Staff & Student Headshots at University of Cambridge

When you think of the University of Cambridge, you immediately picture its historic architecture, pristine courtyards, and centuries of academic tradition. So, when the Emma Experience team at Emmanuel College invited us back for our fourth consecutive year, we knew we wanted the location to play a starring role.

Instead of setting up a traditional indoor studio background, we took our high-volume headshot setup directly into the college’s iconic cloisters. The goal was to create premium, environmental headshots that blended the historic backdrop with modern, crisp professional lighting—giving staff and students an authentic, confident image to help them stand out.

Managing high-volume shoots usually means controlling every single variable. For instance, when we delivered on-campus student headshots for thousands of students at Imperial College London, we operated indoors. This allowed us to lock in our lighting and maintain absolute consistency from the first student to the last.

Shooting outside in the cloisters at Emmanuel College flips that playbook entirely.

While the British weather was beautifully consistent for us—warm and sunny with a light breeze and passing clouds—working in an open-air environment introduces unique technical hurdles. First of all, the breeze! To get that signature soft, premium light, we use quite large modifiers. As you can see in the image above, we used a Profoto Deep Umbrella mounted on a boom arm. Outside, a large umbrella essentially acts like a sail. Without sandbags to weigh down the stands, a single gust of wind can easily cause the gear to catch the air and take a tumble.

Because the background wasn’t a static studio backdrop, the ambient light was constantly shifting as the sun dipped in and out behind the clouds. To ensure perfectly balanced exposures, we relied on a powerful Profoto B10x strobe, requiring constant, real-time adjustments to both the camera and strobe settings for every single person who stepped in front of the lens.

Despite the changing conditions, our workflow kept things moving seamlessly, ensuring that everyone from the students to the Master of Emmanuel College, received a beautifully lit, professional headshot.

High-volume headshot sessions can quickly become an administrative nightmare if not handled correctly. Our goal is always to provide a completely seamless, “zero admin” experience for both the organisers and the participants.

Using our instant delivery workflow, the moment a headshot was captured in the cloisters, it was instantly processed and sent to a private gallery. Each person immediately received a direct link to their gallery, allowing them to download and use their high-resolution images right away. Every participant also had the option to select one image for custom professional retouching.

The results speak for themselves!

What the Client Said

“We have worked with James and Donna from the Headshot Company for four years, and they are always immensely professional. They have enabled us to help our staff and students present themselves with confidence in a noisy visual and digital world.”

Delivering flawless headshots in a fast-paced environment requires more than just technical photography skills; it demands absolute reliability, adaptable expertise, and a flawless workflow. Whether we’re balancing the shifting natural light in the cloisters of Cambridge, managing high volume staff shoots at Television Centre for BBC Studios, delivering international activations for global giants like Amazon, or shooting complete visual overhauls for Softwire, our commitment remains the same. Major institutions trust us because we eliminate the administrative burden of high-volume photography while consistently delivering premium, confidence-boosting portraits that people are proud to use.