London headshot prices in 2026
These are the ranges I see across the market, not just my own rates. Anything much below the bottom of a band usually means a shorter session or fewer edited frames rather than a bargain.
| What you’re booking | Typical London price | What that usually covers |
|---|---|---|
| Individual studio session, 30 to 45 min | £150 to £300 | One or two looks, direction on the day, 2 to 5 retouched images |
| Extended personal branding sitting, 90 to 120 min | £350 to £600 | Three to five looks, wider portraits, 8 to 15 retouched images |
| Half day on site, up to 4 hours | £450 to £900 | Pop-up studio, setup, roughly 15 to 25 people |
| Full day on site, 7 to 8 hours | £750 to £1,500 | Pop-up studio, roughly 25 to 45 people, one edited frame each |
| Per head, 5 to 10 people | £45 to £90 each | Small teams, usually cheaper as a half day instead |
| Per head, 11 to 25 people | £35 to £65 each | The most common corporate booking size |
| Per head, 26 to 60 people | £25 to £45 each | Two-day bookings, express slots |
| Extra retouched image | £15 to £40 each | Beyond the included set |
| Same-day or next-morning delivery | +£75 to £150 | Editing outside normal turnaround |
| Advertising or paid media usage | +50% to 100% | Billboards, paid social, print campaigns |
My own headshot photography starts at £150 for a solo sitting, and broader corporate photography from £250 where a day mixes headshots with office, team and event coverage.
Why the same-looking photo costs £150 or £600
Four things move the number, and none of them is the camera body.
- Time in the room. A 20-minute express slot and a two-hour sitting produce very different pictures, because relaxing somebody takes real minutes.
- Number of finished images. Retouching is where the hours hide. Ten carefully finished frames is most of a working day once you include selection and colour matching.
- Looks and setups. Every extra background or lighting change adds roughly ten minutes per person, and on a team day that multiplies fast.
- Usage. A photo for a LinkedIn profile and the same photo on a Tube poster are different products, even though the file is identical.
Studio versus on site, and what changes
Studio is cheaper per person for one or two people. Everything is already set up, the light is known, and I am not paying to be anywhere. On site is cheaper per person from about eight people upwards, because you stop losing time to travel and everyone’s diary stays intact.
What clients rarely budget for is London itself. Driving into the City means the Congestion Charge and ULEZ, and there is nowhere to leave a van outside most offices, so a loading bay slot has to be booked or the kit comes in on a trolley from the nearest car park. I have carried three light stands, two heavy sandbags and a backdrop across the Barbican podium more than once. That is not a complaint, it is why every on-site day carries a 45-minute setup allowance before anybody steps in front of the camera.
Meeting rooms also vary wildly. A glass-walled room facing south at midday is a nightmare because the light shifts every fifteen minutes. A windowless internal room is much easier, oddly enough, because I control everything in it. If you want a consistent set across a team, ask for the boring room.
What should be included, and what usually isn’t
Included as standard in any decent London booking:
- The session, plus actual direction. Most people need telling what to do with their hands and their chin, and that is not an extra.
- Natural retouching: stray hairs, a spot that will be gone next week, shine on the forehead, dust on a jacket.
- A consistent look across a team, meaning identical background, lighting and crop for everyone.
- Web-ready and print-ready files, plus a square crop for profile pictures.
- Delivery within 48 hours for headshots.
Usually not included, and worth asking about before you book: heavy retouching such as reshaping or teeth work, additional edited images beyond the stated set, a second visit for whoever was off sick, hair and makeup, and any usage beyond ordinary business and web use.
The two invisible line items
Retouching and usage cause more billing arguments than everything else combined. On retouching, agree a number before the shoot. “A selection of images” means nothing. “Three retouched frames per person, chosen from a proofing gallery” means something. On usage, most headshots are booked for internal and website use, and that is fine as a default. If marketing later wants the same portrait on a paid campaign, expect a usage fee. A photographer who never mentions usage is either very relaxed or has not thought about it.
Something I will happily talk clients out of: paying for multiple backgrounds on a team day. Two backdrops sounds like better value and it is worse. Half the staff pick one, half pick the other, and the team page ends up looking like it was assembled from two different companies.
When a cheap headshot is fine
Not everyone needs a £300 sitting, and I would rather say so. If you are a student, between jobs, or you just need a decent picture on a profile that is otherwise strong, a £120 to £150 express session in a shared studio will do the job perfectly well. The difference at higher price points is time, choice and finishing, not competence.
Where cheap gets expensive is teams. A £25-per-head deal that produces inconsistent crops and mismatched backgrounds means the whole set gets redone within eighteen months, and you have then paid twice. Consistency is the thing you are actually buying on a corporate booking.
What I’d book, individual or team
For an individual: book the standard session at £150 to £250, ask for three retouched frames including one square crop, and skip anything described as premium unless you need genuine location work. For a team of 12 to 30: book a half or full day on site rather than per head, insist on one background, and run the rota properly, because the day rate is fixed whether you fill it or not. Working out how many slots fit is the part most organisers get wrong, and the realistic per-hour numbers are lower than most spreadsheets assume.
Whatever you book, get the deliverables in writing: number of people, number of edited images each, turnaround, and usage. That single paragraph prevents almost every awkward conversation later.
If you want a straight quote rather than a range, the headcount, the postcode and a rough date are all I need. Put those on the contact page and a fixed price comes back the same working day. Rates for other work sit alongside this in the wider London photographer rates round-up.