Notes
How a firm keeps portraits consistent as people join
Most team pages do not look inconsistent because someone chose badly. They look that way because nobody chose at all. The partners were photographed in 2019, the next wave used whoever was available in 2022, and the three newest hires sent in a phone picture the week they started. Each decision was reasonable on its own. Together they read as a firm that does not pay attention.
That is the whole problem, and it is fixable in an afternoon plus a few habits. This is how I set it up for firms in Toronto.
One look, decided once
The first portrait day sets the standard. Background, light, crop, how much of the person is in frame, how the retouching is handled. I keep it simple on purpose: portraits on white for most firms, or portraits on white that are designed to be cut onto a custom background later. Simple looks are the ones a firm can still match in three years. Anything clever with a window and a plant is beautiful once and impossible to repeat.
The look is decided with the person who owns the website or the people page, not by committee. One conversation, a few reference images, done.
The look is written down
This is the step almost nobody does, and it is the one that makes everything after it work. After the day I document the setup: the background, where the light sat and how hard it was, the lens and distance, the crop for each delivered size, and the retouching standard (natural, executive-appropriate, no reshaping). It goes into a short spec that belongs to the firm.
Now the look is not in my head. It is a document. If I photograph the new hire, I match it. If someone else does, they can too.
Every new hire gets matched, not reinvented
When a firm adds people, the new portrait is made to the spec. Sometimes that is a short session at the office when a few hires have accumulated, sometimes it is one person in a studio. Either way the result drops into the people page next to a partner photographed two years earlier and nobody can tell which came first. That is the test.
Delivered files come in the same standardized crops as the original day, so the web team is not resizing by hand and guessing at head position.
Refresh on a rhythm, not in a panic
Faces change. Glasses change. A portrait from six years ago on a page next to one from last month looks like a firm that stopped in the middle. The fix is a light rhythm: new hires matched as they arrive, and a refresh day for everyone every few years so the whole page moves together. Most firms find that the refresh is easier to schedule than the first day was, because the look is already settled and everyone knows what to expect.
What this asks of the firm
Very little, honestly. Someone owns the people page. That person books the first day, keeps the spec, and sends new hires my way when there are a few of them. The spec does the rest.
If your team page is already drifting, the first day resets it and the spec keeps it reset. If you are planning a first portrait day and want the consistency built in from the start, tell me the headcount and the timing and I will size the day and send the spec template with the quote.
Portrait Office is the corporate portrait service of Cedric Swaneck Photography Inc., run by Toronto photographer Cedric Swaneck. It photographs executive and team headshots on location for professional services firms across Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area.
Planning a portrait day for your firm? Request a quote or read the Corporate Portrait Guide.