Two of the most common requests I get from companies sound similar but are different products: “our team needs headshots” and “our CEO needs photos because press is starting to pick us up.” The first is a headshot session. The second is an executive portrait session. Here is the difference in plain language, and how to know which one you need.
What a standard headshot session covers
A headshot session produces one polished, consistent look. One background treatment, one outfit, a tight professional frame. It is the right product for LinkedIn profiles, team pages, internal directories, and most professional uses. For teams, it is priced by group size as a headshot day. For an individual, it is a short session with a handful of finished selects.
What an executive portrait session covers
An executive portrait session is built for range, not just polish. In roughly two hours we shoot 3 to 4 distinct looks across different backgrounds and settings, with multiple outfits, and I frame every look three ways: wide, medium, and tight. The deliverable is a press-ready image library, usually a few dozen finished files, that covers everything a communications team gets asked for.
AWS CEO Matt Garman, photographed in Seattle. Two looks from the same session: an environmental portrait at Amazon headquarters, and a studio look on a plain background. One serves a magazine feature, the other a byline or board deck.
Why the framing matrix matters
Different outlets want different photos. LinkedIn and article bylines want a tight headshot. Conference organizers and podcast producers want a medium portrait with some breathing room for their graphics. Magazines and newspapers prefer wider environmental frames they can crop to their layout. If all you have is one tight headshot, every one of those requests becomes a scramble. With a portrait library, your team just picks the right file and hits send.
When a CEO should upgrade
The trigger is visibility. If your company is raising a round, launching publicly, hiring fast, or starting to appear in trade press, requests for photos of your leadership will arrive faster than you expect. That is the moment to build the library, before the profile piece, not the week the reporter asks. A funding announcement with a strong environmental portrait reads like a company on the way up. The same announcement with a stretched LinkedIn headshot does not.
Time, deliverables, and price
A standard individual headshot session is short and focused, and team headshot days are priced by group size, starting at $2,000 for a half day. An executive portrait session runs about two hours on site, covers 3 to 4 looks with multiple outfits, and delivers a finished library with wide, medium, and tight frames of each look. Executive portrait sessions are quoted to scope: locations, number of looks, and how the images will be used. Both happen at your office or a location of your choice, and I bring the full studio either way.
Which one do you need?
If the photos are for LinkedIn, the team page, or internal use: a headshot session. If the photos are for press, speaking, fundraising, a board announcement, or a CEO who is becoming the public face of the company: an executive portrait session. If you are not sure, tell me what the photos need to do over the next twelve months and I will tell you honestly which one fits. For team pricing, see what headshot photography costs.
If your company is looking to refresh its corporate headshots, reach out for a quote! Tell me your team size and timeline and I will send pricing the same day: josh@edelsonphotography.com or 650-515-0999. You can also plan your shoot with the free headshot day planner.
Real examples of both: an executive portrait session for a billion-dollar startup CEO and a leadership team headshot refresh.