Business portrait photography for international companies in Moscow 2026: LinkedIn, team headshots, corporate

Three formats of business portrait we shoot

We separate business portrait work into three formats because they require different setups, different briefs and different deliverables.

Individual LinkedIn portrait

One person, 60 to 90 minutes, two outfits, two backgrounds. This is the most common request. The brief is simple: a portrait that helps you look approachable and competent at the same time, with clean light and a background that does not date the image. Delivery 5 to 10 finished images, ready for LinkedIn, the company website, conference materials and personal branding use.

Team headshots, matched format

10 to 80 employees over one day, same backdrop, same lighting, same crop. Used for company "About us" pages, internal directories, conference materials. We deliver a single matched gallery that looks like a coherent team, not 40 different photos taken across 3 years by 4 different photographers.

Corporate refresh, full programme

Multiple sessions over several days. Executive portraits with extra time and styling input, mid-management portraits in a faster format, location shots (office, meeting room, lobby) for the team page hero image, plus group shots and event-style reportage as needed. Used by international firms doing a full visual identity refresh once every 3 to 4 years.

Studios with proper cyclorama walls in Moscow

For team shoots we always work in a studio with a real cyclorama: a seamless curved corner where wall meets floor with no visible line. This gives every portrait the same clean background regardless of the colour temperature outside or the size of the person. Moscow has a small number of studios that meet our quality bar, and we usually rent one for the full day.

Studio choice depends on the size of the team and where most employees work. For a Moscow City team, we pick a studio within walking distance to minimise time off the desk. For a team based near Tverskaya or Sadovoye, we pick a studio closer to the centre.

Studio rent is paid separately to the studio (typically 2 500 to 5 000 ₽ per hour for the studios we use). Some companies prefer to do the shoot in their own office on a portable backdrop; we can run a pop-up studio in any meeting room with at least 3 by 4 metres of clear floor space.

Pricing for 2026

All prices in roubles. USD and EUR equivalents are approximate and depend on the daily exchange rate. Payment by transfer against an invoice in Russian or English, by SBP, by Russian bank card via online link, or by international card via partner processor.

How a team headshot day actually runs

1. Pre-day briefing (1 week before). We share a 2-page dress-code guide for the team, agree the schedule (typically 7 minutes per person), confirm the meeting room or studio, and align on the look (background colour, headshot crop or three-quarter, lighting).
2. Set up (1 hour, morning of). Photographer and assistant arrive at 8:30 a.m. Set up the cyclorama or portable backdrop, two key lights, one fill, a clean exit-zone for staged frames.
3. Shooting blocks (every 7 to 10 minutes per person). The team rotates through. Each person gets 20 to 40 frames, 5 to 8 of which are usable. We show 2 to 3 frames on the laptop before the next person walks in, so anyone who wants a retake gets one immediately.
4. Break (lunch, 45 minutes). Team can have a coffee, we back up the cards and check the rolling gallery.
5. Pack down (3 p.m. to 5 p.m.). Lights and backdrop down in 30 minutes.
6. Post-production (5 to 10 working days). Every selected portrait gets colour correction, background colour normalised across the gallery, light retouch (skin and stray hair), and is delivered at the agreed crop. Every team member gets the same treatment so the gallery is visually consistent.

What we deliver and how

• Matched cropped portraits. Each portrait at the exact ratio your company website needs (typically square 1:1 for LinkedIn, 4:5 for portrait orientation on website team pages).
• Background normalisation. Every background pulled to the exact same RGB value across the gallery, so 25 portraits look like one shoot, not 25 disconnected shots.
• Two crops per portrait by default. A close-up headshot and a wider three-quarter. Wider crops are useful for hero banners; tight crops are best for LinkedIn.
• One outtake per person, ready for personal use. A more candid frame the employee can use on their own social media.
• Delivery format. Private cloud gallery with passcode. Each employee receives only their own gallery section by email; HR receives the full matched gallery.
• Asset naming. Files named by employee name or by an anonymised ID. We follow whatever naming convention your HR system uses.

Dress code best practice for business portraits

Dress code is what makes or breaks a team gallery. We share a 2-page brief with the team before the shoot, but the highlights:

• Solid colours over patterns. Plain shirts, blouses, knitwear and blazers always photograph better than busy prints or stripes that can shimmer (moire) on camera.
• No company-logo polos for the website team page. Save those for event photography. For team pages, individual professional dress reads as more senior and credible.
• No bright fluorescent or pure white tops if the background is white. They wash into the backdrop and faces float.
• Avoid heavy patterns, broad checks and tight stripes. They moire on camera at portrait resolution and look strange in print.
• Make-up should be natural and matte. Glossy lipstick reflects light and reads as artificial.
• Glasses: keep them on if you wear them daily. We retouch reflections in post; a sudden bare face looks unlike the person colleagues recognise.
• Hair tidy but not stiff. Fresh haircut a week before, not the night before. Hairspray softens once the camera lights warm the air.

Privacy, data handling and confidentiality

For international clients, especially regulated industries (financial services, law, consulting), data handling is part of the brief. Our standard practice:

• All raw files are stored on encrypted drives. Backups are encrypted before they leave the workstation.
• Galleries are delivered through a private cloud link with a passcode and a 6-month expiry. Links are not indexed and cannot be guessed.
• For corporate clients, the contract includes a confidentiality clause and a non-publication clause: we do not publish any of the resulting images on our own marketing materials without explicit written consent.
• If a non-disclosure agreement is required, we sign one before the briefing.
• At project end (typically 30 days after delivery), all raw files except the contractual archive can be permanently deleted on request.
• We do not store identifiable personal data (employee names, emails, internal IDs) beyond the duration of the project, and the project archive is held only for the purpose of post-delivery reprints and updates.

Post-production turnaround

Standard delivery for a team-headshot day is 5 to 10 working days. For larger shoots (40 to 80 employees) we usually deliver in rolling batches: the first batch of 20 portraits within 3 working days, the rest within 10. Express post-production at 3 working days for the entire team is possible with a 15 percent surcharge.

Every portrait gets the same treatment: colour grading, white-balance correction, background uniformity, light skin retouch, stray-hair removal, eye sharpening. We do not change face shape, skin colour or body shape unless explicitly briefed (some clients want a "minimal retouch" or "no retouch" finish, which we will follow exactly).

Our experience with international clients

Aleks Maysky and team have shot for a wide range of international clients with offices in Moscow over the past 12 years: management consultancies, law firms, banks, IT vendors, FMCG companies, audit firms, advertising agencies and trade missions. We use generic language ("our international clients") rather than naming specific firms, because most international companies' image and reputation policies discourage being used as marketing references. If your firm requires a reference from a peer organisation, we can provide one on request, in confidence.

What we have learned across these shoots: international teams in Moscow appreciate predictable timing, clean briefing in English, a photographer who does not over-direct, and a quiet professional set. We aim for "studio in the meeting room": the team should feel like the shoot is invisible, not a film production.

Lighting and composition we use for business portraits

Business portrait lighting is its own discipline. We use a three-light setup with carefully controlled fill so the resulting frames are flattering but not glamorised: people should look like themselves on a good day, not airbrushed.

• Key light: large soft box at 45 degrees from the subject, slightly above eye level. This is the dominant light source and shapes the face
• Fill light: a smaller soft box or reflector on the opposite side, reducing shadow contrast but not eliminating it. Some shadow gives the face depth
• Hair or rim light: a small light behind and above the subject, separating the head from the background and adding a subtle highlight to the hair
• Background lighting: for a clean cyclorama background, one additional light dedicated to keeping the background evenly lit, so colour stays consistent across the full gallery

For office-based pop-up shoots we adapt the same principles with smaller portable units. The visual result is close to a studio shoot, even in a meeting room with mediocre ambient light.

Background choices and what they communicate

The background is the single biggest signal in a business portrait. Three default looks cover 90 percent of requests:

Clean white

Default for modern technology companies, startups, consumer brands and consultancies that want a fresh, optimistic look. White backgrounds also work best when the company website has a white page design, because the portraits sit on the page without any visible edge.

Mid-grey or charcoal

Classic choice for law firms, financial services, audit firms and traditional consulting. Reads as serious, established and credible without being sombre. Works particularly well for executive portraits where authority is part of the brief.

Branded colour

For companies with a strong brand colour, we can match the backdrop to the colour palette: dark navy, deep green, soft taupe, brand-specific tones. We sample the brand colour from the brand book before the shoot to ensure consistency.

On-location office background

An alternative to a coloured cyclorama. The portrait is taken in the actual office, with a slightly defocused background of the workspace. Strong for company team pages that want to communicate the working environment as well as the people. Requires a tidy office and careful lighting; we usually use this for executive portraits rather than the whole team.

Crop options and what they signal

We deliver each portrait in two crops by default (square and 4:5). Additional crops can be added on request without an extra shoot.

Tone-of-voice across portraits and how we direct the team

A business portrait should match how the person actually looks in a meeting, not a forced corporate smile. Our direction style focuses on micro-expressions and posture rather than instructions like "smile". Typical direction sequence during a 7-minute slot:

1. Posture reset. Stand or sit slightly tall, shoulders back, weight balanced. We adjust without touching
2. Chin position. Slightly down to avoid the up-the-nose look, but not so far down it creates a double chin
3. Eyes. Look just past the camera at a fixed point we point out, then slowly look into the lens. The catch-light from the lights gives the eyes life
4. Breath out, then frame. A slow exhale relaxes the shoulders and face. We shoot at the end of the exhale
5. One frame neutral, one frame faint smile, one frame natural laugh. We give the team a small joke or a moment to react. The natural laugh frame is often the one HR ends up using
6. Profile or three-quarter. A second pose at a different angle adds variety to the gallery

What we typically retouch and what we leave alone

Default retouching for business portraits is conservative. We adjust:

• Skin texture: light removal of temporary blemishes, leave permanent features (moles, freckles) untouched
• Stray hair across the face: cloned out
• Background colour: pulled to exact RGB consistency
• Tie or collar adjustments: only if visible to the eye as wrong
• Eye whites: lightly cleaned, no whitening
• Teeth: only if visibly stained from coffee right before the shoot, otherwise left alone

We do not adjust face shape, skin colour, body shape, age signs, or change any feature that defines the person. Several international clients ask for a "minimal retouch" finish where we do only background correction and exposure balance; we follow that brief exactly.

Sample day schedule: team headshot of 30 employees

Onboarding new hires after the main team shoot

A team gallery is only useful if it stays current. We offer two follow-up patterns for new hires:

• Quarterly mini-session. Every 3 months we run a 2-hour studio session for any new hires, in batches of 4 to 8 people. Single-portrait rate, matched to the existing gallery look
• On-demand single sessions. A new hire books their own slot at our pop-up studio, single-portrait rate, delivered within a week

To ensure the new portraits match the existing gallery, we keep a reference file with the exact lighting setup, backdrop colour, camera settings and retouching style used in the original shoot.

Sample invoice line items

For finance teams that need to budget against a quote, here is how a typical 30-person team-headshot day invoice is structured:

We can issue invoices in either Russian or English depending on the legal entity. For international holding companies we can also issue an invoice from a sister entity registered abroad on request.

Frequently asked questions

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