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Reportage style headshots.
Here are a few examples of headshots with a reportage style which you might prefer for your company. Usually people are not looking at the camera for these shots. The advantages of this style is that they are more relaxed and natural looking and they stand out from the plain background shots. The disadvantage is that they may take longer to do. All the shots will look different (which you would need to see as an advantage).
There are a few approaches to this type of headshot. I can either wander around the office capturing people at their desks. I would keep the lighting very simple and portable, probably mixing window light with a light fired at the ceiling to clean and freshen up the lighting. People usually need to be directed a little bit with these shots – cheered and jollied up a bit, perhaps asked to chat to a colleague… Desks may need to be tidied up a bit. Backgrounds are usually blown out of focus to detract from any clutter. It’s a good idea to have a list of employees that I can tick off as I photograph them so nobody gets forgotten.
Another option would be to have one location and ask each person to come and sit in that area. You would have another member of staff (off camera) for them to chat to, to get them animated. This would mean the background would remain the same throughout.
Or I could take the shots during a meeting. Ideally it would be a meeting where you don’t mind me interrupting and directing people a little bit, otherwise there is always the danger that peoples natural expressions look too serious or even bored!
What you need to think about before the shoot:
If you decide to go ahead with this style of headshot I will be asking you:
The shape that final headshot’s need to be? Square, landscape or portrait?
How would you like people to come across to reflect well on your company? Here are some keywords you could choose from: friendly, approachable, professional, sensible, serious, caring, creative, joyful, fun….
What to wear? It’s always a good idea to think about a dress code. This of course depends on your company and how you want to come across to your customers. For men you might want to suggest or stipulate either a suit and tie, a shirt and tie, an open necked shirt or casual t-shirt / shirt or you might be happy with whatever your employees want to wear. For women it’s trickier because there is so much more choice for business wear but you could just suggest a level of smartness. Or you could try to incorporate a colour code – like pastel colours, bright colours, or neutrals.
Backgrounds: Does the office need a good tidy up before hand?
How many people do you need to be photographed? This will determine how much time I need to do the shoot and hence the costs. If you can provide me with a list of names just before the shoot it’s always helpful as I can then add people’s name’s to the images later.
In this section we will look at the simple and straightforward headshots on a plain background. This type of headshot is a favourite for many small, medium and large companies for many reasons:
In this section we will look at headshots with an office background or a city or exterior background. You can see some examples here. We can use exterior locations or we can use parts of your office or workplace, working with a combination of natural light and mobile studio lights.
From professional to playful, convey how you want your team to come across with a group photo session.
Often, a director or owner of a company needs a selection of interesting portraits to use for a variety of purposes. Often a director, or owner of a company, needs a selection of interesting portraits that can be used for a variety of purposes such as the ‘about me’ page, Linkedin and social media profiles, blogs, PR, news articles and industry magazine articles.
