312 Elements PhotographyPRICING
Business owner photographed across multiple headshot looks with studio lighting, by 312 Elements Headshot Photography, Chicago, IL

CHICAGO
BUSINESS
HEADSHOTS

For owners, founders, and solo professionals — when you are the business, your headshot is the first meeting. I make sure it makes a promise your face can keep.

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Chicago business headshots are professional portraits for owners, founders, and solo professionals — used on your website, social media, speaking materials, and press. The session fee is $500 and includes the directed shoot and a private online gallery to review your images together; individual images are then $250 each, fully retouched and licensed for your own marketing. 312 Elements is led by photographer Michael Schacht, who has photographed 10,000+ people over 16 years. Booking for a whole team? Group sessions start at $1,200.

See pricing and book a session at headshot pricing and booking.

When you're the business, the headshot is the handshake

Personal branding portrait of a Chicago business owner, by 312 Elements Headshot Photography, Chicago, IL
Here's something it took me an embarrassingly long time to understand about my own face: when you're the business, your headshot is already in the room before you are. For an owner or a solo professional, it isn't decoration on a corporate org chart. It's the first meeting. It's sitting on your website, your proposal, your speaker bio, and the email signature that lands in somebody's inbox a full day before you ever shake their hand. By the time you actually say hello, they've quietly formed an opinion about whether to trust you with their money, their case, their health, or their business. That's not entirely fair, but it's how people are wired, and I'd rather you know it than find out the hard way. And honestly, I've been on the wrong side of it. For years I had a headshot I thought made me look like a Serious Professional, and mostly it made me look like a guy who was uncomfortable being photographed, which I was. People would meet me in person and you could watch the little recalibration happen. So I genuinely get how this feels. The job of a business headshot isn't to make you look like someone you'd hire; it's to look unmistakably, recognizably like you on a good day, because when you're the brand, the person and the business are the same thing. There's no roster to fit into and no house style to hide behind. There's just you, and how honestly the picture tells the truth about you. The one thing I'd want you to walk away knowing, whether you ever point a camera in my direction or not, is that a good headshot starts the trust, it doesn't oversell it. Get the likeness right and the first meeting opens warm; people feel like they already know you, because in a real way they do. Push it too far (too polished, too retouched, a little too much somebody else) and every introduction begins with the room adjusting to the real you, which is a rough way to start anything. Aim for true, not flattering. True is the part that actually does the work.

When you are the brand, the read is everything

A business headshot has one job: start the trust that closes the deal. But the read that earns trust is different in every line of work — and getting it right starts with understanding what your client is actually afraid of.

Realtor Headshots

Your headshot is a neighborhood signal. The read that sells a $4M listing repels the first-time buyer, and the read that reassures the first-time buyer reads as out-of-depth to the luxury seller. Price tier and geography are baked into the frame before anyone reads your name — which is exactly why we talk about your market before we shoot.

Financial Advisor Headshots

Trust with money is the entire transaction. The frame has to be approachable enough that someone picks up the phone, and serious enough that they'd hand you their retirement once they do. Too warm and you read as a friend, not a fiduciary. Too cold and they never call. The line between the two is the whole job.

Entrepreneur Headshots

You're often the face on the pitch deck and the homepage — for now, you are the brand, full stop. The headshot has to carry the company's personality, not just your jawline. Scrappy and human, or polished and inevitable? That's a positioning decision, and it belongs in the frame on purpose, not by accident.

Attorneys Headshots

The opposite of big-firm law. A person in trouble — scared, out of their depth — has to look at your face and feel they can call you. Warmth is the conversion lever here, not intimidation. The read isn't I will destroy your opponent; it's I will take care of this, and I will take care of you.

Doctor Headshots

Bedside manner, photographed. Patients choose on will this person be kind to me when I'm vulnerable long before they evaluate a single credential. The frame has to lead with reassurance — competence is assumed; warmth is what gets them in the door.

Consultant Headshots

You are the methodology. There's no product behind you, no firm name doing the selling — there's you, and whether someone looks at your face and thinks that's a person I'd take advice from and pay a premium to. The read has to carry authority and approachability at once, which is the hardest balance to strike and the one that matters most.

How a session works

  1. 1

    The conversation first

    Before the camera comes out, we talk about who your clients are and what they need to feel when they land on your face. That conversation is half of what you're paying for — it's what turns a nice photo into a headshot that actually works. Text me reference images while we plan; some of my favorite sessions started as a thread of this one or this one?

  2. 2

    Studio or on-location

    Sessions run in the West Loop studio, or on-location when your space is part of the story. Directed the entire time — no guessing what your face is doing — with on-screen review as we go, so you leave knowing we got it.

  3. 3

    Gallery and selection

    Your private online gallery arrives within a week. You choose the images you want at $250 each, and every image you purchase comes fully retouched, sized for your website, social, print, and press, and licensed for unlimited promotional use. Use them anywhere, as much as you want, with no per-use fees.

What Chicago business owners say

I'd recently launched my own practice after years at a large firm and needed imagery that positioned me as independent without looking like I was either still playing the big-firm role or visibly trying not to. That's a genuinely difficult balance — I'd seen other attorneys get it wrong in both directions. The images communicate exactly the right level of authority and accessibility for the clients I want to attract, and several have mentioned the photos specifically when explaining why they reached out.

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Catherine N.

Managing Attorney

After years at a large consulting firm I went independent, and quickly realized my existing headshots communicated 'employee' rather than 'trusted advisor' — a subtle but real distinction that sophisticated clients pick up on immediately. I needed something that projected confidence and credibility without the visual weight of a large institution behind me. The images have become central to how I introduce myself to prospective clients, and more than one has referenced them before we've even had a conversation.

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Alexis M.

Management Consultant

People searching for a therapist are often in a vulnerable state, and the photo on my Psychology Today profile is frequently the first thing they encounter before deciding whether to reach out. I needed something warm and trustworthy rather than clinically polished — therapist headshots that look like corporate portraits actively undermine the purpose. Michael understood that register immediately and the images have directly contributed to a meaningful increase in initial inquiries since I launched my practice.

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Dr. Nadia P.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Read more in our full collection of client reviews.

What's included, and what images cost

  • A $500 session fee covering the directed shoot itself (unlimited wardrobe changes, backgrounds, and session time)
  • A pre-session conversation about your clients and how you need to be read
  • Studio session in the West Loop, or on-location where your space is part of the brand
  • A private online gallery, delivered within a week, to review your images together and choose from
  • Images purchased individually at $250 each: fully retouched, sized for your website, social, speaking kit, print, and press, and licensed for unlimited promotional use with no per-use fees

Built for owners and operators

16+ years
photographing Chicago's business owners, founders, and solo professionals
10,000+ people
photographed across nearly every profession in the city
$500
session fee, with individual images at $250 each
1 week
delivery for your private online gallery

Frequently asked questions about business headshots

What's the one thing people don't realize about their headshot?
That they're optimizing for the wrong photo. Almost everyone walks in wanting the best picture ever taken of them — and that's the trap. The best photo of you and the most-like-you photo aren't the same image, and when they diverge, the flattering-but-not-quite-you shot is the one that costs you. When you're the brand, the headshot is a promise your actual face has to keep. Oversell it and every first meeting opens with a tiny disappointment — the room recalibrating to the real you. Nail the likeness and you've built trust before you've said a word. Trust is the whole transaction in your work; the headshot's job is to start it, not to write a check your face can't cash.
Do you have experience working with C-suite executives?
Yes — and the more useful answer is what that work taught me: there's no single executive look. The read a CEO needs is not the read a founder needs is not the read a managing partner needs. A photographer with one signature style can only really serve the people that style happens to flatter; everyone else gets bent to fit the look. I work the other way around — I read the person in front of the camera and the rooms they're walking into, then adapt the lighting, direction, and tone to them. The chameleon part is the actual skill. If all my work looked the same, that would be the tell that I was photographing my style instead of photographing you.
Will you help me choose the final shots?
Yes, and I'll be honest — this is the part I'm genuinely good at. We review everything together on-screen at the end of the session, and I'll tell you which frames are working and why, in plain terms. You're the final call, always, but you're not alone with a wall of near-identical thumbnails trying to spot the difference. The one thing I'll gently steer you away from is crowd-sourcing it to your group chat afterward — well-meaning friends will talk you out of the right shot every time. Let's land it in the room, together, while the read is still fresh.
My face is my brand — how often should I update this?
Your headshot should look like you, full stop — that's the only real rule, and the one most people break. Every 18 to 24 months is a good rhythm, but the trigger isn't the calendar, it's the mirror. New haircut, went gray, grew the beard, lost the beard, changed your glasses — if the person in the photo and the person at the coffee meeting are running on different software, the photo is costing you trust at the exact moment you're trying to build it. When you're the brand, an out-of-date headshot isn't vanity. It's a broken promise.
Do I need a bunch of different looks, or is one enough?
One look: clean, simple, you show up everywhere as the same recognizable person — which is its own kind of brand discipline and works beautifully for a lot of people. A few looks: a warmer frame for the about page, a sharper one for the speaker bio, something more editorial for press — useful when your face shows up in genuinely different contexts. The honest answer for most people is to start with the one shot that has to be great, and add range only where you can name the specific place it'll live. I'd rather you have one frame you'd put on a billboard than six you feel lukewarm about.
Can I bring options — and run them by you first?
Please, on both counts. Bring more than you think you need; we'll build looks from the combinations, and having options in the room beats wishing you'd packed the other shirt. And yes — text me photos before the session, or even while you're standing in the closet. I'm happy to weigh in before you pack. This is a collaboration, not a test, and the people who show up prepared get more out of the hour.
I'm looking to get my whole team done — is this the right place?
That's a different setup with its own logistics — matched lighting across everyone, on-location options, new hires matched down the line — and it starts at $1,200. Head over to our team and group headshots page and we'll take it from there.

Explore other Chicago headshot services

Business headshots for Chicago owners and operators, by 312 Elements Headshot Photography, Chicago, IL

Let's make the first meeting count

The session fee is $500 and includes your shoot and a private online gallery; images are $250 each. See full pricing and grab a session date — or, if you're booking a team, head to team and group headshots.

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