One day of shooting, six months of posts.
The best corporate photoshoot ideas start from where the images will end up: portraits for your about page and LinkedIn, your team at work for your service pages, your workplace for your Google profile, product details for social media, and a few wide shots with room for text in ads. Plan the day around a shot list, get consent from everyone in front of the camera, and one day gives you images for months.
We organised shoot days for Business Centrum and FK Boekhouding in Ghent, and for our own team. Below: what to shoot, a day schedule, shot lists per kind of business, EU consent rules for staff photos, and what to do with the images afterwards, including for companies with teams in several countries.
Corporate photoshoot ideas: what to shoot
| Kind of image | Where you use it | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Portraits | About page, LinkedIn, email signature, proposals | Same background and light for everyone |
| Team at work | Home page, service pages, careers | Real tasks, no staged handshakes |
| The workplace | About, contact, your Google Business Profile (see is Google Business Profile free) | Tidy, not empty |
| Product or service in use | Service and product pages, ads | Show what the customer gets |
| Details | Social media, backgrounds | Hands, materials, tools |
| Wide shots | Banners, Facebook and Instagram ads | Leave space on one side |
Start from where the images will go. A new website needs one image per service page and a strong shot for the home page. Social media needs many small moments, ideally also upright for reels and stories. Ads need images with room for text. Write that list before the photographer arrives, with the format per image: landscape for your site, upright for reels and stories, square or 4 by 5 for feed posts. Which size each platform needs is in social media image sizes; why your own images are safer than pictures from the web is in can I use images from Google on my website.
Shot lists per kind of business
- An accountant or law firmportraits, a client meeting at a table, the office, details of files and screens without confidential data. For FK Boekhouding we organised two shoots in 2026, on 27 February and 8 April.
- A builder or installerthe crew on site, before and after, materials, the owner with a client. Plan the site on a day there is something to see.
- A shop or online storethe product in use, the packaging, the team packing orders, the shop.
- A service business with an officeas at Business Centrum, where a shoot day on 1 May 2026 gave 66 images and 13 portraits.
- Images of the team, the office and the work66
- Staff portraits13
- Together, from one day79
The same images also fill your website, your LinkedIn page and your ads.
A shoot day, morning to evening
- 8:30Set-up and lightThe photographer checks the daylight and prepares a spot for portraits.
- 9:30PortraitsTen minutes per person, the same background, a few candid ones too.
- 11:00The workPeople at work, a client meeting, hands and details.
- 14:00Place and productOffice, workshop or site, the product in use, wide shots with room for text.
- 16:00Video and reelsShort clips for social media, if you planned them.
Consent from your team and clients, under EU rules
Anyone recognisable in a photo must agree to it. Belgium's data protection authority distinguishes taking a photo from using it: they are two separate consents. A photo taken for your website may not simply be used for something else. Ask for consent in writing, before the shoot, and say what the images are for: website, social media, ads. When an employee leaves, review whether their portrait stays on your site. For children, both parents must agree.
If you shoot at a client's premises, ask them too, and keep confidential data on screens and papers out of the frame. A company with teams in several EU countries applies the same care everywhere: data protection rules follow the person in the photo, wherever the shoot happens.
The week before the shoot
Most shoot days go wrong on things you could have settled a week earlier. Run through this list with the photographer:
- The schedule per hour to everyone who will be on camera, so nobody has a client meeting that day.
- Tidy the spaces: desks without cables and papers, screens with a neutral image, the sign on the building clean.
- Agree on clothing: plain colours, no big logos, a second outfit for anyone shot outside too.
- Lay out props: your product, your workwear, the tools that show your trade.
- A plan for rain for the outdoor images, and a second date for a site that is not ready.
- One person from your team as contact, who knows who sits where and which door needs to be open.
What we learned from our own shoots
A shot list saves half the day. Start without one and you shoot whatever is there and miss what you needed. Daylight is your best friend: plan portraits by a window. Have people do something instead of posing; someone explaining looks better than a smile into the lens. And plan video on the same day: at our own team shoot in May 2026 we made four reels and behind-the-scenes footage with a film camera alongside the photos. How to approach video is in corporate video and corporate video cost.
Questions before a corporate shoot
What should a corporate photoshoot include?
Team portraits, people at work, your workplace, your product or service in use, details, and a few wide shots with room for text.
Do employees have to consent?
Yes. Belgium's data protection authority explains you need consent to photograph someone recognisably and a second consent to use the photo outside a private circle, such as on your website.
How long does a corporate photoshoot take?
For a small team, one day is usually enough. Half a day for portraits only, a full day if you want work, place and video too.
What should people wear?
What they would wear to meet a client, in plain colours without large logos or fine stripes. Bring a second outfit.
What to do with the images afterwards
A shoot only pays when the images get used. Decide where each one goes: portraits on your about us page and LinkedIn company page, work shots on your service pages, details and moments in your social media plan, wide shots in your ads. Real images hold viewers longer than stock; see also the Instagram algorithm in 2026.
On your website two more things count. Give every image a descriptive alt text and file name ("accountant-ghent-client-meeting.jpg", not "DSC_0412.jpg"), as Google advises, and translate both for each language version of your site. And keep the files light: sharp enough, but optimised. For Villa Lidia we brought the site's images from 51 MB to 17 MB and the home page from 8.4 MB to 1.4 MB. Test your own site with the website speed test.
What it means for your business
A company from abroad selling into Belgium also photographs its Belgian team or partners, so buyers see someone is here. A small business plans one shoot day a year and a smaller one for big changes: a new office, new people. An online store shoots per collection, with the product in use next to the cut-out product photo. An agency puts a shoot at the start of a new client programme, because every other channel depends on it.
Your own images against stock
- Who is in it
- Own photoshootYour own team and clients
- Stock photosModels who also appear on competitors' sites
- Trust
- Own photoshootVisitors see who they will meet
- Stock photosVisitors recognise stock
- Use
- Own photoshootWebsite, social media, ads, press
- Stock photosDepends on the licence
- Cost
- Own photoshootOne day, once
- Stock photosPer image or by subscription
Stock fills a gap. Your own images build trust.
AI images or a real shoot
AI can extend a background or retouch a photo. But a portrait of someone who does not exist, on your about page, is exactly what Google advises against when it comes to who is behind a site. And since 2 August 2026, realistic AI images of people, places or events that could pass as real must be disclosed in the EU; see AI-generated content labelling. For who you are and what you do, only real images work.
How VBS runs your shoot day
From Ghent, Belgium, we write the shot list, photograph and film at your workplace, and deliver images ready for your site, your social channels and your ads. We then use them in your social media management and on your website. For our own team we ran such a shoot day in May 2026, with four reels and behind-the-scenes footage, and we still draw posts from it months later. Book a call.