Work Group Photos
- hendersonkelly
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Work group photos are always a bit tricky. You have to wrangle busy people and ensure they are dressed appropriately. Find a location that is relevant and/or supports the photo and is not too boring or busy. There is a lot to do before the first photo can be taken.
The larger the group the more difficult they are to photograph as there are more people to organise and less locations that can comfortably accommodate everyone.
I’ll be working though some group photos starting with a small group then getting progressively larger. This photo (Pic-1) has only 4 people which gave us a few location options. I chose this small staircase as there were strong leading lines in the over all composition and it showcases their interesting head office. The stairs allowed a pleasing arrangement of the people and made any height differences irrelevant.
It is expensive having a part of your workforce not working so an efficient use of everyones time when taking group photos is important. The location should be prepared and the camera and lights should be set up well before anyone arrives. This allows people to be placed as they arrive. Regularly a few people are late so any test shots can be done while waiting for them. Then it is quick and easy to slot them into the set on arrival.
This photo (Pic-2) is in a relevant and interesting location. Meeting props are used to help the composition and tell a story and we got lucky with that splash of sunshine on the wall that also added some punch and warmth to the photo.
The next photo (Pic-3) is the board of directors of a large industrial chemical manufacturer. This presented an excellent opportunity to get a stand out photo with the blue drums background contrasting the hi-vis safety gear worn by the directors. Everything was set up prior to the board arriving so the 15 minutes we had was spent arranging and photographing them.
Due to the locations safety requirements everyone had to wear the safety gear. Everyone also had to be standing, so to get away from a dull shoulder to shoulder line up I placed people at three different distances from the camera with the chairman closest. This added considerable depth and interest to the composition.
They really appreciated how quickly the photography was completed and loved the results.
The next two photo are the same client’s annual photo of that years graduate intake. In both furniture was used to avoid the “police line up” look and allowed 3-4 levels and comfortable overlapping. In Pic-4 the fantastic rug in the room gave me strong leading lines to the subjects.
In Pic-5 there were considerably more people and as it was a rather luxurious rug I drew inspiration from Annie Leibovitz’s Hollywood group portraits in Vanity Fair and had a couple of the men casually sitting on the rug. This can be an awkward suggestion with corporates but the men on the rug were young and fit enough to look very cool and casual. It certainly made the photo more interesting and an eye catching photo is great communications as the viewer is much more likely to read the accompanying copy.
I’ve included Pic-6 as it shows how much fun a group photo can be and you are much more likely to get natural smiles if everyone is in a good mood.
These two photos involve a group of considerable size, 30+, and finding a location is the biggest challenge. All lined up is a ridiculous looking photo and if there is not a suitable location I would advise against a group photo this size. Fortunately there was an amazing Frank Gehry staircase and with considerable careful placing I managed to get everyone in the shot.
The second photo of this group shows the alternative way to shoot a large group and that is to use an elevated camera position. I’ve used a step ladder here, it’s always nice to get a fun shot after the formal ones are done.
Another seriously large group to photograph. The stairs were just across the road from their office so it was not too much trouble to get everyone to the location and the final images are excellent.
One issue with large group photos is statistically you have to take 1.5x as many shots as there are people in the photo to ensure everyone has their eyes open, so with 40 people that’s 60 shots. Not an acceptable hit rate so I’ve developed a few techniques over the years to radically increase the number of successful usable images.
Group photos are a great way to highlight the scale of your organisation and the talent within it, while also capturing a shared moment in time.