Large Group Headshot Planning: A Practical Guide for Organisers

The short version: a big headshot project goes well when one person owns it, everyone gets a set time slot, the background and lighting are fixed once, and consent and delivery are sorted before the first person sits down. Do those four things and the camera work is the easy part. Skip them and you spend two days chasing people down corridors.

This guide is for office managers, HR teams and event organisers who have been handed “get everyone a headshot” and need a plan. It covers company-wide shoots, conference headshots, high-volume days and teams spread over several sites.

Start with the brief, not the booking

Before you contact a photographer, write down five things on one page:

• Who is being photographed, with a real headcount (not “about 80”).
• Where the images will be used: website, LinkedIn, badges, press packs, internal directory.
• Where it happens: your office, a studio, a conference venue, or several of those.
• What the finished set should look like: same background, same crop, same feel.
• When you need the files: a launch date, a conference date, a new website going live.

That page does most of the planning for you. It tells a photographer how many sessions to schedule, what kit to bring and whether you need one day or three. If you want a ready-made version, our team photo coordination checklist and 4–8 week timeline lays out who does what and when.

Give it to one person

Pick a single coordinator. Not a committee. One person who holds the list, answers questions, chases the late replies and is the photographer’s only contact. When three people send three different instructions, the photographer gets three different shoots.

That person also needs a little authority. If a director wants to move their slot four times, the coordinator needs to be able to say no kindly.

Work out how long the day really takes

The number everyone gets wrong is minutes per person. A headshot is not just the time the shutter is firing. It is the walk in, the quick chat, a jacket adjusted, a few frames, a look at the screen, and the walk out.

We publish team pricing at £50-£80 per person on our team headshots page, across our Starter, Standard and Full Day options, and the exact figure depends on the option, group size and location. Rather than quoting a universal time per person, we agree a running order with you once we know your headcount and your space.

What holds true on any big day:

1. Build slack into the schedule. A few short gaps through the day absorb the person who runs late and the one who needs a second go. Without them, one delay ripples through every slot after it.
2. Slot people individually, not “10 to 12 for Marketing”. A named time stops queues forming.
3. Keep the first and last slots for flexible people. Put the nervous ones mid-morning, when the photographer is warmed up and the room is calm.
4. Plan a break for the photographer. Tired people take dull photos. That includes the one holding the camera.

If your headcount is large, the practical answer is usually more than one day, or two photographers working in parallel with matched setups. Matching is the hard bit, which brings us to consistency.

Keep a company-wide set looking like one set

The point of a team gallery is that it looks like a team. The biggest giveaways that it was not planned are different backgrounds, different crops and light that changes from face to face.

Decide these once and write them down:

• Background. One colour or one wall, used for everyone. Our guide to consistent, licence-safe office headshot backgrounds goes into the options.
• Lighting. The same set-up for every person. If you are curious how the options differ, see our headshot lighting styles for business.
• Framing and orientation. Head and shoulders or a little wider, and portrait or landscape. We cover that choice in headshot orientation: portrait or landscape.
• Retouching level. Light and honest, applied the same way to everyone.

It is worth treating this as a mini brand exercise. A set of headshots is part of how your firm looks, and getting partners and leaders to agree the look before the day saves arguments afterwards. A guide on aligning partners on a people-first brand in 60 to 90 minutes is a handy way to frame that conversation if your leadership team needs nudging.

When you have to use more than one session

Sometimes a person is off sick, on leave or joins later. Plan for it. Keep the same photographer, same background and same lighting notes so the late joiners match the original set months later. Ask your photographer to record the set-up, and keep that note somewhere your successor can find it.

Prepare the people being photographed

Most of what makes a headshot day smooth happens in the week before. Send one short email with:

• The date, time slot and exact place, including the floor or room.
• A clear note on clothing: solid colours, nothing with tight patterns or large logos, and what to avoid wearing against the chosen background. Our headshot outfit examples are easy to forward.
• A line about hair, grooming and make-up. If people ask about make-up, point them to our natural corporate headshot makeup guide.
• What will happen on the day, in two sentences, so nobody is surprised.
• Who to tell if they need anything to be different.

Send the clothing note a week ahead, not the night before. Then send a gentle reminder the day before.

Somewhere to change, and a mirror

If you are shooting in an office, give people a spot for a quick check: a mirror, a small table, a place to hang a jacket. It is a small thing that makes people more relaxed in front of the camera.

Making it comfortable for people who dislike being photographed

In any group of fifty, several people would rather be anywhere else. That is normal, and it shows in the pictures if nobody deals with it.

What helps:

• Tell people in advance that sessions are short and directed, so nobody needs to know what to do with their face.
• Offer a quiet slot, with fewer colleagues watching.
• Let people see a frame or two on the screen and choose, where the set-up allows it. Our headshot posing guide and posture tips show what directed posing looks like, and it is what takes the guesswork away.
• Ask, in the invitation, whether anyone needs an adjustment: step-free access, a seat, a quieter room, more time.

That last one matters legally as well as kindly. UK employers are required to make reasonable adjustments where an element of the job puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage, and failing to do so counts as discrimination. If you are unsure whether a headshot day falls under that, ask your HR lead or an employment adviser. Either way, a simple “tell us what you need” line in the invite is good practice.

Consent, usage and delivery

Do this before the day, not after someone complains.

An employee’s photo that identifies them is personal data, so you need to handle it lawfully, fairly and openly. According to a summary of employer obligations on staff photos, employers may be able to rely on legitimate interest for engagement and marketing uses, must tell staff how the images will be used, and the ICO’s advice treats consent from employees as a last resort because of the imbalance between employer and employee. Your data protection lead or legal adviser should confirm what applies to you.

In practice, write down and share:

1. Where the images will appear (website, social, brochures, press).
2. How long you will keep using them, and what happens when someone leaves.
3. How someone asks for a photo to be removed or replaced.
4. Who owns and licenses the files, and what the photographer’s licence lets you do.
5. How files are delivered: a shared gallery, named files, and the sizes you need.

Naming matters more than people expect. Ask for files labelled with each person’s name, so the web team is not guessing who is who across 120 images.

Conference headshots and high-volume days

Conference and event headshots work differently from office days because people drift in and out. Some tips that work:

• Run it in a fixed corner. One backdrop, one light set-up, a sign and a queue marker.
• Offer sign-up slots in the delegate pack rather than relying on walk-ups.
• Keep the process very short. Event delegates are giving you minutes between sessions.
• Collect emails at the door so you can send images the same week. We aim for a quick turnaround, with same-week delivery being our stated approach.

For events and bigger groups we have a Team & Events option on our environmental portraits page. It has no published price, so get in touch with your numbers for a quote.

Multi-location teams

If your people sit across several offices, or work from home, you have two sensible routes:

• Bring the photographer to each site with the same kit and same notes. This is the natural fit for on-location work, and we cover London and West London, as described on our page about on-location photography in West London.
• Bring people to one studio. Better for consistency, harder on diaries. Our studio page gives the details.

Whichever you choose, the rule is the same: one brief, one photographer or matched set-ups, one set of file-naming rules. If you have no office at all, read team headshots without an office.

For several sites, plan the order by travel time rather than by department, and tell each site’s coordinator exactly what you told the first one.

Book earlier than feels necessary

Big shoots need a photographer who is free on your dates, and the diaries fill up. We explain our own timings in booking lead times for headshots: single sessions need weeks, and teams need two to three months. If you are working to a launch or conference date, start there.

If your office is busy, our ten minute headshot setup for office managers shows how little room we actually need.

Our perspective

We have done well over 500 sessions, and the same thing shows up with groups of every size. The photography is rarely where a big headshot project goes wrong. It goes wrong in the week before: no clear owner, no clothing note, no agreed background, nobody told what the images are for.

That is why we direct every session. People do not have to know what to do with their hands or their chin, so the nervous ones relax and the confident ones still look like themselves. It is also why we keep retouching honest: you should recognise your colleague in the photo, and so should they.

If you are planning something large, tell us the headcount, the places and the date, and we will build the running order around you. Our team pricing is published, which means you can budget before you pick up the phone.

Emmet

What a large group booking looks like with us

Our team sessions are priced at £50-£80 per person, across Starter, Standard and Full Day, depending on the option and your group. You can compare them on our team headshots page. If you need a mix, such as leadership portraits alongside the team set, our personal branding sessions include The Refresh at £120 and The Executive at £450.

Not sure which fits? Send us your headcount and locations through our main site and we will suggest a plan.

FAQ

How far ahead should I plan a large group headshot day?

Plan on two to three months for a team, in line with our booking lead times. That gives you time to collect the headcount, agree the background, brief staff and still find a date that suits the photographer.

Can everyone have a headshot taken in one day?

Often, yes, if the running order is realistic and each person has a named slot. For bigger headcounts, we would split the work across more days or use matched set-ups. Tell us your numbers and we will say what is sensible.

Do employees have to agree to have their photo taken?

This is a data protection question, so check with your data protection lead. Employee consent is regarded as a last resort by the ICO because of the imbalance of power, so most employers explain the purpose clearly and offer an easy way to ask for changes. Always make it easy for anyone to raise a concern.

How do we keep headshots consistent if people are photographed at different times?

Fix the background, lighting, crop and retouching level in a short written note, and use the same photographer. Keep that note, so a new starter in six months can be photographed to match the existing set.

Sources

• Equality Act 2010: duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments (GOV.UK)
• The rights and wrongs of staff photo usage
• Aligning partners on a people-first brand

Recommended

• Book Headshots Now: Single Sessions Need Weeks, Teams 2–3 Months
• Headshot session preparation explained: your complete guide
• Team Photo Coordination: One Page Checklist and 4–8 Week Timeline
• Team Headshots Without an Office: How to Do It Well