What Should Employees Wear for Company Headshots?
Learn what employees should wear for polished, consistent company headshots. Practical wardrobe advice for businesses in Whitby and the Durham Region.
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Introduction
A company’s headshots should look as though they belong together. That does not mean asking every employee to arrive in an identical outfit. It means giving the team enough direction that the finished photographs share a consistent level of polish, formality, and visual style.
When we photograph teams on location in Whitby and throughout the Durham Region, wardrobe planning is one of the subjects we discuss before the session. A few thoughtful decisions can help a company’s website look more cohesive—and help employees feel considerably more confident on headshot day.
Begin With the Impression You Want to Create
Before discussing shirts, jackets, or colours, consider what prospective clients should understand about your company when they see your team.
Should your employees appear:
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Established and authoritative?
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Warm and approachable?
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Modern and innovative?
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Creative and expressive?
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Practical and ready to work?
Clothing helps communicate these qualities. A Whitby law office may want its portraits to convey experience and credibility, while a healthcare practice might prioritize warmth and accessibility. A construction company may be best represented by clean branded workwear, while a creative agency may welcome more personality and colour.
There is no universal outfit that works for every company. The best wardrobe is the one that accurately represents the organization behind the photographs.
Give Employees a Shared Wardrobe Direction
One of the easiest ways to improve a collection of team headshots is to establish a common wardrobe framework.
Employees do not need matching clothes, but their outfits should feel as though they belong in the same professional setting. If one person arrives in a formal suit and the next wears a casual T-shirt, the difference can become distracting when their photographs appear beside one another.
Most businesses can use one of the following approaches.
Formal and Established
Suits, jackets, dress shirts, blouses, ties, and understated colours can work well for executives and companies operating in more traditional industries.
This approach is commonly suited to law firms, financial professionals, accounting practices, senior leadership teams, and organizations that want to project authority.
Polished Business Casual
Business casual can feel professional without appearing overly formal. Depending on the company, this might include an open-collar shirt, blouse, sweater, dress, blazer, or other refined everyday workplace clothing.
This is a versatile direction for consultants, real estate teams, healthcare providers, technology companies, and many public-facing service businesses.
Branded Workwear
Company shirts, uniforms, jackets, and other branded clothing can immediately connect the people in the photographs to the organization they represent.
Before the session, confirm that everyone has clean, properly fitting apparel featuring the company’s current logo. Mixing older and newer versions of a uniform can make recently updated branding appear inconsistent.
Individual Style Within Clear Boundaries
Some organizations want each employee’s personality to be visible. This works particularly well when people are given boundaries rather than a prescribed outfit.
For example, employees could be asked to wear:
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Business casual clothing
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Neutral or company-approved colours
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No external company logos
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Jackets optional
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Subtle patterns only
This gives people freedom while still producing a unified collection of photographs.
Coordinate Clothing With the Photography Style
Wardrobe should be planned alongside the backdrop, lighting, and intended crop of the photographs.
A white shirt can look excellent against a dark or textured background but may provide very little separation against white. Dark clothing can create a sophisticated result, although it may blend into a dark backdrop if the lighting is not planned appropriately. This does not mean that white or black clothing must be prohibited. It means your photographer should know what employees are likely to wear before selecting the background and lighting design.
It is also worth considering where the photographs will be used. Closely cropped headshots provide different wardrobe possibilities than seated portraits, environmental images, or three-quarter-length photographs. If you would like more than conventional headshots, let employees know that their entire outfit may be photographed.
Clothing Details That Make a Difference
Once the broader direction has been established, employees can use the following recommendations when choosing their outfits.
Choose Clothing That Fits Properly
Clothing that pulls, bunches, or sits awkwardly can affect both posture and confidence. A well-fitting, moderately priced outfit will usually look more polished than an expensive garment that does not fit correctly.
Employees should try on their complete outfit before the session rather than discovering a missing button or uncomfortable collar that morning.
Prepare Clothing in Advance
Wrinkles, lint, pet hair, loose threads, and small stains can become more noticeable under professional lighting. Clothing should be cleaned, pressed, and placed on a hanger before being brought to work.
Keeping a lint roller, stain-removal pen, and small sewing kit nearby can be surprisingly helpful on headshot day.
Be Careful With Very Fine Patterns
Patterns are not automatically a problem. However, extremely narrow stripes, tiny checks, and tightly repeated designs can sometimes create an unwanted visual effect when photographed or displayed on a screen.
Plain fabrics and restrained patterns are generally the simplest choices. Larger patterns can work when they suit the company’s style, but they should not become more prominent than the person wearing them.
Use Brand Colours Selectively
A company’s colours can provide useful wardrobe inspiration, but not every employee needs to wear them.
Brand colours can be introduced through a shirt, blouse, tie, scarf, accessory, or background. A restrained approach often looks more sophisticated than attempting to reproduce an exact corporate colour across the entire team.
Limit Unrelated Logos
Unless branded clothing is part of the photography plan, employees should avoid large designer marks, slogans, and logos belonging to other companies. These elements can distract from the face and may make the photographs feel dated as fashions change.
Keep Jewellery and Accessories Intentional
Accessories should feel appropriate for the individual and their role. Statement pieces can work for a more expressive brand, while understated jewellery may be better suited to a conservative professional environment.
Employees who normally wear glasses should generally wear them in their portraits. Cleaning the lenses beforehand and letting the photographer manage reflections will help create a natural, recognizable result.
Create a Simple Employee Wardrobe Brief
Long wardrobe instructions are easily overlooked. A concise email or one-page visual guide is usually more effective.
Include:
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The desired level of formality
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Recommended colours
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Any colours or patterns that may conflict with the background
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Whether jackets or ties are expected
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Whether company apparel should be worn
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The anticipated photographic crop
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Whether employees should bring an alternative outfit
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A few visual examples of suitable clothing
Send this information early enough for employees to purchase, clean, or alter clothing if necessary. A reminder several days before the session can prevent last-minute surprises. Alternatively, Darian Drake Photography offers to make each company its own wardrobe guide made available to all of its employees through an online link, which can be easily circulated to your entire team and saves your company the hassle of creating your own guide.
Other Considersations
Should Employees Bring an Alternative Outfit?
A complete wardrobe change is not normally necessary for a standard company headshot session. Nevertheless, bringing one alternative shirt, blouse, jacket, or tie can be useful.
An extra option may help if:
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The original outfit is too similar to the background
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A garment becomes stained or damaged
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The fit does not look right on camera
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The employee is uncertain about the company’s dress expectations
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A jacket or layer would provide a more polished variation
If the company would like every employee photographed in two distinctly different looks, this should be arranged beforehand. Clothing changes require additional time and may affect the appointment schedule.
Do Pants and Shoes Matter?
Even when a close crop is planned, dressing completely is still a good idea.
The photographer may see an opportunity for a seated portrait, a wider composition, or an environmental photograph within the workplace. Wearing a complete outfit also helps many people feel more professionally prepared.
If the session is strictly limited to chest-up headshots, shoes will not appear. However, arriving fully dressed preserves more creative options.
Is Professional Hair and Makeup Necessary?
Professional hair and makeup is optional for most company headshot sessions.
For a large team, a touch-up professional can help reduce shine, tidy stray hairs, check collars, and make small adjustments without requiring a full appointment for each person. Darian Drake Photography always brings equipment such as hand mirrors, combs, hair spray and lint rollers to create a touch up station your employees can use for last minute fixes.
Employees should generally look like themselves on a particularly polished day. A dramatic departure from their usual appearance may feel less authentic to clients and colleagues who meet them in person.
What If Someone Arrives Unprepared?
Even with clear instructions, someone may forget the dress code or arrive in an outfit that conflicts with the company’s plan.
Depending on the issue, the photographer may be able to adjust the crop, background, pose, or lighting. Keeping a neutral blazer or spare company shirt at the workplace can also provide a quick solution.
When an appropriate result cannot be created, an individual reshoot is preferable to allowing one noticeably inconsistent image to weaken the entire team page.
A Cohesive Team Does Not Have to Look Identical
The strongest company headshots balance two goals: presenting a recognizable organization and preserving the individuality of the people within it.
Start by deciding what your company wants to communicate. Establish a level of formality, select a flexible colour direction, and provide employees with straightforward examples. From there, your photographer can coordinate the background, lighting, and composition to create a collection that feels intentional.
Darian Drake Photography provides premium on-location team headshots and portraits for businesses in Whitby, the Durham Region, Peterborough, and the GTA. We help companies plan the visual direction of their session and bring professional studio lighting and backdrops directly to the workplace. Still need help planning your team headshots and portraits session? Consider reading our article on organizing team headshots to learn more about what's involved. Need a quote? Just fill out our short form below.