{"id":6234,"date":"2018-01-23T15:19:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/?p=6234"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:31:24","slug":"headshots-for-law-firm-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/headshots-for-law-firm-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"10 things to avoid on a corporate headshot photo shoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Top<\/a><\/p>\n

10 things to avoid on a corporate headshot photo shoot<\/h2>\n

Many years of corporate headshot photography<\/a> has taught me the dos and don\u2019ts of a corporate photo shoot and with these handy tips yours should run smoothly. Much of the success of a headshot photo shoot is down to careful planning as well as the professional photography<\/a> on the day.<\/p>\n

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    Don\u2019t book a small room for the photography<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Avoid allowing the person booking the photo shoot to take the photographer into a small pokey room. This will provide insufficient space for the headshot photographer to set up lights and backdrop ready for the subjects to be photographed and not allow enough space for the photographer and subject to move around one another keeping socially distanced during these Covid times. Most offices should have large enough room for effective corporate headshots so make sure one has been booked for the day.<\/p>\n

    If you think that the room allocated for the day might be too small ask your contact to email over to you a few photographs of the room in advance so that the photographer can assess the d\u00e9cor, natural lighting, windows and furniture. You could ask to be allowed to recce the venue ahead of the photo shoot. This will save time on the day deciding on best angles, siting of lighting equipment and backdrops.<\/p>\n

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      Don\u2019t forget a pop-up backdrop for the headshots<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If the photographs are going to be used against a plain colour in the future, then it is important to remember to use a backdrop for the photo shoot and discuss with the company in advance what colour they might like, normally – white, grey or black.<\/p>\n

      You might want to suggest a conversation with the designer who is working on the website design as they may have a view on the colour of the backdrop.<\/p>\n

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        Not having a lighting plan, particularly with corporate headshot photography for international companies<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Once the backdrop colour has been selected and approved, then the colour and lighting<\/a> can be discussed with other photographers so don\u2019t forget to make a note of the distances and lighting set ups. That way you can share the brief with other photographers commissioned to take headshots of directors and staff in sister offices across the world.\u00a0 For international corporations, this ensures all headshot photographs have a standard, branded look and feel.<\/p>\n

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          Don\u2019t forget to prepare and share a schedule for the photography on the day with the photographer and the people to be photographed<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Not having an agreed schedule circulated to all the people having their corporate headshots taken and to the photographer in advance can lead to problems.\u00a0 If subjects don\u2019t know when they are to be photographed they may be missed on the day or arrive flustered if they were not prepared in advance for their photo slot.<\/p>\n

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            Don\u2019t forget to discuss the possibility of having a makeup\u00a0artist on the day<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Many corporate clients decide not to have a makeup artist on the day but a few find them very useful.\u00a0 If you forget to discuss and plan a makeup artist this can lead to disappointment or a rush to find one at the last minute.\u00a0 Ideally the makeup artist should have experience of corporate photo shoots and clients and definitely have the correct PPE on the day.<\/p>\n

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              Don\u2019t forget to discuss how many corporate headshot photographs are required of each person<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              It\u2019s important to know in advance how many photographs of each person from which they can choose after the photoshoot. This can range from businesses asking for 30 per person through to only choosing one photograph each.<\/p>\n

              A laptop may need to be set up and tethered so that the corporate headshots can be viewed immediately and selected. \u00a0This can help the marketing department as they won\u2019t need to seek approval after the photo shoot from each person photographed at a later date. So, don\u2019t forget to make a plan prior to the day of the photography.<\/p>\n

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                Don\u2019t forget to discuss how the pictures will be viewed after the headshot photo shoot<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Will there be a website or contact sheets to view the images?\u00a0 There will need to be a viewing method agreed so that the business can choose and, then circulated to designers, marketing department as well as colleagues photographed for their approval.<\/p>\n

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                  Don\u2019t overlook finding out the best format that the photographs should be supplied in for the required uses<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Don\u2019t forget to discuss what the ultimate uses will be for the photography.\u00a0 Only once the photographer knows this they can you decide what cropping and file sizes are, as well as if the final images can be supplied as either colour or black and white depending on the design.<\/p>\n

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                    Don\u2019t forget to discuss Post Production like Photoshop \u2018cutting out\u2019 corporate headshots to replace backgrounds<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    Don\u2019t forget to find out and plan for post-production. For example, if \u2018cutting out\u2019 and replacing backgrounds<\/a> will be required ensure subjects don\u2019t wear white against a white backdrop as this will make this more difficult.\u00a0 Also ensure the that background photographs which will be required to replace the plain background have been taken around the offices and any necessary blur applied and approved by the client.\u00a0 Avoid waiting until the day of the headshot photography to discuss this.<\/p>\n

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                      Avoid having files at incorrect file sizes<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      As corporate headshots are required for many purposes avoid files being the wrong size as this can compromise the look of the final images. For example, if an image is being used large on a website the pixel dimensions may need to be increased from a LinkedIn image\u2019s file size.<\/p>\n

                      Check if pictures are for PR and will be appearing printed in newspapers as this will always require high resolution jpeg files suitable for printing from, whereas online images will be smaller.\u00a0 You may ultimately need a range of file sizes \u2013 one for each specific use.<\/p>\n

                      \"Headshot<\/p>\n

                      Headshots for Law Firm in London<\/h4>\n

                      The above picture is of one of the lawyers at Travers Smith<\/a> in London.<\/p>\n

                      Each person had a variety of headshot photographs taken, and then these were presented as contact sheets so the everyone could choose the image they wanted to take forward.<\/p>\n

                      Once a choice had been made Piranha ‘cut out’ and replaced the background in PhotoShop so that all employees would appear on a pre-approved grey background.\u00a0 The final images were then cropped to a variety of specified sizes, these images were then sent to the client so that they could be used in the many different capacities they were needed e.g. for the website, as well as pitch documents and for internal company marketing materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                      10 things to avoid on a corporate headshot photo shoot Many years of corporate headshot photography has taught me the dos and don\u2019ts of a corporate photo shoot and with these handy tips yours should run smoothly. Much of the success of a headshot photo shoot is down to careful planning as well as the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[676,7],"tags":[29,300,525,995],"class_list":["post-6234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headshot_photography","category-law-firm-barristers-photography","tag-law-firm","tag-headshots","tag-background","tag-cutout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.piranhaphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}