Why a modern headshot solution saves money immediately
Most people only see the price on the photographer’s quote and forget everything that happens around the actual session. A traditional studio headshot often includes scheduling back-and-forth, commuting across the city, waiting in a lobby, getting ready in a hurry, and then repeating that for each person on your team. Even if you negotiate a “group rate”, all of that time translates directly into cost.
With mybrandphoto.com, there is no studio to book and no travel to coordinate. Each person uploads 1–3 photos whenever it suits them — from home, from the office, or on the go. The system takes care of lighting, framing, and subtle retouching, so you receive a studio-quality result without the studio infrastructure or the overhead that comes with it.
The hidden costs of a traditional photoshoot
When you think about a classic “go to the photographer” day, several cost drivers appear that are rarely itemised in a quote:
- Travel time and transport: taxis, trains, or mileage reimbursements quickly add up, especially for larger teams.
- Lost productive hours: each person might be away from their desk for one to three hours, which is rarely accounted for in the budget.
- Scheduling friction: rescheduling, cancellations, and no-shows introduce extra sessions and administrative work.
- Makeup, styling, and prep: if you bring in external stylists or book a make-up artist, that becomes an additional line item.
- Retouching rounds: manual retouching and corrections can add both time and cost if the initial result is not quite right.
By the time you add these factors together, a “simple” headshot day can become one of the more expensive line items in your branding or HR budget. It is not unusual for organisations to spend thousands of dollars for a single set of photos that will need replacing in a year or two.
How mybrandphoto.com reduces cost without sacrificing quality
The core idea behind mybrandphoto.com is simple: keep the visual quality of a studio shoot but remove the logistics that make it expensive. Instead of renting space and moving people to a camera, we work with the photos they already have and refine them with specialised tooling.
- No studio rental: you never pay for lights, backdrops, or a physical location.
- No travel or downtime: team members use their phone or laptop in a few spare minutes, without blocking their day.
- Predictable, transparent pricing: you know the price per person upfront and can easily forecast your budget.
- Consistent output: your team photos look aligned in framing and lighting, which normally requires a carefully planned studio setup.
When you apply those differences to a team of 10, 50, or 200 people, the savings compound quickly. That is why even small adjustments in your inputs in the calculator can translate into thousands saved over a year.
Example: a 25-person team
Imagine a growing company that wants new headshots for 25 team members. A reasonable studio quote might be $200 per person, which includes photographer time and basic retouching. That puts the direct invoice at $5,000. If you estimate that each person spends two hours travelling and waiting, and you value that time at $60 per hour, the indirect cost is another $3,000. Suddenly, your real cost for a “$5,000 shoot” is closer to $8,000.
Using mybrandphoto.com, the same team can receive polished, ready-to-use portraits for a fraction of that amount. There is no collective “photo day”, no taxi receipts, and no need to coordinate calendar blocks around a photographer’s availability. Everyone contributes on their own schedule, and the entire process moves from a single expensive event to a smooth, repeatable workflow.
Better for distributed and hybrid teams
For remote-first organisations, traditional photoshoots often mean flying people into a central location or spending weeks coordinating regional sessions. Those flights, hotels, and extra days out of office are rarely attributed to the “photo budget”, but they still hit the bottom line.
With a virtual solution, you can give a new hire in another city the same high-quality headshot experience as someone sitting in your headquarters, without any travel cost. That makes it much easier to keep profiles up to date as people join, change roles, or move teams, and it means that your “per person” cost stays stable as the company grows.
Consistency, not compromise
There is a common assumption that saving money means compromising on how people look. In practice, the opposite is often true. When you remove the stress of a one-time studio appointment and let people choose photos they like, the end result tends to feel more natural and authentic. They are not being rushed through a queue; they can take a moment to pick a photo that feels like them.
Because mybrandphoto.com focuses on lighting, clarity, and subtle enhancements, the final images stay true to each person’s face and personality. That authenticity is part of what makes modern headshots feel trustworthy, and it is one of the reasons organisations are comfortable switching away from the classic studio model.
Using this calculator as a planning tool
The calculator on this page is intentionally simple: you can adjust your team size, the price you would expect to pay a photographer, and the price you pay per person with mybrandphoto.com. From there, you see an estimate of how much you save and what the percentage difference looks like.
Use it when you are preparing a budget request, comparing quotes from different providers, or explaining the impact of switching to a virtual solution to your stakeholders. You can even plug in conservative numbers to keep your estimates realistic; the savings tend to be strong enough that they remain obvious even with cautious assumptions.
Frequently asked questions about savings
“Does this replace a photographer entirely?”
For many organisations, yes. If you need highly art-directed campaign images, you might still work with a photographer. But for everyday
professional headshots for LinkedIn, internal tools, and your team page, a virtual solution is usually more than enough.
“What if someone wants to redo their photo later?”
With a studio, arranging a second shoot is expensive. With mybrandphoto.com, updating a headshot becomes a quick, lightweight step that
does not require a new booking or a day out of the office.
“How accurate is the calculator?”
The tool on this page is a guide, not an official quote. It is designed to help you visualise the difference between traditional and modern
approaches. Your actual savings will depend on your location, typical photographer rates, and how you value internal time, but the direction
of the numbers is consistent across industries: moving away from studio days significantly reduces cost.
If you would like a more detailed projection for your specific team or company, you can always reach out to us at info@mybrandphoto.com. We are happy to help you build a simple, realistic ROI model.