Open almost any company's "meet the team" page and you can read its history in the photos. One person shot against a white wall in 2019, two cropped out of a holiday party, a new hire's LinkedIn selfie, and the founder in front of a bookshelf. Nobody decided it should look like that. It just happened one hire at a time. Company team headshots fix it in a single day, and the photography is the easy part. The planning is what makes twenty people look like one team. Here is how we plan an on-site headshot day for offices in Everett, Bothell, Lynnwood and the rest of Snohomish County.
Why On-Site Headshots Beat Sending Staff to a Studio
You can send everyone to a studio one at a time. For a team of three that works fine. Past that, it quietly costs more than it looks: each person loses a morning to the drive, the appointments spread across weeks, and the people who keep rescheduling are the same people who never had a decent photo in the first place.
On-site headshots flip that. We bring a portable backdrop and lights to your office, set up in a conference room or any quiet corner with a bit of space, and people walk down the hall when it's their turn. The whole team is photographed on the same day, under the same light, at the same distance. That last part is the real reason to do it this way. Consistency is very hard to fake after the fact and very easy to get when everyone stands on the same mark.
It also changes the mood. Walking into a studio feels like an event. Stepping into the next room between meetings, still in the shirt you wore to work, is low stakes, and low-stakes people photograph better.
Planning a Team Headshot Day, Step by Step
Most of the work happens in the two weeks before the camera comes out. This is the checklist we walk through with an office manager or HR lead:
- Get a real headcount. Include remote staff who could come in that day, part-timers, and anyone starting in the next month. The number drives the schedule and the quote.
- Pick the room. We need a space a little wider than a parking stall with a door that closes, away from the break room. A conference room with window blinds is ideal. We light it ourselves, so the room doesn't need to be bright.
- Pick the day with the most people in. Tuesday through Thursday is usually best. Avoid month-end for finance teams and the week before a big launch for everyone else.
- Send a sign-up sheet. Short slots, staggered so each person leaves their desk only for their own turn. Leave a buffer at the end of each hour for the person who was stuck on a call.
- Send one wardrobe note to everyone. Same note, same week. More on what it should say below.
- Decide what else you want. A group photo, a few candid frames of people working, or photos of the office for the careers page. If you want them, say so ahead of time so we build them into the day instead of squeezing them in.
On the day, we arrive early, build the set, and test the light on whoever volunteers first. Each person gets a few minutes in front of the camera, a quick look at the back of the camera so they can see how it's going, and then they're back at work.
Keeping Headshots for Employees Consistent
When headshots for employees look mismatched, it's rarely because of the people. It's the variables around them. A team set reads as one set when these stay fixed:
- Backdrop. One color, one texture, chosen to suit your website. Grey and warm neutrals are safe. White looks clean on a white website and harsh almost everywhere else.
- Light. Same lights, same positions, same power, all day. This is why we don't move the set halfway through for convenience.
- Crop and camera height. Everyone framed from the same height with the same amount of shoulder and headroom, so the eyes line up when the photos sit side by side in a grid.
- Wardrobe range. Not a uniform, just a range. If half the team wears suits and half wear hoodies, the page looks like two companies. Pick a lane: business, business casual, or your own branded wear.
- Retouching. The same light touch on everyone. Temporary things go (a blemish, a stray hair, a lint speck); faces stay faces.
For the wardrobe note, keep it to four lines: solid mid-tones rather than pure white or pure black, no fine stripes or big logos, bring a second top if you're unsure, and wear glasses if you normally wear them. Our headshot guide for Lynnwood professionals goes deeper on what to wear, glasses glare and grooming if your team wants the full version.
Matching New Hires Months Later
This is the part most companies forget until the first new hire starts and the team page suddenly has a gap. A headshot day solves today's team. The setup record solves next year's.
After a team day, we note the backdrop, light positions, camera height and crop, so a new hire can be photographed against the same setup and dropped into the page without looking like an outsider. There are two easy ways to handle it. New people can book an individual session at our studio in Lake Stevens, which works well for one or two at a time. Or you batch them: wait until you have a handful of new faces and we come back to the office. Growing teams in Mill Creek or Bothell often find a twice-a-year catch-up day simpler than one-offs.
Either way, keep the original gallery somewhere shared. When someone asks "what did we do last time?", the answer should be one link, not an email chain.
Corporate Headshots or Personal Branding Photos?
Corporate headshots and branding photos solve different problems, and teams often need a bit of both. A corporate headshot is a clean, consistent portrait for the directory, the website, LinkedIn, the conference badge and the email signature. Its job is to look like everyone else's, in a good way.
Branding photos show people doing the work: the injector at the treatment chair, the estimator on a job site in Marysville, the stylist mid-cut. Those are the images that carry a website and a social feed, and they're built around the person and the place rather than the backdrop. If your team page, your ads and your Instagram all need fresh images, a headshot day can run alongside a content shoot so people only have to dress up once. That's the idea behind our monthly content creation for local businesses, and why a staff headshot session is one of its add-ons.
What Company Team Headshots Cost
Pricing depends on how many people and how you want to book it. Here is how we price it, straight from our headshots page and the commercial packages:
- Team and company days. On-site anywhere in Snohomish County and on the Eastside, with per-person rates that depend on team size. Text us the headcount and we'll quote it.
- Individual sessions. Express $99 (15 minutes, 2 retouched images), Professional $250 (30 minutes, 5 retouched), Branding $450 (1 hour, 10 retouched). These suit owners, new hires and anyone who wants more variety than a team day gives.
- Staff headshot session, $500. An add-on for businesses on one of our monthly content plans, so the team page stays current alongside the rest of your photos and video.
Every headshot comes with a commercial-use release, so the photos can go on your website, in proposals, on LinkedIn and in ads without a second conversation about rights.
A Few Things That Make the Day Go Smoothly
- Tell people why. "We're updating the website and everyone's photo will match" gets a better turnout than a calendar invite with no context.
- Go first if you're the boss. When the owner or manager sits down first and laughs through it, the nervous people relax.
- Pick one person on your side. Someone who knows who is in, who is running late, and who has a client call at 10:15.
- Choose the favorite fast. Give people a deadline to pick their image from the gallery. Left open, a headshot day can take longer to choose than to shoot.
Where We Fit
We're Sunny and Tina, a husband-and-wife photo and video team based in Lake Stevens, working across Snohomish County and the Eastside. Weddings and events taught us to keep a full room moving without making anyone feel rushed, which is most of what a good headshot day is. We're also building out our business work, including brand video; if your company is weighing that too, our guide to what a brand video costs is a good next read.
Planning a team day for an office in Everett, Bothell, Lynnwood or anywhere nearby? Send us a note with your headcount and rough dates, email sunny@sunnytproductions.com, or text (708) 677-7136. We reply within the hour, 7 days a week.