Corporate office headshots are a product of planning and pulling everything together to have a large number of professional portraits taken on-site on one day. This is the best way to get headshots of multiple employees and CEOs in the shortest amount of time, but as with anything that takes coordination between many different people, things can, and probably will, go wrong.

In this post you’ll find out the most likely issues that can happen during office headshot day and what I do in order to mitigate those problems if they arise (or in some cases, how I try to prevent them from happening at all!).

1. DELAYS

Whether it’s traffic in the morning or an employee getting delayed during travel, delays are one of the most common issues that arise during office headshots. There are two ways to deal with delays. First of all, I always give myself plenty of time (plus buffer) to arrive for setup, which happens about 1 hour before our start time. I only really need about 30 minutes to set up, which gives us an extra cushion just in case an unforeseeable circumstance does come up. The other cause for delays are the employees on the business side. Often, an employee might fly in just for that day and have a flight delay or hit traffic getting to the office from the airport. In this situation, being flexible with the timeline is our best solution. I will simply move on to photographing everyone else and give the employee in question enough time to arrive.

2. UNEXPECTED MEETINGS

Sometimes meetings and fires come up unexpectedly during the time we’ve allocated for headshots. The truth is, it’s unrealistic for them to NOT come up. I always make sure to plan for variability and surprises and do my best to gently pull employees out of meetings for 5 minutes or literally hunt them down when needed. I simply won’t leave until we have a headshot for every person, one that they’ve approved and are happy with.

3. BLEMISHES, WRINKLES, & THE WRONG TIE

The stress of headshot day can sometimes bring on a blemish outbreak. Thankfully, since every final headshot goes through a natural retouching process, we can take care of any imperfection after the fact, so nobody has to wake up looking perfect the day of their headshot.

In terms of clothing, shirts can get wrinkled or the employee can end up with a tie that doesn’t photograph well. I can smooth out wrinkles in Photoshop, but more often than not, those details are taken care of when the employee is in front of the camera. Uncentered ties, puckered shirts, and uneven jackets are all the little details I look for before pressing the shutter button. Because we’re reviewing the images on a large laptop screen, we can easily spot any issues and fix them right then and there. In terms of ties, since I provide wardrobe suggestions and tips before the headshot session day, every employee knows that they can bring tie options for their headshot. I’m there to help each and every person make the best selection if they have any difficulty making that decision themselves.

4. PHOTOS TAKING TOO LONG

If the photographer doesn’t have a smooth and proven process for getting employees through quickly, photos can definitely take too long. I know that 5 minutes is usually plenty of time for one person, based on experience and optimization of working with each employee. 5 minutes gives us enough time to get comfortable, go through several different poses and expressions, plus review and select the best headshot. With an assistant, we can easily photograph 20 people in 1 hour without rushing. This process also allows anyone who isn’t completely happy with their image to simply jump back into the rotation and take another turn in front of the camera. Optimizing how this works took about 1 year of trial and error and it truly gives the best and easies way to achieve great company headshots in the shortest amount of time - specifically guaranteeing that every employee walks away knowing that they have a headshot they approve of.

5. ABSENT OR NEW EMPLOYEE

Sometimes, people get sick and are unable to come to the office on the scheduled headshot day. Companies also bring on new staff members and need a headshot that seamlessly fits into the images we’ve captured previously. In both cases, having a local Studio location solves the problem. Employees can come to the Studio if for any reason they’re unable to make it on headshot day, and sessions can be scheduled at any time during the week on an ongoing basis for any new hires. I simply match up the lighting and the background to the company’s previous headshots and deliver files that look like they were done on the same day.

While it is a bit of work to prepare for all the things that could potentially go wrong, it’s always worth it in my opinion. In fact, so few times does life go exactly according to plan! Being flexible, having a plan in place for every scenario, and solving problems on the fly are some of the most used skills during these sessions. It’s never only about being a good photographer, a lot of what’s involved in doing corporate office headshots is actually organizing and planning to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.