Question 1

How do we build a budget for a company-wide headshot program before we have a quote?

Accepted Answer

Start with three inputs and the number gets close fast: how many people sit at each location, how many locations are in scope, and how many of those people need a longer executive session rather than a standard rotation. Per-person cost falls as headcount rises, so a 40-person single-office program and a 400-person program across six cities sit on different curves. Travel beyond an hour of St. Louis is quoted as its own line item, with airfare, lodging, and ground transport shown separately so finance can see what is photography and what is logistics. If you are writing a budget request before you are ready to commit, ask for the proposal at two or three headcount bands. You get one document covering the whole program, one invoice at the end, and no per-image or per-use fees layered on later.

Question 2

What do we need to provide at each office on the shoot day?

Accepted Answer

A room and an outlet. We arrive with the full portable studio, lighting, backdrop, and stands, plus a review monitor if you add tethered review, so nothing gets rented locally or shipped ahead. What helps most is a space with enough depth to put some distance between the person and the backdrop, ideally a conference room with a door rather than an open floor, plus standard power and somewhere for people to set down a coat and check a collar. Setup happens before the first appointment and teardown after the last, so the room is only out of service for the block you booked. Each office also needs one local contact who can circulate the sign-up sheet and nudge the people who have not claimed a slot, because the day runs on a schedule rather than on walk-ups. Every location gets the identical room requirements and sign-up template.

Question 3

How many people can we get through in one shoot day at a single office?

Accepted Answer

Plan the day in slots rather than in totals. A standard rotation gives each person five to ten minutes in the chair, which covers coaching and a few setups. For a large roster in a tight window we can use a fast pace of one to two minutes per person and still coach every expression, which is how high-volume days of 100 people and up get done. The real limits are rarely the camera. Book slots in blocks by department so one meeting is not emptied twice, leave a gap over lunch, and hold the last half hour open for the people who got stuck on a call. Executives who want multiple looks and wardrobe changes belong outside the rotation, first thing or at the end, because a 30 to 60 minute session dropped into the middle stops the line.

Question 4

How do we get the whole roster to show up and dress consistently?

Accepted Answer

Treat it as an internal campaign, not an email. What works is a short announcement from someone senior explaining why the company is doing this, a sign-up link with named time slots, and two reminders, one the week before and one the morning of. For wardrobe, we send a preparation guide you can forward whole: solid, well-fitted clothing in colors that suit the person and the brand, nothing with a logo or a busy pattern, and a natural finish for anyone wearing makeup. If your brand guidelines call for a particular level of formality, tell us and we fold it into the guide before it goes out, so the instruction reads as company policy rather than as a vendor preference. Consistency across offices comes from every location getting the same guide, the same backdrop, and the same retouching profile. Wardrobe is the one variable you control.

Question 5

How do the files arrive so they can go straight into our directory and website?

Accepted Answer

Proofing galleries come back fast after each shoot day, and the fully retouched selects follow within five business days. Rush timelines are available when a site launch or an annual report is driving the date. For a program of any size, the part that matters is what the files look like when they land. Tell us the naming convention your intranet or directory expects, employee ID, last name first, whatever it happens to be, and we can deliver them named that way instead of as camera numbers somebody has to rename by hand. Crops come sized for where the portraits actually go: square for profile fields, wider for web bios and slide decks. Larger rollouts can be handed off into a digital asset manager or over an API rather than a download link, and everything carries full commercial usage rights.

Question 6

Can you match our existing headshot style?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We can replicate your current style or develop a new look that matches your brand guidelines. Department refreshes come back matching the set already in use. New-hire sessions come back matching the set they are joining.

Question 7

Our offices are nowhere near St. Louis. Is flying one photographer in cheaper than hiring locally in each city?

Accepted Answer

Hiring locally looks cheaper per city until you add up what it costs to manage. Every local photographer is a separate contract, a separate insurance certificate, a separate style, and a separate invoice, and someone on your side has to reconcile all of it and then explain why the Dallas headshots do not match the ones from Chicago. A fly-in program moves that overhead onto us. There is one agreement, one COI, one point of contact, and travel quoted as a visible line item rather than buried inside a day rate. St. Louis is the base, so a local engagement carries a smaller travel line than a fly-in, but the model exists for companies whose people are somewhere else. Offices that sit within a few hours of each other are usually grouped into one trip, so a single set of travel costs covers more than one location.

Question 8

How do you sequence a multi-location rollout across offices in different cities?

Accepted Answer

We map the offices first, then build the calendar around headcount and geography rather than working down the org chart. Locations within a few hours of each other are usually grouped into one trip, often 2 or 3 cities inside a single week, so one set of travel costs covers several sites. Widely dispersed offices get a phased plan across the quarter, with the largest headcount going first so most of the directory updates early and the remaining sites do not hold up a launch. The same photographer, lighting kit, backdrop, and retouching profile travel to every stop, which is the entire reason the finished set matches. Administratively it stays one engagement: a single proposal covering all locations, one invoice, one point of contact, and a running list of which offices are complete and which are still on the calendar.

Question 9

Do you subcontract to local photographers in other cities?

Accepted Answer

No. Henry David photographs every engagement personally. That's the core of the fly-in model. Most national headshot programs are distributed networks where a different local photographer shows up at every office, which is why consistency falls apart. We are the opposite of that.

	A headshot network	The Corporate Headshot Program
Who shows up	A different local photographer in each city, booked through a platform.	Henry, in every city, on every date.
Lighting and backdrop	Whatever kit each photographer owns, matched in post if at all.	One kit, one lighting recipe, the same backdrop and distance at every site.
Direction	A different coaching style at every stop, and expressions that drift.	The same coaching, so the Dallas set reads like the Chicago set.
Retouching	Multiple editors, multiple profiles.	One retouching profile across the whole program.
Paperwork	A contract, a COI, and an invoice per city.	One MSA, one COI, one invoice, one point of contact.
New hires	A new stranger to re-book, and a set that may not match.	The same standard on the next visit or on a virtual session.

On-Site Corporate Headshots, Nationwide

Four Program Sizes. One Standard in Every City.

Small Team Session

Office Day

Company Program

Multi-Office Program

Every Face, the Same Light

Planning headshots for your team?

IWR North America / MHS Legacy: 50+ Team Members, Nationwide

Three Ways Companies Book Corporate Headshots

Team Headshots & Group Photos

Executive Portraits

Organization-Wide Programs

Our Corporate Headshots Are Repeatable, Not Just Good

Movement, Not Freeze-Frame

Optional Real-Time Review

Expression Coaching

Professional Retouching

A Headshot Network Sends Six Photographers to Six Offices. We Send One.

Remote employees get headshots that match the in-person set

Coach-Led Capture

10-15 Minutes per Person

Studio-Match Retouching

Finish the roster on the one day everyone shows up

Corporate Teams Across Industries, in Their Words

Headshots Are Just the Beginning

Four Factors Set the Price of a Team Program

Team Size

Location

Session Type

Deliverables

Corporate Headshot Questions Buyers Ask First

Need photography beyond the headshot?

Benchmarks to scope the program before you request budget

Every Face on Your Team Page Can Match