How to Take a Kickass Corporate Photo

Your corporate photo is a key asset to leverage in your online strategy. It humanizes your company in the eyes of potential clients or customers. That being said, corporate photos can be a challenge for companies that aren’t used to taking such pictures. It needs to convey your company’s character in an authentic way. It also can be used to convey some sort of message, whether that be that your team is highly creative, or that you’re seasoned professionals in your field. We’ve put together a list of key items to consider when you take your next corporate photo.

Decide on the message you want to convey

One of the key aspects of communicating your message to the target audience is deciding what that message will be. If you work at a creative agency, youth and creativity are a key factor to include. On the other hand, if you are taking a corporate photo for your corporate law firm, experience and success are a must. In this case, you would want to take a clean photo which showcases older and experienced professionals. Ultimately, your photographer is a great resource to help you convey your message, but you must first work with your marketing and sales professionals to ensure that that message fits with their efforts. Potential clients, investors, and employees will all see this photo, so it is key to best represent the firm’s goals.

Think about the backdrop

It can sometimes be hard to select the location for your corporate photo. Most of the time, the location ends up being inside the company’s office. However, if your office is a maze of cubicles, perhaps it may be better to relocate to in front of the building. It is important to tie this into the message that we discussed above. Going back to the case of a law firm, success is the most important factor a potential client seeks, so an impressive, well appointed, expensive office would be worth showcasing. If you are a big firm that is focusing on providing individual service, taking a picture in front of your massive global headquarters building will make your company seem big and impersonal.

The size of the space matters as well. Depending on who you choose to include in your corporate photo, it can be a challenge to find a space of the appropriate dimensions to fit everyone in. It is important to always prioritize the people, and make the location and backdrop your secondary concern, especially when your company is in a high-touch industry.

Consider the people you feature

When thinking about which members of your team you want to include in your corporate photo, it is important to consider the goals and interest of your audience. While you may think that it’s important to feature your executive team, that may not align with the interests of your potential customers. Just think: would your customer rather know the face of your CFO, or that of the sales representative they’re working with? Corporate photos have the chance to turn into a political game, but this should be avoided when it’s an external-facing marketing asset.

Moreover, you should consider employee turnover when selecting the people featured in any of your marketing content. If an employee who features in your corporate photo leaves the company, you will need to take a new photo soon. The expense of this can begin to add up.

Editing your corporate photo

Picture editing can make even the most ordinary pictures look extraordinary.  Good photo editors can instantly change the complexion and quality of an image to make it look alluring for the general public. A professional corporate photo can help to increase the scope of your business and help fulfill its potential. Images are extremely important in order to build your brand. Businesses can focus on a particular style of editing, like focusing on saturation of particular colours, cropping pattern, nature of images, subjects used, focusing patterns, etc., to create a brand-aware edited image. This also leads to better customer recollection for your business offerings, while ensuring they feel more confident while buying your product or service.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

When I first began to update my resume after college I thought it was acceptable to use a selfie taken in front of a white background. What I failed to realize was, we all make instantaneous judgments about every person and image we see,  and the same is true for recruiters and others getting their first impressions from what we put on our resumes and LinkedIn profiles. While we’ve all been advised (or chastised) to “never judge a book by its cover,” some research supports the notion that our flash judgments are often correct. All this to state the obvious: choosing the right photo to convey leadership capability or even overall capability is crucial, especially in the professional universe that we live in today. A poor choice of corporate photo can be damaging to your professional brand and even hinder your career opportunities.

Coordinate your dress code

In many corporate photo shoots, employees from different divisions are seen together when often times they may not cross paths. This can lead to a severe mismatch in what everyone is wearing, as different areas of your company may have different cultures. Think about it: when was the last time you saw your lead animator in a tie? How often does your sales manager wear jeans to work? Be sure to specify some sort of dress code when organizing the photo.

For an added pro tip, be a bit more specific than just “business casual” or “business formal.” The definition of these terms has changed over the years, and could still lead to confusion. For example, millennials often now consider jeans acceptable under the category of business casual, while your more seasoned employees may interpret the same dress code to mean that they can simply take their tie off.

Have fun!

Taking a corporate photo can be a stressful time, so be sure that during the photo shoot, you are sure to take a deep breath and enjoy the limelight. No matter what message you’re trying to convey, your audience prefers to see a team that looks excited or happy to do the work they’re doing. Be sure that you convey this in your photo. A negative attitude can completely undermine the value of your photo. According to research, happy faces come off as more trustworthy and political candidates with competent-looking faces are more likely to win.

Share your embarrassing corporate photo disaster stories in the comments below and remember “see every day as an opportunity to better yourself.”