The complete corporate headshot guide: What to expect and how to prepare

What Is a Corporate Headshot Session?

A corporate headshot session is a professional photography appointment focused on producing high-quality portrait images for business use — LinkedIn profiles, company websites, press materials, speaking bios, and internal directories. Sessions range from 30 minutes for a single individual to half-day team events for 10 or more people.

What to Wear

Dress as you would for an important client meeting — the level of formality should reflect your profession and the impression you want to make. Dark, solid colours photograph most cleanly: navy, charcoal, deep burgundy, and forest green all work well. Avoid strong horizontal stripes, very small patterns, and overly bright colours that will dominate the image. For team sessions, co-ordination is more important than matching — choose a coherent colour story rather than identical outfits.

Grooming Preparation

Schedule a haircut 1–2 weeks before your session so that your hair is neat but settled. If you wear glasses, have them cleaned. Men should shave or groom the morning of the session. Light, natural-finish makeup works well on camera — heavy contouring can appear exaggerated under studio lighting. Avoid heavy jewellery that will draw attention away from your face.

On the Day: What to Expect

I'll start with a brief conversation about how you're using the images and what feel you want — this shapes posing, expression, and background choices. For individual sessions this takes about 5 minutes. I'll then shoot a series of positions and expressions, showing you periodically so you can see what's working. Most people relax substantially within the first 10 minutes once they've seen that the results are good.

Choosing Your Final Images

After the session, I'll lightly edit the full set and share a gallery for selection. I typically encourage clients to choose images that show genuine warmth and approachability over images that appear more formal — people respond better to portraits where the subject appears to be someone they'd like to talk to. Your final selection is then fully retouched and delivered as high-resolution files.

Team Headshots

For team sessions, I bring a portable studio — professional lighting, backgrounds, and retouching — to your office. This removes travel time for your team, allows consistent backgrounds across all portraits, and typically means I can photograph 6–8 people per hour. The resulting images have a cohesive, professional quality across the whole team that cannot be achieved with individual bookings.