Executive Team and Board Headshots: One Consistent Management Page for the Website, the Annual Report and the Press

Executive team and board headshots are the photography of a group that is almost never in one room on the same day: five to fifteen senior people, each with their own diary, who have to appear side by side on the website, in the annual report and in the press as if they had been photographed in one moment. The solution is a documented set: the same backdrop, the same lighting and the same distance, recreated in every session, in the office or in the studio.

This article is about the team, not the single executive. What a senior executive's headshot should convey, how to choose a style by role and industry, and which executives have already been photographed here, is written in headshots for executives. Here the question is different: how ten such people become one page.

The problem of the management page

Go to the management page of most companies and you will see it at once: the CEO on a white background from a conference photo, the CFO in a cropped selfie, the marketing VP in a professional picture from her previous job, and two directors in pictures sent by email at business-card resolution. Each picture on its own may be fine. The page as a whole says that nobody is holding it.

The reason is not inattention but scheduling. A management team does not gather for a shoot. It is photographed in a trickle, over months, in different places. So the right question is not "how do we photograph everyone in one day" but "how do we photograph on different days and get one set".

The documented set: the same backdrop, the same light, in every session

The answer is documentation. In the first scoping call the backdrop is set, grey, black, light or dark by the branding, as are the lighting style, the crop and the level of formality. In the first session every parameter is recorded: the backdrop used, the position and power of the lights, the distance between the subject and the camera, the focal length and the final crop.

From then on every session recreates the set. The mobile studio comes to the CEO's office in the first week, to a meeting room with four VPs in the third week, and an external director comes to the studio the month after. Three places, three dates, pictures that sit side by side with no visible difference. It is the same principle that holds a law firm's team page over the years, only in a smaller and more senior group.

How to photograph a CEO in a short time

A CEO sets aside about twenty minutes, and no more. For that the order is the reverse of the usual: the setup is done before they come in, 20 to 30 minutes in the office or in an adjacent room, and the light is calibrated on an assistant or on an empty chair. When they come in, everything is ready.

The direction is short and precise: where the shoulder goes, where the chin goes, when to breathe. Two sets of clothes at most, jacket and no jacket, so there is a formal version for the report and a more open version for articles. Then they return to their diary. Shooting in the office also saves the travel, so the twenty minutes really are twenty minutes and not half a day.

The board: the same set, a different schedule

External directors are not at the office on a fixed day. The solution is to photograph them in catch-up sessions under the same conditions, usually around a board meeting, when they are in the building anyway: the studio is set up in an adjacent room before the meeting, and each director comes in for a few minutes before or after it. The management page and the board page come out as one piece.

Dress code for a management team

Consistency on a management page is also a matter of clothing, not only of backdrop and light. The decision is taken in the scoping call: full suits for all, or shirts without jackets for all, and not a mix. Solid, uniform colours, no prints and no logos. Each management member brings two sets at most, jacket and no jacket, so the annual report has a formal version and articles a more open one, both from the same session. Whoever is photographed in their office can switch between the sets in a minute, so two sets do not stretch the twenty minutes.

Refreshing the page over the years

Management changes. A VP leaves, a director joins, a new CEO comes in. A consistent management page is not the result of one session but of a decision that is kept: the original set is documented, and every new picture is made to it. Every three to four years, when the appearance of a large part of the management has aged anyway, everyone is photographed again and the page is reset together. In between, only catch-ups. And it is worth keeping a copy of the raw files at the company, so that a move to a new website design does not require a new shoot.

The uses, and a crop for each

The management page on the website. The classic crop, head and shoulders, on the uniform backdrop. This is the page investors and clients open first.

The annual report and investor presentations. The CEO's picture on the first page, the management on the corporate governance pages. High resolution, a quiet backdrop, one version for all.

Press releases and articles. A journalist preparing an article needs a ready picture, or they will take a screenshot from Zoom. A version with a little more character, and still from the same set.

Stock exchange profile. A public company presents its management on the stock exchange site and in its filings too. The same pictures, the same order.

Conferences and panels. Organizers ask for a picture for the poster and the conference site. A square version from the same shot.

From one session per management member all these versions come out: the main picture and crops by use. Every client also receives a black-and-white version.

Who has already been photographed this way

In the studio and with the mobile studio, management teams and staffs of organizations and institutions have been photographed over the years, among them Israel's most senior cancer researchers in the project for the Israel Cancer Research Fund, two Nobel laureates among them, the people of the Jerusalem Municipality on a concentrated photo day, and senior staff at the Israel Export Institute. These projects are described on the corporate photography page and on about. In all of them the principle is the same: one set, many people, a consistent result.

What you get at the end

For each management member: the selected pictures after editing, in crops by use, head and shoulders for the website, a wider version for articles, a square for conferences, and black and white. For the company: a digital gallery of all the raw files, and the documented set, which serves every future shoot. Usage rights are full, for the website, the report, the press and advertising, with credit to the photographer as the law requires. The page on the website is updated in one go, and every picture added to it will look as if it was taken on the same day.

How much it costs

The price is set by the number of people, not by the number of sessions: from five up, ₪690 per person, decreasing gradually to ₪400 per person from 50 participants and up, VAT included. A management team of three or four is priced on the individual packages, at a discount. The full price list is on the services page, and the breakdown in how much a company headshot day costs.

In summary

Executive team and board headshots succeed when they are planned as a set and not as a collection of pictures: a backdrop and lighting set once and recorded, recreated in every session, in the office or in the studio, and kept for the management member who will join in a year. A CEO sets aside twenty minutes, a director comes in before the meeting, and the page on the website, in the report and in the press looks the way a management team should look: one. To book: WhatsApp 054-2000-300.