How to Write a Photography Brief for Your Headshot Photographer
Before you request a quote, send a photography brief. We itemize the price against it, one line per choice, so you can see what each decision costs and change the one that matters. The brief names the people, the setup, the dates, the location, what you get back, when you need it, and who signs off. At BusinessPortraits.ca we ask about the setup on every request, because it is the one thing companies leave out. Answer it up front and we can price the job straight away, without a round of questions first.
- Headcount
- Setup
- Dates
- Location
- Deliverables
- Deadline
- Approvals
One engagement, seven decisions. The red sector is the setup: the choice that decides what the photos look like, and the one we almost always have to ask for.
A brief is how you get a price you can actually read
A photography brief is a short written note of what you want photographed and under what conditions. You send it before you ask for a price.
What it buys you is a quote with parts. Give us the seven things below and we break the price out. You can see what the headcount is costing you, what a second edited image per person adds, and what you would save by changing either. Send a one-line request instead and you get a single number. The price is the same. What you cannot see is which of your choices is driving it, and that is the part worth knowing before you commit. Anyone who has bought for a government department has met this idea under another name: a statement of work has to carry enough detail that everyone quoting is pricing the same job (Public Services and Procurement Canada, Buyer's Guide).
Briefing is hard, and it catches almost everyone who does it. Eighty percent of marketers say they write good briefs. Ten percent of their agencies agree. Those numbers come from a survey of more than 1,700 marketers and agency staff across 70 countries (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, BetterBriefs). The same respondents put the cost of poor briefs and misdirected work at roughly a third of the marketing budget. That gap is why we hand you a question list rather than wait for a perfect document to turn up.
The briefing gap is industry-wide
of marketers say they write good briefs
of creative agencies agree
of marketing budget estimated lost to poor briefs and misdirected work
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising · BetterBriefs · 1,700+ respondents in 70+ countries
The setup is the detail companies leave out
On almost every request, setup is the one item we have to ask for. Companies split about evenly on it. Half want the new photos matched to what is already on their site. The other half want to choose the look from scratch. Either answer takes a minute to give. Neither one is safe to guess at.
Setup covers four things: the background, the crop (how tight we frame the photo), the expression, and how formal you want people to look. It is the part that decides what you get back. Neither answer is the wrong one. They just need different things from you.
Matching the photographs you already have
Send us two or three current photos from your site or team page and tell us which one is closest to right. From those we read the crop, the background, the lighting, and how formal the look is, then hold the new photos to the same benchmark. New hires sit beside your existing team with no visible join.
Name two things outright: the crop standard you already use, and the background you want matched. Those two do most of the matching.
If you are answering this question for the third year running, you are describing a house standard, not a one-off brief. Write it down once and reuse it.
Choosing the look from scratch
The other route is to start clean. Background, lighting, crop, and how many retouched photos each person gets: four quick decisions, and you can settle all four in a single message. Backdrop colours are the one choice with real range, and you can browse those on our corporate photography services page before you write anything down. We record what you choose and photograph every person to it. That is what keeps the whole group looking like one set.
What belongs in a headshot brief
Seven items cover a company headshot session. If you have ever written a scope of work for any supplier, you have written most of this before. Every Ontario hospital, university, and school board buys under the Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive. It asks for the same seven things under different names: what you want, by when, from whom, and who approves it. Ottawa's own template puts it in four words, "what, where, when, how many", plus the standard the work has to meet (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Annex A).
One term first, because it is the thing you are actually buying. High-resolution retouched images are the finished files produced by retouching the selected images, delivered at full resolution and ready for websites, print, and every other business use.
| In the brief | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Who, and how many | Headcount sets how long the day runs and which kind of session fits. Tell us how the group breaks down by seniority, and who cannot make it. |
| Setup | Background, crop, expression, and how formal. Either the photos you want matched, or the choices you have made from scratch. |
| Dates and time windows | The day, the hours you have the room, and anything fixed inside it, like partners who have to finish before a client meeting. |
| Location and access | Address, floor, room, and how we get in with equipment. If we need a freight elevator booked or our names on a security list, tell us. |
| Deliverables | How many edited images each person gets, and in which file types. We deliver JPG by default, PNG and TIFF on request, and we can match a commercial printer's colour profile when the photos are going to press. |
| Deadline | The date the photos have to be live, not the date you would like them. We return the finished files in eight business days, or five on a subscription, so count backwards from that date. |
| Approvals | Who signs off the session, and whether anyone else signs off a subset. Name both, so the finished photos are not stuck behind a decision nobody owns. |
Nobody has ever sent us too much detail.
Koby Sirkovich, Head Photographer
In nine years the problem has never been too much information. It has been gaps, and we close those with follow-up questions before we can price the job.
The decisions that move the schedule
Some items in the brief change the price. Others change how long we need the room, which usually matters more, because that time comes out of everybody's working day.
Five to ten minutes. That is what one outfit change costs, because the person needs time to change and get ready. For one or two executives it is a note on the schedule. For a leadership team of eight it is 40 to 80 minutes, and we would rather know before the morning.
What one line in the brief does to the day
a leadership team
added by each outfit change
across a leadership team of eight
the window each person is booked into
mobile studio setup, before the first subject is called
A standard-format day, from the photographer's arrival
Two numbers do the arithmetic. Each person gets a 20-minute window, long enough that one straggler does not push the whole afternoon. The mobile studio takes 30 minutes to set up, so we photograph the first person half an hour after we arrive. Those two numbers give you the third: twenty people is a full working day.
Tell us the headcount and the hours you have, and we can both see straight away whether the day fits. We show the full arithmetic in how long a corporate headshot session takes. When you are ready to build the actual day, running a company headshot day walks it through hour by hour, and the preparation guide is the one you forward to your team.
How your answers become lines on the quote
We send the question list, build the brief from your answers, and itemize the quote, one line per choice. You see the decision and its cost side by side before you commit to a date. What sits inside each of those lines is a separate question, and we cover it in what a corporate headshot price includes.
That is what separates a brief from a form. A form takes your information. A brief hands you back the list of things you can still change. Move the headcount from 30 to 45 and one line changes. Add a second edited image per person and a different line changes. Switch the backdrop and a third one does. You can see which decision is carrying the cost, and decide whether you want it.
Which line moves
- One lineHeadcount, 30 to 45
- AnotherA second retouched image per person
- A thirdA different backdrop or lighting style
Send us a one-line request and you still get a quote. We send the question list first, then the price. Whatever you put in the brief is what we shoot. That is the reason to answer once, in writing, instead of in pieces across a week of emails.
Questions companies ask when writing a headshot photography brief
What is a photography brief for a corporate headshot session?
The same information you would give us on a phone call, written down once so nobody has to chase it. It also travels, so two photographers working from the same brief are quoting the same job.
What should a corporate headshot photography brief include?
Seven items: who and how many, the setup, dates and time windows, location and access, deliverables and file types, the deadline, and who signs off. Send us those seven and we can price the job without coming back with questions.
What do companies leave out of a headshot brief most often?
The setup, by a distance. Everything else in a brief is a fact somebody already knows. The setup is a decision, and decisions get deferred.
Can we tell the photographer to match the headshots already on our website?
Yes, and about half of companies do. Send two or three current photos and say which is closest to right. We work from those and photograph the new people to the same benchmark, so new arrivals match the faces already on the page.
How detailed should a photography brief be?
There is no practical ceiling. If something turns out not to matter for your session, we will say so. Extra detail costs you a line in an email and saves you a phone call later.
Which brief decisions change the schedule on the day?
Outfit changes matter most: each one adds five to ten minutes. After that it is headcount against the hours you have the room. Twenty people is a full working day, and the mobile studio needs 30 minutes before we can start.
Who needs to approve the brief before it goes to the photographer?
Whoever can commit the dates and the budget. If someone else signs off a particular group of photos, name them in the brief too, so the approval does not stall after the shoot.
How does the brief show up on the quote?
As itemized lines, one per choice. That is what lets you change a single decision and see what it does to the price, rather than negotiating against one total.
What happens if we send a request for a quote with no brief at all?
You get our question list, and we build the brief from your answers. Writing it down first saves the two days that exchange takes. It also gives you one document you can send to a second photographer, so both quotes cover the same job.