10 Business Photoshoot Ideas to Achieve Great Results

Business or corporate photoshoots are intended to communicate your personal brand or your company’s mission and values, as well as the services and products you offer. Depending on the type of business, you can hold your photoshoot at the office, at a warehouse, at a worksite or on the streets. 

Regardless of where it happens, the most important thing is that it represents your business identity and attracts your target customers.

Continue reading to get some tips and ideas for your next business photoshoot.

A business photoshoot is a photo session made to communicate your professional brand or communicate a company or startup’s mission, values, or the products or services that they offer. The photos produced in this photoshoot will portray your company image and brand, and they will often be the first impression potential clients will have of your company. Having quality images that are on par with your brand is a very important goal of the process of building up your customer base.

It’s ideal for business photoshoots to take place in the working space, the place where things happen, to highlight the company’s nature and focus. It should also include business headshots of key staff members or corporate team, so clients know who the faces behind the company are. 

When planning your corporate photography session, you have to ask yourself the following questions: 

• What is the message you want these photos to convey?
• What is the purpose of these images? 

Once you are able to answer those questions, you can communicate what you want to your professional photographer.

Corporate photos are essential for any kind of business, especially small businesses and startups, and they are an important part of professional and personal branding. These are some tips and recommendations to enhance your business portraits:

1. Have clear expectations: I like to talk to my clients about the message they want to convey through these photos. It’s necessary to communicate if you are going to want creative input from the photographer or if you already have set guidelines on how the photos should look. For example, if you have had previous branding photoshoots that you want to be consistent with, they have to be brought up before the photoshoot.

You also need to establish what kind of photos you are going to need: maybe you only want corporate headshots or group photos, or maybe you also need photos of different places in the workplace. All of this needs to be discussed beforehand.

2. Keeping the overall idea on top of individual preferences: When dealing with corporate photoshoots, the purpose of the photos takes precedence over the personal preferences of the people who appear in them. The business professionals and entrepreneurs in the photos need to appear approachable and confident, and they need to know this before the start of the photoshoot, so everything goes as smoothly as possible.
3. Get a stylist: If the budget allows it, it is ideal to hire a hairdresser and a makeup artist for the subjects of the photoshoot to help them look their best. This will also help you avoid flashy hairstyles and overdone makeup styles that can make the person look out of place in their professional headshot or in the group photos.
4. Check that the photographer has all the equipment they need: Good planning is a fundamental part of a successful professional photoshoot. A professional and experienced photographer will plan ahead and bring different lenses according to the different shots you need, as well as studio lights, if needed. 

If the photoshoot is going to happen in a place with natural light, the photographer may want to go see the place before the photoshoot to get an idea of the best places for each photo.

5. Retouching: To achieve the best results, it is highly advised to correct small imperfections with photo editing software such as Photoshop. It’s not necessary to do a beauty-focused retouch on each person, since that’s not the purpose of the photos, but there needs to be some sort of editing to correct small details, such as hairs out of place, unwanted elements or creases on pieces of clothing.
6. Image release: You should have image release forms completed by the people who will appear on the photoshoot—even though they may agree with appearing in the photos the day of the photoshoot, they can change their mind and say that they don’t want their image being used by the company.

These forms can save you the hassle of having to change the business website or printed materials if an employee, or former employee, changes their mind on appearing on those photos. It could also save you some legal issues down the line. Your photographer should be able to provide you with model releases, check with him or her.

If you are a business owner, entrepreneur, real estate agent or any other profession that requires you to advertise through social media, websites or print materials, you must already know that you need professional photos. But maybe you don’t have the inspiration or the time to think about photoshoot ideas that could help elevate your business profile.

You can ask the photographer to give you their creative input, but it’s always good to have your own ideas on what you want to get out of the photoshoot and what you want the focus to be—whether it is you, the employees, the work beign done or the workplace. Here are some ideas to help inspire you for your next business photoshoot:

1. Show yourself working: If you are already planning on including your work equipment in the photoshoot, why not take a photo using it? These types of photos are impactful because they send the message that you are a busy and experienced professional, which gives a very positive impression to the people who want to do business with you.

Don’t take photos with equipment you don’t use in your day-to-day work. If you usually work by brainstorming ideas on a white board, try incorporating that into the photoshoot, instead of taking a photo sitting in front of a computer. 

2. Include people: If you work in an agency or a small business where people work closely together, taking pictures that include a couple of people or even a group photo will transmit a sense of unity. You can also get somepictures of people working together at the same workstation.

3. Show diversity: Showing that your business embraces people from all over the world and from different races can make it more attractive to potential clients, as they will be able to see themselves in your brand. 

4. Show off your personality: You can do this through poses and props that show who you and your team are, and what you do. This shows people what your business is all about, and it gives you a sense of identity.

5. Highlight your achievements: Your business’s milestones and achievements say more than a headshot or a block of text ever could. Try to get pictures that reflect the years of hard work behind your business, and how things have evolved with the passing of time. You want people to know that you are trustworthy, that you have grown and will continue to grow in the future.

6. Take pictures meeting with others: Networking is essential to any industry, since it improves your chances of succeeding. You can invite someone who is highly valuable or has many years of experience in your industry to your photoshoot. This will showcase the people that inspire you and the path you want your business to follow. Also, if the person is highly influential, it will draw more people to your business.

7. Do the photoshoot during an event: Business events are one of the best moments to take photos. If you do the photoshoot during an important event, you won’t have issues gathering the people you want to be in the  photos, and you can be assured that everyone is going to be wearing appropriate attire, making it easier on everyone.

8. Show important deals: In most businesses, you have to go through various processes to seal a deal, which often take a lot of time and work. Taking photos of you sealing some of your bigger deals can portray you as an expert.

9. Show progress: Your company won’t always remain the same, and you may already have experienced some changes from the moment you first started, so it is important that corporate photos show that progress, show how things are better, and how you continue to make chances to give a better experience to your employees and clients.

10. Try different angles: Don’t be afraid of letting the photographer take photos from different angles. Remember that you are trying to get perfect photos that represent your business, and sometimes you have to get different perspectives to get the image that you truly want.

You have worked hard to create a great business, let me help you tell your story through images and videos with a unique perspective. My name is Ivan Martinez and I am a professional photographer with over 36 years of experience in the field. Contact me, I look forward to the opportunity of working with you.