The Dixon Injury Firm
Four attorneys at a St. Louis personal injury firm, photographed in one morning across four settings: studio portraits on two backdrops, environmental frames in two locations, and team photographs, all made to work together as one visual library for the year ahead.
- Attorneys
- 4
- Settings
- 4
- Production
- One morning
- Delivered
- 30 finished images
What the photographs had to do for the next year.
The firm needed updated portraits of its four attorneys, but the photographs were going to do more than fill attorney bio pages. They would also appear in social posts, firm features and website updates throughout the following year.
That called for more than variations on a single headshot setup. We planned a broader library: two studio backdrops, seated and full-length portraits, an interior setting with more character, an outdoor location, and photographs of the full team.
Portraits first, on the same table, in the same light.
The firm asked for the portraits before anything else, while everyone was fresh. The seated frame is the one that has to match across all four attorneys: same table, same light, same crop, so the four sit together on the attorneys page and read as one firm rather than four sittings. Each is wider than it is tall, with backdrop to one side for a headline.
The same four on light gray.
Navy suits a firm's own pages. Light gray holds up on third-party profiles, directories and press features, where the background around the photograph is usually white. A second backdrop in the same session doubles the places each attorney's portrait can go.
For the pages that need a whole person.
Website banners and social formats often want more than head and shoulders. These run from full length to three-quarter, on the navy backdrop over a wood floor, so they sit with the seated set without looking like a different day.
Then somewhere with more character.
A wood-panelled room with a pool table and a leather chesterfield gives the firm frames that feel like people rather than a directory. Each attorney was posed in a way that suited them: seated, leaning on the table, or fastening a jacket.
From there the session moved to the stone arcade of Brookings Hall at Washington University on a hot September morning. The attorneys stand in the shade of the arcade while the sun falls on the floor behind them, which keeps faces even and puts the light in the background, where it reads as place rather than glare.
All four, on both backdrops.
The team photo was made on both backdrops, matching the individual sets, so the firm has a group frame for whichever look a page or post is using. The navy version opens this page; this is the gray.
Variations that keep a year of posts from repeating.
Arms crossed and relaxed, tie and open collar, square to the camera and turned. Small changes, but they are what let the firm post the same attorney in March and again in June without it looking like a repeat.
Related work and services
Four attorneys at a St. Louis personal injury firm, photographed in one morning across four settings for a year of website and social use.