Company Headshots

The photographer needs a room of about 4 by 5 metres, ideally with a door so the session is not a spectacle. Setup takes 30–45 minutes: backdrop, two or three lights, a laptop to show results.

Each person then gets a slot of three to five minutes, enough for a handful of poses and a quick look at the screen. With a good schedule, 10–15 people per hour is realistic.

A single contact person who sends out time slots and chases latecomers makes the biggest difference to the day.

Decide the style before the day, since it has to stay the same for years:

• Background: white, grey, a brand colour, or your office softly out of focus. Office backgrounds look more natural but are harder to match for future hires.
• Crop: head and shoulders is standard; half-body gives room for website layouts.
• Expression: approachable smile, neutral, or a choice of both.
• Dress code: plain colours, no busy patterns, no competitor logos. Glasses are fine; the photographer will adjust angles for reflections.

Ask the photographer to record the lighting setup, lens and settings. When new colleagues join, the same photographer — or another one with the notes — can match the look.

Usually each person picks one or two favourites, either on the day on the laptop or later from an online proofing gallery. The chosen images are then retouched: colour, exposure, blemishes, flyaway hair. Heavier retouching is usually an extra.

Delivery in several crops (square for internal systems, portrait for the website, landscape for LinkedIn banners) saves your design team work. Name the file naming convention you want, for example first name and last name, and agree on it before delivery.

Headshots of employees shown on your website or in company systems fall under the GDPR (AVG). Many companies ask employees to agree in writing and remove photos when they leave. Check with your privacy officer; this is general information, not legal advice.

Company quotes are often excluding BTW; ask for an invoice in the company's name. For broader coverage of the office and people at work on the same day, combine this with corporate photography. In Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the Amsterdam headshot photographer and Eindhoven headshot photographer pages cover local options.

With colleagues spread over offices or working from home half the week, getting everyone in front of one backdrop is the hard part. What works:

• Pick the busiest office day. In many Dutch companies Tuesday to Thursday are the office days; Mondays and Fridays are thin.
• Send a booking link with slots a week ahead, and a reminder the day before.
• Book a second, shorter session a few weeks later for people who missed the first.
• Use the same setup in every office. The recorded lighting and background notes let a photographer repeat the look in Rotterdam, Utrecht or Eindhoven on another day.

Remote colleagues who cannot come in can sometimes book an individual headshot session near them, briefed with the same background and framing. The result is not always identical, but close enough for a team page.