We're in the middle of planning a company rebrand for Q2 and one of the requirements is updated professional headshots for everyone on the team page with consistent styling.
IT Director got quotes from three photography studios. All of them came back between $250-300 per person, putting us around $11,000-$13,500 total. Timeline would be 6-8 weeks because they'd need to schedule multiple session days around everyone's availability, especially our remote employees in different regions.
CFO is asking if there's a faster and cheaper alternative that doesn't compromise on quality or brand consistency.
I've been researching AI headshot platforms and it looks like tools like Looktara can generate professional headshots for around $30-40 per person, bringing total cost to under $2,000. Timeline would be days instead of months since everyone can upload their photos and generate results independently.
My concerns are: does AI maintain enough consistency across 45 different people that our team page looks cohesive and professionally branded, and are there any legal or HR considerations around using AI-generated images of employees for company materials?
For HR, IT, or marketing folks who've handled this at scale: have you successfully replaced traditional photographer sessions with AI-generated headshots for a full company rebrand? What issues came up that you didn't anticipate?
Also wondering about employee buy-in. Did anyone push back on using AI versions of themselves, or was everyone fine with it once they saw the quality?
Company rebrand next quarter. We need updated headshots for 45 employees. IT Director says photographers will cost $13k and take 2 months. Alternative?
byu/Russ6885 inbusiness
Posted by Russ6885
9 Comments
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AI tools can do some amazing work these days. I would do a limited trial run with some volunteers and see how it goes.
I’ve worked as a professional photographer before, the cost you’re being quoted is reasonable for the amount of work involved doing it the old fashioned way.
The diverse locations makes it a lot tougher problem for traditional photographers.
Yes to all of your questions
I recommend kiwiheadshots.
Just mandate and disperse an SOP. Then enforce it.
This is almost certainly an ad, but if photography studios are seriously charging that, then keep shopping.
We did a rebrand and a photoshoot and spent less than $2k on 3 shoot days.
You already looking at AI solution so it hard to compare to traditional photography.
What I will say it’s that $13K for 45 people there should be at least 20% bulk discount. A session for $350 and take half day is full on wardrobe set. That have to be like casual wears, business casual, formal wear and probably a full set from portrait to full body shot of the whole person. Check with your team and CFO id they all that. Or you can also group into department heads and staff. Less work less time and better costing overall.
Dear Advertiser,
Have you tried Olan Mills? Sears Portrait Studio often does discount packages, and you get multiple sizes including wallet size prints for about $100. Plus there is a bearskin rug.
We didn’t hit any legal issues using AI headshots. Employees own their likeness either way doesn’t matter if it’s photographed or generated.
One issue we didn’t anticipate that few employees had really outdated or low-quality source photos and the AI couldn’t fix that. We ended up asking them to take fresh selfies with their phones near a window and that solved it.
We were skeptical about consistency at scale but it actually worked really well. You can provide the same prompt/style settings to everyone so all 45 headshots have the same look and feel.