CASE STUDY · CORPORATE TECH · ON-SITE EVENT HEADSHOTS
Your Employees Need Better Headshots. They're Never Going to Book Them Themselves.
When Adobe wanted to do something genuinely useful for their client CDW — not just another happy hour — they partnered with FUSION Performance Group and brought studio428 to their Cherry Hill offices to give 25 team members professional headshots in a single day.
Client: CDW (sponsored by Adobe) · Coordinated by: FUSION Performance Group · Location: Cherry Hill, NJ · Team: 25 participants · Session: 6 hours
At a Glance
Adobe wanted to do something meaningful for their client CDW — beyond the usual happy hour. Professional headshots the whole team could actually use: LinkedIn profiles, email signatures, internal badges. The challenge wasn't the photography. It was logistics: how do you get 25 busy people in front of a camera, in one day, without disrupting the whole office?
Adobe's event coordinators at FUSION Performance Group brought in Studio 428. We built a full three-light studio inside a 10×13 huddle room at CDW's Cherry Hill offices, ran a six-hour open signup window, and photographed 25 team members on five-minute rotations — with QR code check-in, live image review, and individual proof galleries delivered the next morning.
Final retouched images landed with every participant within a week. Twenty-five employees, one consistent look, zero scheduling chaos. Five stars.
The Problem
Here's something almost every HR team or office manager has dealt with: you know your people need professional headshots. Their LinkedIn photos are blurry selfies or five years out of date. The company website has that uncomfortable patchwork of photos from five different eras and five different phones. You've thought about doing something about it.
But you've also done the mental math. If you ask people to go book individual headshot sessions, maybe 20% actually do it. The rest mean to. They'll get around to it. They won't. And if you try to schedule a formal studio day, someone's in a meeting, someone's traveling, someone forgot. The logistics alone become a part-time job.
CDW's situation had an extra layer. Adobe — one of their key vendor partners — wanted to give them something useful as part of a client appreciation event. Not a gift card. Not a branded notebook. Something the team would actually use: a professional headshot, delivered to their inbox within the week. FUSION Performance Group connected Adobe with Studio 428, and we built the session around CDW's existing event schedule.
If you're a vendor looking for a perk that actually means something to your client's team, or an HR or events coordinator who's been trying to figure out how to get everyone's headshots done without making it a whole production — this is your story too.
The Process
When Allie at FUSION Performance Group first reached out, the brief was clear: Adobe was sponsoring headshots for their client CDW's team in Cherry Hill. Polished and corporate — photos people could put on LinkedIn, email signatures, internal badges the next day. Not stiff. Not awkward. Real.
The first thing we sorted out was timing and flow. The event was built around a six-hour open signup window during a company happy hour — people are relaxed, which is actually great for headshots, but it means the schedule is looser than a traditional shoot day. We landed on five-minute slots and set up QR code and iPad check-in so the line stayed organized without anyone having to manage a spreadsheet. It sounds fast, but it works when you have a system.
For the backdrop, CDW asked for neutral — something that would work on everyone. Different skin tones, different outfit colors. That's always the right call for a group this size. I set up a neutral gray backdrop with a three-light configuration: softboxes and strobes for clean, flattering light that looks consistent whether you're the first person in at 9 AM or the last one at 3 PM.
The space was a 10×13 huddle room — cozy, to put it generously. But you don't need a ballroom to run a professional headshot session. You need the right light, a good backdrop, and enough room to work. I arrived at 7 AM and had everything locked in before the first slot. By 9 AM we were rolling.
How the tethered review works
One thing that makes a real difference with group sessions: I shoot tethered to a laptop, so each person can see their images on a full screen immediately after we shoot. They're not waiting weeks to find out if they got a good one — they know before they walk out of the frame. For the CDW event, proof galleries went out by email the very next morning. Everyone selected their image by Friday. Finals were delivered the following week.
The on-site contact — Arlene, who was managing the day for FUSION — kept things moving on the floor while I handled the camera end. That kind of coordination matters more than most people realize. When there's a clear person managing the line, keeping people on schedule, and handling the "I have a meeting in 10 minutes" situations, the whole day runs smoother. We ended up photographing all 25 participants without a single scramble.
Before anyone stepped in front of the camera, I had a few conversation starters ready. Simple questions — "What are you most passionate about?" or "What's something exciting that happened recently?" They sound like small talk, but they do real work. Shoulders drop. Smiles go from posed to genuine. You can see the difference in the frame immediately. Most people haven't been in front of a professional camera, and a five-minute slot doesn't leave time to find your footing on your own. A little warmup changes everything.
The look we were going for: polished and corporate, but not stiff. These are people, not portraits for a museum. I coach everyone through posture, chin placement, how to relax the jaw — not because it's a formula, but because it actually works. And then I ask about their weekend, and that's the shot.
The Result
Twenty-five employees walked into the event with whatever photo they'd been carrying around — a selfie, a cropped group shot, a photo from someone's birthday party in 2019. They walked out with a professional headshot that actually looks like them, at their best.
That's not a small thing. A LinkedIn photo is often the first impression in a professional context. For CDW Adobe's team — people using these on email signatures, on their profiles, on internal badges — having something polished and consistent signals to clients and colleagues that they take their professional identity seriously.
The consistency piece matters too. When every headshot in a company is shot under the same light, with the same backdrop, in the same session — the team looks like a team. Not like a collection of strangers someone rounded up from different decades.
The day after the shoot, every participant had their proof gallery in their inbox. By end of that Friday, selections were in. Finals were delivered the following week, retouched and ready to go. Each person received their images directly; the event organizer also received a complete gallery for company-wide use.
Adobe gave their client something that actually matters. Not a branded pen. Not a happy hour that everyone half-remembers. A professional headshot — delivered to your inbox, ready for LinkedIn, ready for your email signature, ready for whatever comes next. That's a perk people talk about.
Three people. One session. One consistent look — ready for LinkedIn, email signatures, and anything else they need.
“Doug from Studio 428 was great to work with for our Adobe/CDW office headshot event! Highly recommend and will absolutely work with them again in the future. 5+++ stars!”
“It was a great turnout! You rock Doug! I look forward to collaborating again.”
What made this session work wasn't just the photography — it was the planning behind it. Allie and the FUSION team had the logistics dialed in from their end: a clear schedule, a solid on-site contact in Arlene, flexibility on timing when things needed to shift. I could focus on the camera because they handled everything else.
That's the kind of partnership that makes a group session go from "we got through it" to "that actually went really well." Adobe gave CDW's team something they'll use every day. FUSION gave them the framework to pull it off. Studio 428 showed up at 7 AM, built a studio in a 10×13 huddle room, and made sure 25 people walked away looking like the professionals they are.
That's the job.
Before & After
Before
Employees using selfies or cropped group photos professionally
No consistent look across the team's LinkedIn profiles
No realistic plan to get 25 people scheduled individually
Email signatures and badges with mismatched, outdated photos
The "we should do headshots" item sitting on the to-do list indefinitely
No structured delivery — if headshots existed at all, no one knew where to find them
After
25 employees with polished, professional headshots — shot in a single day
Consistent look across every portrait: same light, same backdrop, same quality
Zero scheduling burden — embedded into an event they were already attending
Each person received an individual proof gallery the next morning
Final retouched images delivered by end of week, ready for immediate use
Photos ready for LinkedIn, email signatures, badges, and the company website
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like your firm? Let's talk.
If you're looking for a professional perk your team will actually appreciate, or you want to give attendees something they'll use long after the event ends, a pop-up headshot station is a great fit.
I work with event planners, HR teams, and vendors to make headshot sessions easy. No long lines. No confusion. Just a smooth process and polished headshots people are genuinely excited to use.
Bring Studio428 to your next event, and everyone walks away with a professional image they'll use on LinkedIn, company websites, speaking engagements, and more.