Detroit Photography FAQ

The in-studio rate covers your sitting at our studio, live image review on a calibrated monitor, manual retouching, and same-day digital delivery. The $299 on-location rate covers travel anywhere in metro Detroit, the same session, and the same delivery. Each additional image is $99 in-studio and $149 on-location.

Most clients book one or two images. Larger packages—five-image executive sets, full company team shoots, brand libraries—are quoted per project. For teams, the same per-image pricing applies to each person: $149 for the first image and $99 for each additional in-studio, $299 and $149 on-location.

Pricing in full lives on the headshot page.

Navy, charcoal, and burgundy read well against most studio backgrounds. Pure white can blow out under studio lights and pure black can flatten on darker skin tones. Bring two or three options if you are not sure—we will pick the strongest on a calibrated monitor before you commit.

For LinkedIn and executive headshots, a jacket is the single highest- impact item. The lapel line frames the face and signals seniority regardless of industry. For tech and creative roles, a well-fitted knit or button-down without a jacket reads as confident rather than casual, as long as the fit is tailored.

More on wardrobe and color in our professional headshots examples guide.

In-studio means our space at 2921 East Jefferson Avenue, in the John N. Bagley Mansion. We have full studio lighting, a wardrobe rack of spare jackets and shirts in common sizes, and a calibrated monitor for live review. Sessions are fastest in-studio because the setup is fixed and we can shoot back-to- back without moving gear.

On-location means we bring the studio to you. The most common locations are corporate offices, downtown Detroit buildings with strong architectural lines (the Guardian, the Fisher, Michigan Central), and executives’ homes for senior-leadership portraits. The $150 premium covers travel, setup, and the extra lighting required to control the environment.

Team shoots over ten people are almost always cheaper on-location because we eliminate transit time for the team.

LinkedIn is a specific use case. The crop is tight, the platform compresses aggressively, and the photo sits next to dozens of others on a recruiter’s screen. The image has to read instantly at 200 pixels wide. We shoot for that constraint: clean separation from background, sharp eye contact, and skin tones that survive compression.

One LinkedIn-ready image is $149 in-studio, same-day delivery. Most clients are out the door inside 20 minutes. If you want a second variant—different jacket, different expression—it is $99.

The full LinkedIn headshot page has examples by industry.

Same-day delivery is the default, not a rush option. Every session includes live review, on-the-spot selection, and final retouching before you leave or by end of day. The files are full-resolution JPEGs plus a LinkedIn-cropped square.

For team shoots over 20 people, turnaround is usually next business day because the editing queue is longer. For executive portraits where you want a second round of retouching after sleeping on the proofs, we schedule a revision window.

We come to your office, set up a pop-up studio in a conference room or lobby, and run people through on a schedule you control. Fifty people fits comfortably in an afternoon, about five minutes each.

Pricing is per image, per person—$149 for the first image and $99 for each additional in-studio, $299 and $149 on-location. Every session includes live image review, live retouching, full manual editing, and a lifetime guarantee, with two photographers on the larger shoots.

Recent team shoots include IBM, PwC, Eli Lilly, FORVIA, the City of Detroit, and Henry Ford Hospital. Full details on the group headshots page.

The studio sits on the ground floor of the Bagley Mansion, a Gilded Age house on the National Register. Parking is free in the lot off Jefferson, with more on Rivard. The Renaissance Center is six minutes by car, downtown ten.

We also shoot on-location across metro Detroit: Birmingham, Royal Oak, Troy, Ann Arbor, Southfield, Dearborn, Farmington Hills. On-location is $299 for the first image and $149 for each additional, and includes travel within the metro area.

The studio is at 2921 East Jefferson Avenue, Suite 101, on the ground floor of the Bagley Mansion. Pull into the lot off Jefferson and the door is a few steps away. If the lot is full, Rivard Street alongside the building has free on-street parking.

For on-location sessions we come to you, so parking is whatever your office or building provides—we handle our own gear and setup.

Retouching is not an upsell here. We even skin tone, clean up stray hairs, soften blemishes, and balance the light by hand, frame by frame. The aim is you on your best day, not a smoothed-over stranger.

You watch the edits happen on a calibrated monitor during the session and sign off before you leave. If a frame needs another pass, we make it on the spot.

Your finished images live in a private gallery you reach by link, with no login and no password. Download the full-resolution files from the button at the top and use them for any professional purpose. The files do not expire and there is no extra licensing fee.

The same files work for print, web, and large-format display, so one shoot covers your LinkedIn profile, your firm’s website, and a conference program at once.

Plans move, and the calendar moves with them. There is no fine print and no cancellation window to beat—tell us you need a different day and we find one.

If you paid in advance and then cancel, the refund goes back to your card within a few business days. The full terms live on our promises and policies page.

You hold your photos, make sure you love them, and settle up afterward. That is the whole arrangement.

If a frame is not right, you tell us and you pick what happens next: we re-edit the images as many passes as it takes, bring you back for a full reshoot at no charge, or refund you in full. Whichever one leaves you happy is the right answer, and the guarantee never expires.

For executive portraits, on-camera roles, and anyone who wants the extra polish, hair and makeup is $150 and done before we shoot, so you are camera-ready by the time we start.

Plenty of clients skip it and look excellent. We will tell you honestly whether your session needs it rather than sell you an add-on you do not.

The standard tell is the skin: AI-generated faces have a uniform smoothness that real cameras do not produce, and the texture breaks down under any zoom. The second tell is the eyes—pupils that do not quite focus, catchlights in the wrong places.

For LinkedIn at 200 pixels the tells are smaller but still visible to a recruiter who looks at 200 profiles a day. For press, board decks, and company websites the tells are obvious. A real headshot at $149 is cheaper than the credibility cost of an AI substitute that gets caught.