When Drs. Kay and Amanda Henry planned new photography for their Crystal Lake dental practice, they weren’t simply looking for updated headshots.
They needed professional photos that showed what it actually feels like to walk into their office: friendly and approachable, highly professional, focused on patient education, and built around a team that genuinely enjoys working together.
The result was a branding photography session at their Crystal Lake office that gave them individual headshots, team photos, working images, patient consultation photos, environmental portraits and a much larger library of images they could use throughout their marketing.
And not long after the session, some of those photographs ended up somewhere especially valuable: a feature about the practice in Crystal Lake City Lifestyle magazine.
Amanda later told me the article “got a lot of buzz” from their clients and community members, which I always love to hear!
That’s exactly what a good brand photography library should be able to do. Instead of creating photos for one specific marketing project, we created a collection they could pull from when opportunities came up.
The Client: Kay & Amanda Henry, DDS in Crystal Lake, Illinois
Kay & Amanda Henry, DDS is a mother-daughter dental practice in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Dr. Kay Henry opened the practice in 2004, and Dr. Amanda Henry joined her after graduating from dental school in 2012. Today, they work alongside an all-female team and have built a practice centered around relationships, patient comfort, education and personalized care. They are a warm and friendly team who are also experts in their field, with high priorities placed on patient education and comfort.
Their marketing photography needed to communicate all of that.
A prospective patient should be able to look at the photographs and get some sense of not only who the dentists are, but also what it might feel like to be their patient.
That requires much more than lining everyone up against a wall for a team photo, although it also has to include creating team photos that everyone feels good about!
They’d Had Very Different Experiences With Professional Photography Before
This wasn’t Amanda’s first experience hiring a professional photographer.
She had done professional photography twice before. One experience had been great. The other hadn’t.
During the disappointing session, she felt the photographer didn’t have enough ideas for posing, the lighting wasn’t flattering, and ultimately they didn’t like the photographs.
That history mattered when we planned this session.
Most people aren’t professional models, and your dentist, hygienist, office manager or dental assistant shouldn’t need to know how to pose themselves in order to get a great photograph.
That’s our job.
For this shoot, we planned the session around three things:
- what the practice needed the photographs to communicate,
- where the images could eventually be used, and
- what everyone needed from us to look and feel comfortable in front of the camera.
That included wardrobe guidance, professional hair and makeup, lighting, posing and direction throughout the shoot.
What Should a Dental Practice Branding Photoshoot Include?
For Kay & Amanda Henry, DDS, we photographed the session entirely at their Crystal Lake dental office.
That allowed us to create several different categories of images in one shoot.
We photographed:
- individual professional headshots
- full-team photographs
- smaller team groupings
- portraits of Dr. Kay and Dr. Amanda Henry together
- individual branding portraits of both dentists
- staff working together
- patient consultation and education scenarios
- photographs in the reception area
- images using the dental chairs and treatment spaces
- details and environmental photographs that showed the office itself
Their therapy dog, Bowie, even joined us for some of the photos.
These different types of images matter because a dental practice doesn’t need photographs for just one place.
A single headshot might work on a staff bio page, but it won’t necessarily work for a magazine feature, social media post, advertisement, Google Business Profile update, speaking opportunity or website banner.
Creating variety during the shoot gives the business options later.
What to Wear for a Dental Team Photoshoot
We also planned multiple looks for the team.
For one portion of the session, everyone wore scrubs so we could create images that felt natural to the clinical environment.
For another, the team wore coordinated professional clothing in black and neutral tones.
The goal wasn’t to make everyone match exactly. Instead, we wanted the group to look visually cohesive while allowing each person to still look like herself.
Dr. Kay and Dr. Amanda also had additional individual looks so we could create more variety for their personal branding photographs.
This is one reason I like discussing wardrobe before a branding shoot rather than asking everyone to simply “wear something professional.”
The clothing, location, background and eventual use of the photograph all work together. Thinking about them ahead of time gives us a much more versatile final gallery.
Bringing Professional Hair and Makeup to the Dental Office
One thing Amanda especially appreciated was having professional hair and makeup included in the experience.
For a team session like this, asking an entire dental office to travel somewhere else for hair and makeup would have made an already busy day much more complicated, not to mention the stress of having to find a hair and makeup team yourself.
Instead, our hair and makeup team from Jules Fleming Artistry came directly to their Crystal Lake office the morning of the shoot.
The entire staff was able to have professional hair and makeup done on-site before being photographed.
The goal wasn’t to make everyone look dramatically different. It was to make sure they looked polished, natural and camera-ready.
Amanda later described it perfectly in her review:
“Major high fives to hair and makeup that Ann arranged as well. We all looked great, but very natural too!”
That’s especially important for professional branding photography. You should still look like the person your clients or patients are going to meet in real life, but you can look your best while also having a restful morning before the shoot.
What Happens When Someone Misses Team Photo Day?
Even with careful planning, photographing an entire business means dealing with real life.
One member of the dental team was sick on the day of the shoot.
Rather than leaving her out of the team’s photographs, we came back to the office and photographed her separately.
We then edited her seamlessly into the group photographs.
It’s a small detail, but it’s a good example of why I approach business photography differently from a simple headshot appointment.
The objective isn’t just to take photographs on a particular day.
The objective is to create the assets the business actually needs.
The Team Actually Had Fun
One of my favorite pieces of feedback from Amanda came after the session.
She told me the women in the office kept talking about how much fun they’d had. After the shoot, the team even went out to lunch together.
Then Amanda sat down with her husband to look through the photographs.
She sent me this message afterward:
“So fun going through these with my husband—he was like making me tear up with how impressed he was and how great he thinks we look.”
That’s a pretty good outcome for a day that could easily have felt like another corporate obligation on everyone’s calendar.
Professional team photography doesn’t have to feel stiff or uncomfortable.
With enough preparation and direction, it can actually be a really fun experience for the team.
Then the Photos Became Part of a Local Magazine Feature
This is where the value of creating a larger photography library becomes especially clear.
Crystal Lake City Lifestyle later featured Kay & Amanda Henry, DDS in an article titled “Generations of Care,” telling the story of their mother-daughter practice.
The feature described the warm, comfortable atmosphere of the office, the relationship between Kay and Amanda, their team, and the practice’s emphasis on caring for and educating its patients.
And they already had professional photographs capable of illustrating that story.
The photographs from our branding session were used throughout the feature.
Amanda told me afterward that they “got a lot of buzz” from the article.
She also mentioned the publication specifically when she later reviewed her experience with us:
“Ann is absolutely incredible!!!! She did a shoot for our office and it became hard to choose because there were so many great ones. We used the photos many places, but especially loved them in a local publication feature of our dental practice.”
That is one of the biggest reasons I encourage business owners to think beyond the immediate reason they’re booking photography.
You might be redesigning your website today.
Six months from now, someone may ask you for photographs for a magazine article, podcast appearance, speaking engagement, award, sponsorship, advertisement or PR opportunity.
If we’ve planned your session well, you don’t have to scramble to create something new.
You already have it.
What Photos Does a Dentist Need for Marketing?
If you’re planning photography for a dental practice, medical practice or other professional office, I generally recommend thinking beyond traditional headshots.
A useful image library might include individual headshots for every team member, full-team and small-group photographs, images of the doctors interacting with patients, consultation and patient-education photographs, working images, portraits throughout the office, horizontal and vertical compositions, and a few more relaxed images that show the team’s personality.
The exact shot list should depend on the practice.
For Kay & Amanda Henry, DDS, their mother-daughter relationship was an important part of their story. Their team dynamic mattered. Their office environment mattered. Patient education mattered.
How Can Dental Practices Use Brand Photography?
This session also illustrates why I prefer creating a strategic library rather than photographing for one specific deliverable.
Dental practices can use professional branding photography across their:
- website and team pages
- Google Business Profile
- social media
- email marketing
- print and digital advertising
- brochures and patient materials
- recruiting materials
- local media and PR
- community sponsorships
- speaking engagements
- professional profiles and directories
- future articles and editorial features
You don’t always know which of those opportunities will appear next.
That’s why the question I ask when planning a branding session isn’t simply, “What photos do you need right now?”
It’s also, “Where might your business need to show up next?”
Planning Branding Photography for a Dental or Medical Practice in the Chicago Area?
If your practice has outgrown the standard team-headshot approach, we can create something much more useful.
I photograph dentists, doctors and other professional service businesses throughout Chicago and the northwest suburbs, including Crystal Lake, Barrington and the surrounding communities.
We’ll plan the photography around your actual business and marketing needs, help coordinate wardrobe, provide professional hair and makeup when needed, direct your team throughout the session, and create a mix of polished portraits and real working images that show people what it’s like to work with you.
Because a great headshot is useful.
But for a growing business, it’s usually just the beginning.
If your practice has outgrown the standard team-headshot approach, we can create something much more useful.
I photograph dentists, doctors and other professional service businesses throughout Chicago and the northwest suburbs, including Crystal Lake, Barrington and the surrounding communities.
We’ll plan the photography around your actual business and marketing needs, help coordinate wardrobe, provide professional hair and makeup when needed, direct your team throughout the session, and create a mix of polished portraits and real working images that show people what it’s like to work with you.
Because a great headshot is useful.
But for a growing business, it’s usually just the beginning.
Questions I get about photographing a practice
Do you photograph dental and medical practices in the Chicago suburbs?
Yes. I photograph dental practices, medical offices, med spas, and therapy practices across the Chicago suburbs, including Crystal Lake, Barrington, Lake Zurich, Palatine, Arlington Heights and the surrounding Cook County, McHenry and Lake County towns. A practice session covers team group shots, individual headshots for every staff member, the office environment, and real process work with patients.
Do you come to our office, or do we come to your studio?
For a practice, I come to you. Your office is the point. Patients want to see the actual reception area and the actual treatment rooms before they call, and your team cannot leave the building for half a day. I photograph on site and bring the lighting with me. My Barrington, Illinois studio is used for solo branding and portrait sessions.
Is hair and makeup included for the whole team?
Yes, and it happens at your office. For the Henry practice, Jules Fleming Artistry came to Crystal Lake and did hair and makeup for all seven women on site the morning of the shoot. It is included in the session rather than billed separately, and the direction is always natural. Nobody should look like a different person in her own headshot.
What should our team wear for office photos?
I send outfit guidance before the shoot and help coordinate it. The usual approach is two looks: scrubs or uniforms for one, and professional attire in a shared palette for the other. Black, cream, and warm neutrals photograph well together and keep the group reading as one practice. Save the bold color for individual shots, where it works in your favor.
What happens if someone on our team is sick on the day of the shoot?
I photograph them separately afterward and edit them into the group images. One of the Henry team members was out sick on shoot day, so I went back, matched the original lighting and angle, and composited her into the group photos. It is seamless. The same approach works for a new hire who joins after the session.
How long does a practice photo shoot take?
Plan on four to six hours for a team of five to ten people, including hair and makeup. We schedule around your patient day, which for most practices means starting early or using a lighter afternoon. The planning call happens before the shoot, so nobody is figuring out the plan while the clock is running.
How much does branding photography for a practice cost in the Chicago suburbs?
Team sessions start at $4,000 all inclusive and run to about $7,500 for a full production day with video. Cost depends on team size, how many spaces we photograph, and whether video is included. Every level covers the planning call, hair and makeup on site, the full edited gallery with no selection process, and a commercial use license.
Written by Ann Oleinik, personal branding photographer for women entrepreneurs and professionals in the Chicago suburbs. Ann & Kam Photography is based in Barrington, Illinois.
Comments +