How to Become a Corporate Business Photographer

Types of Corporate Photography

While corporate photography might bring to mind an image of a CEO in a suit, there’s a lot more to it than that. Here are the different types of photography that fall under the corporate umbrella.

Traditional Corporate Portraiture

The traditional portrait will always be an important part of corporate photography. It’s used on everything from “About Us” pages on company websites to profiles of the business, so just about every business benefits from having some high quality portraits of the people who make up its organization.

It’s worth noting that traditional doesn’t necessarily have to mean formal or ultra-professional. It all depends on the business that the corporate photos are being taken for. If it’s an insurance brokerage, then portraits of the employees in professional suits may be appropriate. For a tech company, the look might be more casual and relaxed.

The “traditional” aspect of these portraits refers to the framing, composition, and setting. The portraits may be full-body or be more closely cropped, but they always include at least the subject’s head and shoulders. The background is usually unobstructive, such as a neutral or colored seamless or a wall.

Editorial Portraiture

Editorial portraiture, also sometimes called environmental portraiture, takes elements of the traditional portrait but also incorporates a meaningful setting. In these types of portraits, the subject is in a context that tells some kind of a story about who they are, their role within the business, or about the business itself.

Consider a portrait of a corporate chef. If they’re shot smiling against a black background, that would be a traditional portrait. If, instead, the photographer captures them in their kitchen or even in the act of cooking, that would be an editorial or environmental portrait. This type of image may be used on a company website or even in a magazine features about a business.

Editorial portraiture tends to involve a bit more creativity and planning than traditional portraiture, because both the photographer and the subject have to consider what story they want to tell with the portrait and choose an appropriate environment for the portrait based on that. These portraits are typically posed, but can also be candid.

Corporate Headshot Photography

Headshots are distinct from portraits in their composition. While portraits include the head and shoulders, and can include the full body, headshots only include the subject’s face. While corporate portraits are more common than corporate headshots, there are some instances where a business may want you to shoot headshots.

Headshots are often used by people who work in entertainment, such as actors and singers. A professional theater company is an example of a type of business that would hire a corporate photographer to shoot headshots.

Corporate Event Photography

Corporate events include trade shows, conferences, and celebratory events such as galas. Shooting corporate events involves capturing details such as the decor and location, getting shots of any key moments such as speeches and presentation, and most importantly getting images of the attendees.

With this kind of event photography it’s important for the photographer to be able to shoot discreetly so that people aren’t distracted by being in front of a camera. The idea is to capture candid images of people enjoying the event, without disrupting the event itself. It’s often helpful to be able to mingle a bit with the guests, since this puts people more at ease and makes for better images.

Brand Event Photography

From small startups to large multinational corporations, businesses have embraced the concept of the pop-up in recent years. This is a subset of corporate event photography, but it’s worth mentioning it on its own because the focus for the photographer can be a little bit different than standard event photography. With pop-ups or brand activations, the goal of the event is often to market a new product or introduce new customers to a brand. Your client may have invested in creating a photogenic, branded space, so it’s important to capture these elements, as well as any products being marketed.

If guests are gifted a product or encouraged to use it, your goal as a brand event photographer should be to capture them engaging with the product.

Corporate Product and Service Photography

Corporate product or service photography aims to capture a company’s product or them offering their services, but typically in a more editorial style than commercial photographs that are meant to sell the product. This is a subtle distinction, and the line between corporate and commercial photography can be a bit blurry.Let’s go back to the example of a head chef of a high end restaurant. A corporate product and service photography might show him plating one of his creations. In this case, the product is being showcased, but it’s also serving the function of a corporate portrait. This type of image would likely be used to tell a story about the restaurant or to promote the image that they want to project to their customers. A commercial food photograph might be a more heavily styled image of the dish, made to look as mouth watering as possible, and used in social media ads to drive more visitors to the restaurant.

Corporate Architectural Photography

Businesses often share their workplace with the public through images that may be used online, in brochures, or in magazines. Corporate photographers can put their architectural photography skills to use by capturing the workplace. If a business wants to share something unique about it’s facilities, such as new equipment or an impressive production line, a corporate photographer might also be asked to shoot that.

How To Get Started In Corporate Photography

The most important tool for getting paid gigs as a corporate photographer is your online portfolio. Your corporate photography portfolio website is a place for potential clients to see what kind of work you do, what specific style you tend to have, and what other clients have trusted you to shoot corporate photographs for them.

A strong portfolio not only shows what you’re capable of as a photographer, it also shows that you’re professional and serious enough about your business to have a beautiful, easy to navigate online home for it. Often, your portfolio will also be how potential clients find out how to get in touch with you and other details they may want to know before hiring you, such as where you’re located.

The importance of your portfolio suggests one thing: to get started in corporate photography, it’s key to build up a portfolio you can be proud of. Sure, there is a lot of work to be done even after you have your portfolio ready to go. You still need to cold-call potential clients and market your business. However, without a portfolio, you’re not likely to get those gigs.

So, how can you go about creating that portfolio? You can study photography in school, or go the DIY route and build up your skills and catalog of images yourself. Both options have their benefits and drawbacks, and the right choice will depend on the particulars of your situation.

Studying Corporate Photography

While there isn’t such a thing as a dedicated corporate photography degree, the skills you learn in any photography degree at an art school are sure to help you become a better corporate photographer.

One of the unique aspects of corporate photography is the fact that it involves a little bit of everything. As you can tell from the different types of corporate photography we discussed, it helps to have portrait photography skills, product photography skills, and event photography skills. You’ll sometimes be shooting in a controlled studio environment, indoors in all kinds of lighting, or outdoors. This means that having as much experience as possible shooting different subjects in these different scenarios will make you a better corporate photographer.

By formally studying photography, you’ll have the chance to get this much needed practice. You’ll be challenged to create all different kinds of compositions and to get familiar with different shooting scenarios. Plus, the school environment creates some pressure that many people find beneficial. It can be difficult to motivate yourself to keep shooting consistently without the encouragement of peers and the motivation from wanting to do well in your courses.

However, photography programs can be expensive, and not everyone wants to spend four years studying before entering the professional world. You may also have a lot of experience shooting, and some courses may be redundant for you. If that’s the case, you can always consider taking one-off courses to strengthen skills in particular areas where you feel you could improve.

Becoming A Self-Taught Corporate Photographer

If going to school for photography doesn’t appeal to you or is out of your price range, you can absolutely still become a professional corporate photographer. Remember, your most important asset is your portfolio, so if you want to establish yourself in your field without going to school, your main goal should be to create portfolio-worthy images.

As any photographer will tell you, even if you are formally studying photography you won’t improve without practice. Whether you’re in school or going the DIY route, challenging yourself to keep shooting and to challenge yourself with new image styles and concepts is how you will become the best corporate photographer you can be.

To create images for your portfolio, a good way to start out before you have established yourself is to offer your services for free to some local businesses that are similar to the types of clients you’d like to book some day. Most businesses will be happy to accept the offer and get some fresh images for free, and you’ll have the chance to create real corporate photos for your portfolio.

Developing Your Style

Whether you’re building your portfolio while at school or as a self-taught photographer, it’s a good idea to focus on developing a style or look that can be associated with you. Portfolios that have a wide range of image styles can be confusing for potential clients.

For example, if a client wants a moody, cinematic corporate portrait, they’re more likely to hire you if your whole portfolio leans in that direction than if you have one or two images that have this style while the rest look completely different. In the first case, they’ll know you can reliably create that look, rather than dabbling in it.

Your portfolio will also be more memorable if it can be succinctly described with a few adjectives. While it may be tempting to have a bunch of different styles in your portfolio, it’s more beneficial for your career to develop a signature style and curate your portfolio to showcase it.

Marketing Your Business

With your portfolio website created, it’s time to start marketing your business. Staying active on social media is a good way to potentially land on your target customers feed without having to spend money, and sometimes contacting clients directly on Instagram can be a good way to book gigs. With social media its good to build up a bit of a relationship with the brands you want to work with before hitting them with the “so do you want to work together?” question. Engage with their content and let them see you’re interested in their work. Brands like to know that you can be an advocate for their brand.

As a corporate photographer, LinkedIn is an important social network that you should definitely be using to market your business. Your corporate clients are more likely to be active there than on any other social network.

Cold-emailing can also be effective, but make sure you’re including something memorable and worthwhile in your emails. Rather than just linking to your portfolio website, including something like a limited time offer can encourage potential clients to follow up with you.