Affiliate Program
Last year we saw a dramatic shift as more workers than ever moved to remote work. This opened up the opportunity for many people to move farther away from local offices. Suddenly teams could unite to bring together top talent from across the country. With more teams being completely remote, businesses are adapting how they maintain their websites and online presence. A good headshot of your team is an opportunity to establish credibility with potential clients and the communities you serve. That’s why team headshots are even more valuable than ever before.
Unfortunately, keeping staff bios and photos up to date can be time-consuming and difficult to plan. Even when whole teams met in one central location every day, conflicting schedules made it hard to prioritize “photo day.” Luckily, it’s relatively easy to update a staff’s text bio on your site. However, the harder task is to get good photos of all your teammates. With Heroic Headshots, you can easily coordinate team headshots to create a cohesive look. Here’s how!
What Are Team Headshots?
Team headshots are simply professional business headshots of your staff. They are typically used for company websites, business cards, press releases, and LinkedIn profiles. For your average professional, the most popular place for team headshots is their LinkedIn profile.
When you take team headshots, you can focus on showcasing your team members’ professionalism, friendliness, and competence. A great headshot is the perfect first step for building an awesome brand that helps your company improve sales numbers or attract investors to your company.
Are Team Headshots Important?
Have you ever met someone and instantly liked or disliked them? If so, it’s likely because we formulate “first impressions” of other people in just 1/10th of a second. These first impressions can have a dramatic impact on who we hire, buy from, and associate with. These days, most first impressions start online.
Potential clients will find your website and meet your team digitally. Investors often use the company About Us page to learn about company executives. Thus, a great business headshot is critical for making a good first impression. It can have a major impact on your career and your entire company.
Consistency & Quality Assurance in Headshots
As much as possible, employers should try to keep employees’ headshots consistent across the group. In the past, this was a challenge, as team members weren’t always available at the same place and time. With more employees working remotely, this challenge became even more significant. Until now!
With Heroic Headshots, you can curate your team’s photos by selecting a custom background to be used by the entire group. They’ll receive the Heroic Headshots tutorial to guide them through taking their headshot photo on their smartphone. Next, our team of world-class editors will retouch the photos and return them to you within 3 business days. No more email chains to schedule a photoshoot only to have someone bow out with an emergency. No more reminding people to “dress up” on the right day just to have someone forget.
While having a single good headshot of each employee is important, having consistent headshots is even better. Consistency in team headshots creates a sense of team cohesion and company culture. And with some good planning, you can really ensure that the photos’ tone communicates your organization’s roles and values.
Photographic Standards
As more teams move to remote work, we are seeing more of a hodgepodge of headshots on company team pages. This is not a great look! These photos are often inconsistent in terms of basic details like background and pose. Even worse, they are often inconsistent in terms of quality. They may feature bad lighting or the photo may be blurry or low resolution.
When you don’t have an easy way to maintain standards for your team photos, you can end up with a mess. And trying to create standards for people who are not familiar with photography or digital design can be a huge headache. Trying to set standards for image width and height or DPI (dots per inch) is difficult for most employers.
With Heroic Headshots, our tutorial will guide your team members through the process of creating their headshots. And our editors will do the work to ensure consistent, high-quality final images.
What Do I Wear for Team Headshots?
One of the biggest benefits of using Heroic Headshots to take your team photos is your employees will take their own photos. That means they’ll have access to their full wardrobe. Maybe they’ll take some photos then decide to switch outfits. Impossible in a traditional workplace photoshoot, but easy to do at home!
You can give your employees some guidance on what to wear to enhance consistency or leave it up to them. What people wear depends on their personality, your company’s industry, and how you plan to use the headshots. You can also check out these tips for men’s and women’s attire in headshots.
A good rule of thumb is to take a look around LinkedIn to see how peers and senior executives in your industry are dressed. If your team is projecting a fun, creative vibe, go with that! If you are in a more traditional field, like finance, encourage your team to wear suits or more formal attire.
What Backdrops are Best for Team Headshots?
At Heroic Headshots, we offer customizable backgrounds. This way you can select the best option for your team and brand. For more conservative industries like law and finance, we recommend neutral backdrops based in white, gray, or black. With those colors, you can really convey reliability and consistency.
If you work in creative industries, non-profits, or tech, you may prefer that your photos have a bit more “pop.” In that case, we encourage you to pick a brightly colored background. This can help give your photos a bit more personality.
You will select the background color and share that with your team members. This will allow them to plan their attire around your choice, ensuring they don’t clash or blend in too much.
How Much Do Team Headshots Cost?
Team headshots can cost between $75 and $500 per person, depending on geography, package, and provider. Realistically, the lower end of that scale will likely result in less than ideal photos.
Typically for team photos in an office setting, you are paying an agreed-upon rate based on time and number of employees. However, when you go the traditional route for team photos, you may come across unexpected fees like licensing and retouching.
In terms of licensing, photographers typically only give you ownership for photos that you “buy” from them. This fee is separate from your “session fee,” which just covers the time spent inside their studio (or at your office). If you want to use your photos on a billboard, or in print, or somewhere else, you may have to pay additional fees.
If you are trying to save money, you might opt for a photographer who offers a bare-bones rate or package. However, if you’re not purchasing a standard (and more expensive) package, your photographer may charge between $100 and $150 per photo for additional retouching. Calculate those fees into your total session cost and the price tag rises sharply. With Heroic Headshots, you will pay $50 per headshot, and edits and licenses are included. So not only is it a convenient choice, it is a much more affordable option!
Getting Your Team Headshots
Getting up-to-date staff portraits can be hard for any fully remote organization, but it’s still important to represent your current team online in a consistent manner. It can often be a client’s first introduction to your team. So why not make it a good one? Contact Heroic Headshots today to get started on high-quality, easily attainable, and affordable professional team headshots.
