How to get a team directory that looks like one company

Every company directory drifts. It starts consistent, then someone joins in a month when nobody booked a photographer, then a team offsite produces four portraits with a different background, and two years later the page is a patchwork.

Write the spec down

The fix is boring: a one-page document that says exactly what a headshot at your company is. Background colour as a hex value. Key light height and side. The ratio between key and fill. Crop point on the body. Output sizes and the file naming convention.

With that document, any competent photographer can match your existing set two years from now, including us. Without it, nobody can, including the person who shot the originals.

A spec that works

• Background: seamless grey, #C8C8C8, lit half a stop under the subject
• Key: 45 degrees camera left, 30cm above eye line, 90cm softbox
• Fill: white bounce camera right, two stops down
• Crop: square, top of frame one hand above the head, bottom at the collarbone
• Delivery: 2000px square for directories, full frame for print, named firstname-lastname

Then book a standing slot

Most companies we work with book one morning a quarter rather than one big day a year. New joiners get photographed within a few weeks instead of a few quarters, and the page never drifts far enough to need redoing.

Six minutes a person is enough. What is not enough is deciding the look on the morning.