How to Prepare Your Team for a Company Headshot Day (A Guide You Can Share)
You booked the photographer. The date is on the calendar. Now you have to tell 40 people what to wear, when to show up, and how not to look terrible in their photo.
You do not want to send a long email that nobody reads. You also do not want to show up on shoot day with half your team in graphic t-shirts and the other half asking when their slot is. There is a middle ground, a short, clear prep guide you can send once and forget about.
Here is what to include when you prepare your team for a corporate headshot day, and how to make the email short enough that people actually read it.
Send the prep email one week in advance. Not two weeks, they will forget. Not the day before, they will not have time to plan. One week out is the sweet spot. Send a short reminder the day before with the schedule.
Tell them exactly what to wear. Solid colors. Avoid white, which can blow out under studio lights. Avoid neon or busy patterns. Business casual or whatever matches your company brand. If your team is creative or casual, say so. If they should wear a blazer, say that too. Vague guidance creates 40 different interpretations.
Tell them what NOT to wear. Logos from other companies. T-shirts with text. Strapless tops. Statement jewelry that competes with their face. Anything that does not match the rest of the team's energy. People follow "do not" instructions more reliably than "do" instructions.
Give them the schedule with their slot already assigned. Do not ask 40 people to sign up for a time. You will spend three days managing it. Assign the slots yourself, by department, by floor, by alphabet, whatever is cleanest, and tell each person their exact time. Five minutes per slot is a safe estimate.
Tell them what to do five minutes before their slot. Brush hair. Check teeth. Skip the third cup of coffee. Take a quick look in the bathroom mirror. Small adjustments before the camera saves time during the shoot.
Reassure the people who hate photos. A line in your email like "the photographer is good with people who are camera shy, you will be in and out in five minutes" calms 80% of the anxiety on your team. The dread of having a photo taken is bigger than the photo itself.
Tell them what to expect during the shoot. They walk in. The photographer adjusts the light, says hello, takes 8 to 12 frames in three or four minutes, and they walk out. No big production. No need to bring anything. No need to know how to pose.
Confirm the deliverable. Tell your team how many photos they will get, what the file format will be, and when they will receive them. People want to know if they get to see proofs and pick a favorite, or if one image is selected for them. Set the expectation now.
Add the photographer's brand if it helps. A line like "Travis at TRG Headshots has photographed teams ranging from 10 people to 266 people for Louis Vuitton, your team is in good hands" reassures people who are skeptical of headshot day.
Keep the email under 200 words. A short email gets read. A long email gets ignored. The point is to give your team the four or five things they need and stop.
If your company is anywhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Arlington, Southlake, or anywhere across the metroplex, TRG Headshots is in Red Oak and we travel onsite to companies of every size. We provide a prep guide template you can drop into your own email and send to your team.
When you are ready to put a date on the calendar, getting a quote takes one email. We handle the logistics. Your team shows up, gets photographed, and goes back to work.
