Headshots Make A Difference — How We Took Our Team's Headshots

Intro

Company headshots — you need them! Showing off your team to prospective clients, employees, or collaborators is vital to making your company more human and relatable. All of the reasons why you need them are here in our other blog though 🙌 Today, we're going to show you how you can take yours! Let's dive in 📸

Choosing Your Photographer

First things first, who is going to be shooting your headshots? Choosing the right photographer is important and will absolutely determine the validity and style of the photos. If you have someone on your team who is a photographer, that's great! Having someone on your team doing it has a few benefits.

First, it's the most cost-effective option since you're not hiring a photographer. Second, you'll have a bit more flexibility with your time since the employee taking them can schedule around other people's schedule on the team.

If no one on your team is handy with a camera, no worries! You just need to figure out the amount of money you're willing to spend on these headshots and find a portrait photographer. I say "find a portrait photographer," because if you have a landscape photographer you admire shooting these, you might not get the best results.

Instagram is one of the best ways to find portrait photographers in your area, but also ask around on your team if anyone has had portraits done recently and if they'd recommend their photographer.

💡How Bulb Did It: We had our Marketing Coordinator, Livvy, shoot our headshots. She's a portrait photographer, so we lucked out.

Getting a Headcount

If you're thinking, "Yeah, it's easy for you to get your headshots done, you only have 11 employees! I have 550 employees, and some are remote!"

I would say, you're right, ours was easier, but you can still do it 😇 If you have quite a few employees that work remotely or elsewhere, here are a couple solutions:

1. Next time people are required to come to the office, as in for a summit, holiday party, or annual meeting, plan time for then and tell everyone that is attending that new headshots will be happening then.
2. If it's too hard /expensive to shoot all your employees, start with presidents, managers, CEO's, founders, department leads, and so on. Just getting some faces out there is better than none!

As long as you have your expectations and headcount set with who is getting a headshot (or who isn't) then you can better determine where these photos will live on your website and other public spaces.

💡How Bulb Did It: We chose a day and had our employees schedule times (via Calendly) to come in and shoot them!

Setting Up a Location & Theme

Theme and location matter! Let's say you're a hair salon and have a super bohemian theme in your salon, getting your headshots done inside with a sterile backdrop really doesn't match your brand. Ask your photographer what they recommend, but really keep your brand in mind. Look up inspiration photos, other brands you admire, and Pinterest is the best for a wide range of examples.

Another thing to keep in mind: if your company decides they want outdoor photos, time of year is important to consider!

💡How Bulb Did It: We used our studio space with a couple studio lights and a backdrop we got from B&H photo.

Post Photoshoot

After the photos are shot, edited, and you have your headshots is when the real work begins. Deciding where these will live is essential in the whole process. Here's some places these headshots should live:

• Your Company's Website: This is prime real-estate. Since your website is for prospective customers, employees, and where your brand's hub is located, you absolutely should have them up. You can simply have them with someone's name and title below or get creative and have a bit more about that employee 😁
• Slack or Teams Profile Photo: This is a great spot to put them, especially for new employees! Matching names to faces can make internal communication so much easier.
• Social Media: This is optional, but having the faces of your company used on social media is a fantastic way to introduce your employees and company! Adds some humanity and relatability.
• Personal LinkedIn: The hub of all professional research! Having your employes use their company headshots as their LinkedIn profile photo is a great way to express your brand in an indirect way.

After you have shot these photos, you'll also need to decide if your employees will have access to them or not. If they have access to them, make sure to put them in a shared folder or cloud space that's easily accessible!

💡How Bulb Did It: We used our headshots on our About Us page and some of our employees have opted to use them as their LinkedIn profile pictures! We also shared the photos in an easy to find folder on SharePoint for our team to access whenever they need them.

Conclusion

📸 We've given you a lot to digest when it comes to your team's headshots, but we hope you take all of this and begin to plan your headshots today. At the end of the day, make sure they feel like your company's brand and have a little fun with it!

To send you off, here's a summarized checklist you can follow 👇

1. Choose and book your portrait photographer.
2. Get a headcount and decide who needs headshots.
3. Decide on a date, time, and location. Keep your brand in mind when deciding on a location.
4. Create a game plan of where photos will live after the photoshoot!