Corporate Office Photography in Amsterdam: Individual Portraits and Team Images

When working as a corporate photographer in Amsterdam, part of my job is making the photography fit around the company's working day rather than asking the entire office to stop for the session.

This two-hour corporate photography session was created for the Amsterdam office of a global company. Their main office in London had already been photographed, and the goal was to create a new set of images in Amsterdam that could sit naturally alongside their existing visual identity.

The photographs were intended for the company website, team profiles, LinkedIn, and communications around their Amsterdam office. With only a small team and two hours available, planning the session around their working day was particularly important.

Starting with individual portraits

I arrived approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled session to prepare the lighting and select the areas we would use. Because we were photographing indoors, I worked with additional lighting and a lighting assistant, allowing us to test everything before asking anyone to step away from their work.

We selected two backgrounds within the office and kept them consistent across the individual portraits. Once the lighting was ready, each person only needed to join me for their own photographs rather than waiting while equipment was being prepared.

Three members of the team needed individual portraits for their profiles. I directed each person individually while keeping the overall lighting, backgrounds and visual style consistent, creating photographs that could work together across the company's website and professional profiles.

Creating natural photographs of the team at work

For the second part of the session, we moved away from individual portraits and concentrated on interaction. Rather than traditional posed group photographs, the brief called for images that felt closer to a normal working environment: colleagues having conversations, discussing projects and working together.

We created different combinations of the team so the company would have a small library of photographs rather than variations of one group portrait. This gave them more flexibility when choosing images for different pages and communications.

The session was also planned around the people who were comfortable being photographed. Participation wasn't assumed, and areas where other employees were working were kept outside our compositions when necessary. This allowed the photography to happen without disrupting the rest of the office.

Making two hours work efficiently

Corporate photography doesn't need to take over an entire working day. For this session, most of the preparation happened before each person was needed. While I photographed one part of the team, everyone else could continue working. Once we moved to the group photographs, the lighting and locations had already been established.

Having a clear brief before the session made an enormous difference. We knew which people needed portraits, how the photographs would be used, and what kind of team interactions the company wanted to show.

That allowed us to spend the two hours creating the photographs rather than deciding what we needed once everyone was already in front of the camera.

The result was a cohesive collection of professional portraits and natural team photographs created specifically for the company's Amsterdam presence, while keeping the interruption to their working day as small as possible.

Until next time in Amsterdam,

Joanna

Your Photographer in Amsterdam