space

Most offices have somewhere that works for a temporary studio – this can be a boardroom, a meeting room, or even just a quiet corner. However, if you’re looking to elevate your photos it’s absolutely possible to book a space nearby that has the right look for you.

For standard headshots, most meeting rooms are fine, however there are some minimum requirements for the size of the space. 4m x 4m is a good size and anything larger than that is ideal. If you’re after ¾ length shots ( from the thigh upwards) or full length then more space is better.

If the only available space is tight, that’s not necessarily a problem - just worth knowing in advance so I can plan around it.

The lighting

Natural light looks great, but can create inconsistency across a full day of headshots as the sun moves across the sky, goes in and out of clouds, or ducks behind a building at a certain time of the day.

I bring my own lighting to every shoot, which means I can work in almost any room and get consistent results. If the only available space has a large window and you’d like to use natural light - we can absolutely do that, but it’s worth understanding that the photos will have some variation across the day. I tend to prefer natural light where available, but there are practical considerations that we can go through when planning things.

Best case is a room where I can control the light. Blackout blinds, or a north-facing room with no direct sun, is ideal. If you’re not sure, a photo of the space sent over before the day is always useful.

Fewer people in the room is better

The ideal setup for getting the best and most natural headshot is just me and the person being photographed. People relax much faster when they’re not performing for anyone, or having to think about how they want their colleagues to see them.

Think about the difference between dancing around your kitchen whilst cooking with your partner/close friend, versus how you’d dance in front of a room full of your colleagues.

In practice there’s often one other person in the room - the person coordinating the day, or an assistant. That’s completely fine, but if the whole team is planning to hang around and watch each other’s turns, it’s worth gently discouraging that (I’m happy to be the one to enforce this if it saves you the headache).

The schedule may change on the day

It frequently does. Someone has a call that ran over, someone else forgot they had a client lunch, and increasingly so with the number of people that work from home.

I’d rather know about potential schedule clashes in advance, so we can plan around this, but these things do happen, so don’t panic if that is the case. There are options if not everyone can make it, or there are hiccups on the day.

If a shoot is large enough or people’s schedules are just too complex that fitting everyone into one day isn’t realistic, splitting across multiple smaller shoots (often one larger shoot with the majority of people and one smaller shoot with the stragglers) can alleviate some of the difficulties. And for anyone who genuinely couldn’t make it, new starters, I can come back for a short top-up session rather than leaving anyone out of the team page indefinitely.

Site visits

For larger shoots, or anything involving environmental portraits - where the office itself is part of the photo rather than just a neutral backdrop - I’ll often offer to come and see the space beforehand.

This is partly practical: I want to know the room, the light, any background objects/colours to consider. But it’s also because the best locations in an office aren’t always necessarily the obvious ones. We can have a quick walk around the space together and see what will work best for your specific needs.

There’s frequently some changes that are made, or even just extra options added to the shoot (it doesn’t all have to be in one corner of the office). When I do these site visits they often allow us to plan for and give a little something extra to the photos, which would otherwise be more tricky to adjust for on the day.

If you’ve got a vision for how you’d like the photos to look - more environmental, more branded, and specific to your space - a site visit is the best way to know how best to achieve this before the day itself.

The person you’re nervous about

Here’s what I’ve noticed after enough of these shoots: the people who get flagged in advance as ‘difficult’ or ‘particular’ are almost never actually difficult. It’s usually someone more senior who is particular about how they want their photos to look and states this very clearly. In a lot of ways that’s my dream client.

On the other side, there are people who simply hate getting their photo taken.

As much as my job is about the practical parts, thinking about lighting and composition, editing etc, the largest chunk of what I do and the skill set that I work on is helping people get comfortable in front of the camera.

90% of a good photo is created by knowing how to make someone comfortable in front of the camera, which is what you’re actually buying when you hire a headshot photographer.

The ones you’re most nervous about tend to leave the most satisfied. This is often because they’ve worked this up in their head so much that anything short of an absolute disaster would be a success. So, them actually getting some photos that they like is a major win.

If you’re in the early stages of planning

The earlier we talk the better - not just to get something in the diary, but because things you may think will be really simple, may be more complex and things that you’re worried about may be very simple.

If you're thinking about how to organise team headshots for your London office and want to talk through the logistics, get in touch.