Executive headshots
Executive Headshots
A leadership photograph is reproduced larger and read more carefully than any other headshot — a full page in a report, a screen behind a stage, the first result when somebody searches your name. At that size, posture and tailoring are legible, and both are saying something.
What makes a headshot read as senior
Very little of it is the face. Seniority reads in the things around it: a shoulder line that holds its shape, a collar that sits properly, hands that are doing something deliberate rather than waiting, and a background dark enough to put all the attention on the person.
That is why these sittings are built on a dark ground. Against black or deep charcoal a face carries its own light, the frame loses every distraction, and the photograph keeps working when a magazine reproduces it at a quarter of a page or a conference screen blows it up to three metres.
The second thing is restraint. A portrait that is trying hard to look important rarely does. The ones that work are quiet — composed, still, slightly amused — because that is what authority actually looks like in a room.
Recent sittings
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How the sitting runs
- 01
A short conversation first
Where the photograph is going — a report, a bio page, a press kit, a speaker profile — decides the crop, the register and how much room is left around you. Five minutes on this saves the sitting.
- 02
Thirty minutes, guided throughout
Senior people are used to running a room and are often uncomfortable being the subject of one. The fix is continuous direction: where to put your weight, what to do with your hands, when to breathe out.
- 03
Reviewed on screen as we go
The frames go up while there is still time to change something. Approval happens in the room rather than three weeks later by email.
- 04
Delivered within a week
Professionally retouched and prepared for web, print and press, in the crops your communications team will actually ask for.
The sitting
- Where
- The Naperville studio, or on location at your office
- Length
- 30 minutes, with two outfit changes
- Background
- Black, charcoal or deep navy — recorded, so it can be matched later
- You receive
- 1 professionally retouched image; additional images $50 each
- Turnaround
- Delivered within one week
- Files
- Prepared for web, print and press
- Rate
- $200
Matching the people who join later
A leadership page is only as good as its most recent arrival. The set-up used here — background, light position, distance, lens — is written down after the sitting, so a new director photographed eighteen months from now can be matched to the eleven already on the page instead of standing out.
That is the whole argument for keeping one photographer rather than starting again each time, and it is the same discipline behind corporate photography for a whole team.
Where the photographs need to be environmental rather than studio — a boardroom, an atrium, the building itself — that is an executive portrait session instead.
Questions
What should an executive wear for a headshot?
A structured jacket if you wear one at work, over a solid colour that contrasts with it. Against a dark background, mid to deep tones separate cleanly and pale layers lift the face. Avoid fine stripes and small checks — they interfere with the sensor and shimmer. There is a fuller guide to what to wear.
How is this different from an executive portrait?
An executive headshot is a studio sitting on a plain dark ground, built for a bio page, a directory or a press request. An executive portrait is environmental — the boardroom, the atrium, the floor — and is used where the room is part of the story.
Can you photograph a whole leadership team in one visit?
Yes, and it is the usual way this is bought. Everyone is photographed against one recorded set-up so the page matches, on a rota that keeps the floor running. See corporate photography.
How long does an executive headshot stay usable?
Two to three years, or until you no longer look like it. Changing more often than that costs the recognition you were building — people should see the photograph and know it is you before they read the name.
Do you come to our office?
Yes. The studio travels across Chicago and the suburbs, up to about 100 miles from Naperville, and needs a room with a few metres of clear floor and access to power.
Book a sitting
Thirty minutes for a photograph that outlasts the job title.
The Naperville studio, or on location at your office anywhere within 100 miles of Chicago.