How to brief a corporate headshot photographer: a guide for HR managers and marketing teams
What to send, what to ask, what to expect. The brief that gets you a tighter quote, a smoother shoot day, and headshots that fit what you actually need.
If you've been asked to organise corporate headshots for a team and you've never done it before, the experience can feel disorienting. There's a lot of jargon, photographers quote in different ways, and it's hard to know whether what you're being offered is good value, or even what you actually need.
This guide is the brief I wish more clients sent before our first call. If your business is in Cape Town and you're booking corporate or team headshots, the time you spend on this brief saves you and the photographer real money, and prevents the most common mistakes.
What a good brief contains
The strongest enquiries we get are about a paragraph long. They include the following information, in any order.
Who is being photographed. Not just headcount, but who. "12 senior leadership team members" is a different shoot from "12 people across our marketing and ops teams". The first leans toward more polish per portrait. The second leans toward consistency across people. The photographer needs to know which.
What the images are for. "LinkedIn profile photos" is one use. "Annual report" is another. "About page on the website plus speaker bios for upcoming conferences" is a third. The end use shapes what we shoot. A headshot for an annual report is more formal. A headshot for an event speaker bio is more conversational. We can shoot for both in one session if you brief us, but only if we know.
Where you'd like to shoot. In our studio in Woodstock, on-site at your office, somewhere else? Each option has implications for cost, schedule, and the look of the final images. If you don't know yet, say so and we suggest based on team size and timeline.
When you need it. Not just the shoot date, but the publication date. If your annual report goes to print on the 15th of next month, we need to back-schedule from there: shoot at least two weeks before, retouching for one week, internal approvals for one week.
Anything specific to flag. Industry-specific dress codes (legal, healthcare, energy on-site), accessibility requirements, language preferences for direction, executives who are camera-shy, anyone with a specific skin condition or feature they'd like handled with care. The brief is the right time for this, not the morning of the shoot.
A brief template you can copy
If it helps, here's a template we'd be happy to receive in the inbox:
Hi Jürgen,
We're a [type of business, e.g. legal firm / renewable energy company / consulting firm] based in [Cape Town suburb]. We need corporate headshots for [number] team members for use on [LinkedIn / website / annual report / press kit]. We'd like to shoot [in your studio / at our office / both, with the execs in studio and the rest of the team on-site].
Ideal shoot date is [date or range]. Final images need to be ready by [date].
A few things to flag: [team includes one wheelchair user / our partners wear traditional dress / some team members are based in Johannesburg / we want a more relaxed feel than the previous shoot].
Could you send a quote and confirm availability?
If you sent that paragraph, I could send a quote within a working day. Most enquiries leave out two or three of those details and we end up bouncing emails back and forth.
What to ask in the quote
Once a quote arrives, four things are worth checking before you accept.
What's included per person. Most quotes specify time per person, number of retouched images, and turnaround. If any of these are missing, ask. The difference between "two retouched images per person" and "two photos per person, retouching extra" is meaningful. Get clarity in writing.
What format the files come in. "High-resolution digital files" is vague. The right answer is web-optimised JPEGs at at least two sizes, plus print-ready files at full resolution, in colour and black and white, with usage rights for business and editorial purposes. If the photographer says less than that, ask why.
What happens with people who join later. When someone joins your team after the shoot, can the photographer match the existing portrait setup, and at what rate? This matters more than people realise. The cheapest photographer at the original shoot can become the most expensive one a year later if they can't match the look. If a photographer says "we don't keep that information on file", consider whether you trust them with consistency.
What happens if you don't like a portrait. Tethered shooting (the photographer's screen showing each image as we shoot) means you should be able to approve frames in real time. If a quote doesn't include tethered shooting, ask why. If a portrait doesn't land in retouching, what's the reshoot policy? Ours is no charge if the issue is something we should have caught.
Day-of expectations
Once the shoot is booked, here's what to expect on the day, so you can brief your team accordingly.
Studio sessions. Each person arrives at their slot, has a quick wardrobe check, and is in front of the camera within 5 minutes. The actual shooting takes 10 minutes for a team session, longer for an individual session. Most people are in and out in under 20 minutes, including image selection at the screen.
On-site sessions. We arrive 45 minutes before the first slot to set up. We need a 4 by 4 metre space (a meeting room with the table pushed aside works fine), a power outlet, and a quiet area for waiting. Each person spends about 10 minutes with us. For a team of 30, plan a 4-hour window with buffer time.
The team should know. Send a short note before the shoot covering: arrive in your selected outfit, bring a backup, no fresh haircuts the day of, no major makeup changes, plan to spend 15 minutes on average. We provide a one-page wardrobe guide once the shoot is booked, which you can forward to the team verbatim.
Approval workflow
One of the underrated decisions in a corporate headshot shoot is who approves each portrait, and when. Because we shoot tethered (the photographer's screen showing each frame within a second), approvals can happen during the shoot rather than after. Three workable patterns:
The decision maker is in the room. This is ideal for senior executive portraits or any shoot where the brand bar is high. The decision maker sits next to the screen, sees each frame as we work, and signs off in real time. We leave the shoot with final selects already approved, and retouching can start the same day.
The individual being photographed decides. For larger team shoots, where individual approval is appropriate, each person reviews their own frames at the screen at the end of their slot. They pick the frame they like, walk away with confidence, and the rest of the team is not held up by approval bottlenecks.
The decision maker is remote. When a senior stakeholder can't attend in person, we set up a secure online gallery link they can access during or after the shoot. They review on their own time, approve the selects, and we move to retouching once their feedback is in. Slightly slower than in-room approval but still avoids the worst-case scenario of a long approval chain spread over weeks.
Whatever pattern you choose, agree on it before the shoot. The most common cause of delays after a corporate headshot project is a multi-layered approval chain that wasn't planned for.
Common briefing mistakes that cost money
Five mistakes I see regularly that you can avoid.
Underestimating the headcount. "About 25 people" turns into 35 by the shoot day, and now we're scheduling on the fly and stretching the day. If in doubt, brief for the higher number; we can always do fewer.
Forgetting people who can't be there. A shoot of 30 with 4 people unavailable that day means you need a way to photograph those 4 later that matches the original look. Either ask the photographer to keep your studio profile on file, or schedule a second small session within a week.
Not aligning on dress code in advance. If different team members turn up in radically different attire, the wall of headshots on your About page won't read as one team. Send a one-line dress code with the shoot calendar invite. "Smart business attire, dark colours preferred, no busy patterns" is enough. For the longer version, see What to wear for a corporate headshot on the main blog.
Asking for "natural light" portraits without realising what that requires. Natural light corporate headshots need consistent weather, predictable timing, and a controlled location. If those aren't on offer, you're better off in a studio or with portable lighting. Don't optimise for "natural" when you actually want "consistent".
Choosing a photographer purely on price. The cheapest photographer at quote stage is often the most expensive one over the lifetime of the work. Consistency across new joiners, willingness to reshoot, retouching depth, and turnaround all matter more than the initial per-head rate. Mid-market is almost always the right tier.
After the shoot
Two things worth thinking about for the post-shoot phase.
Filing and re-use. The retouched files should land in a shared drive or DAM system that the people who'll use them (web team, comms team, EAs) can access. Don't let the files sit in one person's email.
Updating profiles. A corporate headshot project produces value only when the new photos actually replace the old ones. Set a deadline (we suggest two weeks after delivery) for everyone to update their LinkedIn, email signature, and About page bio.
Where to next
If you have a brief in mind, the contact form on the corporate headshots page for individual sessions or the team headshots page for groups goes straight to my inbox. Send the paragraph above and we come back within a working day.
If you'd like to talk it through first, the Cal.com booking on the homepage takes 15 minutes and gives us both a chance to align before any quote.