How to Shoot and Edit Corporate Headshots

When the Northrups were asked to do a corporate photo shoot for the employees of a car dealership, they jumped at the opportunity to let us tag along by way of a behind the scenes video. Join the couple as they show us the ins and out of corporate photography:

Gear for On-Location Headshots

Equipped with a Canon 5D Mark III and 5D Mark II, they loaded their gear bags with a couple different lenses, a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM and a Sigma 24-105mm f/4. They also brought along a large octobox to provide soft lighting for the headshots once they attached it to their Einstein 640 WS strobe light. They powered the lights using Vagabond Minis. Of course, no portrait session would be complete without a diffuser and reflector on hand.

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Using a reflector as a background for the headshots saved a lot of time.

Technique

Since they were shooting on location at the dealership, the Northrups had to get a little creative with where they set everything up. Eventually, they decided the best route was to set up on the showroom floor and have one person hold up a white reflector to use as a background while the other took the photos. Since the ambient light was decent, they ended up using just a strobe to use as a fill light, a decision that saved the team a lot of time; they were not constantly adjusting the strobes and softboxes to match the height of each person they photographed.

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On-location Headshot Setup

The final step is to do some natural-looking touch-ups to give clients flattering, professional images. Chelsea provides extensive tips in the video above.

As you can see, corporate headshot gigs often leave photographers scrambling for good locations and lighting. The Northrups showed us how to work with the situation quickly to get the job done.

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