Corporate Headshot Photographer London

Corporate headshot photographs look simple and straightforward but can be deceptively hard to get right. Our business headshot photographers will visit your London offices and ensure that the shots will be properly framed, appropriately lit and uniformly presented if we are photographing more than one person.

As the ‘bread and butter’ of corporate photography these images serve multiple purposes. Therefore, it’s essential they are strong enough to be used again and again. We can take the business headshots against specified backdrops or use Photoshop to insert different backgrounds and remove minor imperfections.

Once our lighting and backgrounds are in place, our headshot photographers can quickly take executive photographs of staff members in a single photographic session. Many of our corporate clients use our headshots for their social media profiles. Our photographers are experienced and good at putting clients at their ease during photoshoots.

A studio in your office for business headshot photography

Achieving clear, consistent staff business headshots when taken in a client’s office and not in a photographic studio needs specialist portable equipment.
LinkedIn Headshot Photographer London for TPICAP
LinkedIn Headshot Photography for TPICAP London

LinkedIn Headshot Photography for TPICAP London

Headshot Photograph with Grey Background in London for Galliford Try
Corporate Headshot Photograph for Galliford Try

Corporate Headshot Photograph for Galliford Try

“Douglas has a special knack for getting around nervous people who are adamant they’re not photogenic. He has a natural talent for capturing people’s personalities and helping them relax in front of the camera.”
– Marketing and advertising client

When on location, we will bring to the photoshoot our own compact studio system; this allows us to get the best possible lighting. Leaving the headshot photographer free to concentrate on achieving required poses and expressions, so they look strong across a company’s team profile page.

Corporate headshot photography lighting

Our favoured corporate photography lighting solution is the Elinchrom Octa Softbox, which casts a large, soft and very even light across the subject. It produces results that tend to flatter and please even the most camera shy people.

Another essential piece of equipment is the Elinchrom battery flash – which is the perfect partner to the Softbox. From a single charge, the flash can be fired hundreds of times in a long photoshoot, but will remain remarkably consistent in terms of its colour and power output. It seems a small matter but it makes a major difference when displaying a large number of different business headshot photographs on the same page.

Pop up backdrop

And our last piece of vital kit in the compact studio system is our humble pop up backdrop. We use grey or white when clients require a neutral background, or to make postproduction easier when creating cutout headshots when backgrounds are to be replaced after the photoshoot.

Leica and MacBookPro Ready For Fast Turnaround of Business Headshots
MacBookPro Ready For Fast Turnaround

Leica and MacBookPro Ready For Fast Turnaround of Business Headshots

Heashot photographer London studio setup in client office with portable backdrop and lighting
Portable Studio Setup in London Office for Headshot Photography

Portable Studio Setup in London Office for Headshot Photography

“Piranha is great to work with – quality outputs, always delivered on time and enjoyable to work alongside.”
– Private Equity client

LinkedIn Headshots

In the era of personal branding, during corporate portrait photoshoots we are increasingly being asked to take additional shots for individuals to use on their personal LinkedIn accounts.

While these will be produced to the same professional standard as images created for company websites, annual reports and other communication and marketing materials, LinkedIn photographs typically have a more relaxed style, one that conveys approachability and human connection as well as professionalism.

Changes of Clothes and Locations

We recommend that during a photoshoot, subjects bring a change of jacket, shirt, or top that reflects their personal taste and character if they need a LinkedIn headshot. To differentiate from their corporate headshot, we will suggest different poses, including broader smiles for the LinkedIn images.

However, LinkedIn headshots, as with corporate portraits, must retain authenticity that enables the subjects to look credible and approachable. If time allows during a corporate photoshoot, we may suggest a change of setting, such as moving outdoors, if the light and weather permit.

Corporate headshot photography FAQs

Hold the photoshoot in a large room if possible and without bulky furniture. This provides sufficient space for the business headshot photographer to set up lights and backdrop ready for the subjects to be photographed. Most London offices will have rooms that provide sufficient space for effective corporate headshots.

If possible, email a few photographs of the room to the photographer in advance of the corporate photoshoot so that the photographer can assess the décor, natural lighting, windows and furniture. Ideally, consider making time for the photographer to recce the venue ahead of the photoshoot. This will save time on the day deciding on best angles, siting of lighting equipment and backdrops.

Grey Background Headshot Photograph

Grey Background Headshot Photograph

Grey Background Headshot Photograph

“Douglas is great to work with, everyone who had their headshots taken enjoyed the experience and was happy with their images. He also listened to our direction on the photography and fulfilled the vision perfectly.”
– London client

If the photographs are going to be used against a plain colour in the future, then it is important to think about whether this will be white, grey or black. The business headshot photographer will bring the correct coloured backdrop with them to the photoshoot. If a designer is working with the company on the website design they may have a view on the colour of the backdrop.

Once the backdrop colour has been selected and approved, then the colour and lighting can be discussed with other photographers commissioned to take business headshots of directors and staff in sister offices across the world. For international corporations, this ensures all headshot photographs have a standard, branded look and feel, making them ideal for the company’s website, marketing literature and other promotional materials.

The amount of time required for the photoshoot will depend on the number of people to be photographed on the day and their schedules. Time should be allowed when the headshot photographer arrives for them to set up all the equipment and take test shots. Allow around 15 minutes per person for the headshots to be taken.

An agreed schedule circulated in advance to all the people having their corporate headshots taken and to the professional photographer will aid the smooth running of the day and maximise time efficiency.

Would a makeup artist be useful on the day? A makeup artist can help straighten hair, clothing and ties as well as makeup as requested. Piranha Photography can arrange a suitable makeup artist for a corporate photoshoot if required.

Some companies like a selection of many photographs of each person from which they can choose after the photoshoot. Other businesses ask for the people being photographed to choose one photograph each.

Piranha will set up a laptop so that the corporate headshots can be viewed immediately and selected. This can help the marketing department as they won’t need to seek approval after the photoshoot from each person photographed at a later date.

Piranha provides and hosts a website of the photography from the day. We do this to save clients’ time, allowing images to be selected quickly, then circulated to designers, marketing department as well as colleagues photographed for their approval.

All Piranha Photography’s corporate headshots are taken on top of the range cameras as RAW files. After the photoshoot has been completed these files are hand processed through specialist photographic software so that colour, contrast and other details can be fine-tuned, and blemishes removed before supplying clients with jpeg files of the correct size for their project.

The final images can be supplied as either colour or black and white depending on the design.

Headshot Cutout on New Background

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Headshot Cutout on New Background

“I had the pleasure of collaborating with Douglas on our corporate photography project, and I can confidently say that his skills as a photographer are unparalleled. Douglas has an exceptional eye for capturing the essence of individuals, whether it’s through company portraits, headshots, or board photography. His professionalism, attention to detail and speed of delivery ensure that the project is executed flawlessly, delivering high-quality images that exceed my expectations. Beyond his technical expertise, Douglas’s ability to understand and connect with my colleagues sets him apart in his field. If you’re looking for a talented corporate photographer who delivers outstanding results, I highly recommend Douglas.”

– Corporate client

For quite a few companies the corporate headshots taken against a simple backdrop provide the basis of their final images. The selected headshots are ‘cut out’ by Piranha in Photoshop and then placed on pre-approved backgrounds which have been previously photographed around the offices. This method means that the staff can appear to be in their usual workplace settings even when on the day of the photoshoot it was not possible.

Business headshots are required for many purposes. For example, they may be used for a company’s webpage but also on the individuals’ social media accounts and on pitch documents.

Once Piranha Photography is supplied with the dimensions for any media we ensure that the pictures are cropped and resized ready to upload or print. For PR we can supply directly to newspapers high resolution jpeg files suitable for printing from. The same applies to Dropbox links for designers and/or the press to download from.

A Fairly Typical Day in the Life of Douglas Fry, Professional Corporate Photographer

“Piranha has been my corporate photographers for over 10 years, which includes videoing as well as location shoots. The team’s technical ability and knowledge is great, but equally so is their ability to work with people calmly in sometimes stressful circumstances. I recommend them thoroughly”– PR client

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