Corporate Photography

Most corporate shoots combine several of these, planned as a shot list:

• Management and board portraits, formal or relaxed, for the website, LinkedIn and press.
• People at work: meetings, the production floor, the lab, a customer conversation. Natural rather than posed.
• Workspace and building: exterior, reception, meeting rooms, details that say what you do.
• Team photo: a group shot for the About page or an annual report.
• Recruitment images: new colleagues, the canteen, a Friday borrel — what it is like to work there.

If the main need is consistent headshots for a whole team, company headshots is the more efficient booking. If you need a content library around a brand or campaign, see branding photography.

A half day at an office goes quickly. The shoots that work best follow a written schedule:

Name one contact person who knows everyone and can move people along. Tell staff in advance what to wear (plain colours, no small patterns or logos from other brands) and which meeting rooms are free. Tidy the desks that will be in frame; clutter reads louder on camera than in person.

In winter, exteriors are best before about 15:30, when Dutch daylight starts fading.

Consent. Under the GDPR (AVG in Dutch), identifiable photos of employees used on your website or in marketing generally need a legal basis, often consent. Many companies ask staff to sign a short photo consent form before the shoot and let them opt out. Check with your privacy officer or legal adviser; this is not legal advice.

Usage. Agree what the images will be used for — website, social, print, advertising — and for how long. Most corporate quotes include broad business use; paid advertising campaigns may be quoted separately.

BTW. Dutch business quotes are often given excluding BTW (VAT). The standard rate is 21%, though photographers using the small business scheme (kleineondernemersregeling, KOR) do not charge BTW. Ask whether the quote is including or excluding BTW and whether you need a VAT invoice with your company details.

Corporate shoots happen wherever offices are: the Zuidas and Amsterdam Noord, Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid and the Maastoren area, Eindhoven's Strijp-S and High Tech Campus, Utrecht around the Jaarbeurs, The Hague's government and embassy districts. Photographers travel, but a local photographer saves on travel time and parking — the latter matters in Amsterdam and Utrecht city centres.

See the Rotterdam corporate photographer page for the city's business districts, or Eindhoven for the tech campuses.

A corporate gallery is only useful if your team can find and use the right image quickly. Ask for:

• Two sizes of every image: web resolution (around 2,000 pixels on the long side) for the website and social, full resolution for print and the annual report.
• Sorted folders: portraits, people at work, building, team, per department or location.
• Consistent file names with the person's name for portraits, so HR and marketing do not have to guess.
• A few crops with space for text, for website headers and presentations.

Delivery commonly takes one to two weeks. If a portrait is needed for a press release sooner, say so; a single image can usually be edited first.

Keep a record of who appears in which photo and when they gave consent. When someone leaves, marketing can then remove their photos without searching through the whole library. For how the matching and quoting work on our side, see how it works.