Best Shared Office Spaces For Headshot Photography
Shared office spaces, also known as co-working spaces, are professional environments where individuals or small businesses can rent a workspace on a flexible basis. These are great for small businesses to use for creating marketing collateral.
Made popular by WeWork, there are now a range of options on the market, each with its own style and atmosphere.
Benefits of using Shared Office Spaces For Headshots
Using shared office spaces for headshots can offer a variety of benefits for small businesses. One of the main advantages of using shared office spaces is their flexibility. If you don’t have a permanent office, you can use a co-working space for as little as an hour.
They typically have nice interior design, and offer a variety of backgrounds and settings. Apart from conference rooms, you often have breakout areas, outdoor spaces (balconies), common areas. This can help small businesses create a more polished look for their headshots and business portraits.
Sydney Co-working Spaces For Headshots
We’ve helped many small businesses in a variety of shared offices in Sydney. Here are a list of good options if you don’t have a permanent office, and want to elevate your branding and website photography.
The Executive Centre Bligh St
Level 26, 1 Bligh St, Sydney
Wilson Parking next door
The iconic round building looks impressive outside, and inside. The middle is hollowed out with glass lifts going up left and right. This co-working space takes up half of level 26. There are some meeting rooms that provide a view through the middle area.
They are probably best suited to photographs of meetings, an small group interactions. Because the “window view” is still indoors, it gives a business-y feel to portraits. It’s also great for photography, as it’s easier to balance the outside and inside lighting.
There are no usable breakout areas. The common lunch area is not really useful for more than a single person portrait.
The Executive Centre Barangaroo
Level 24, Three International Towers, Barangaroo
No parking nearby, difficult to navigate loading area (I’d advise not using it at all)
Being in Barangaroo they have great views out of floor to ceiling windows. While the meeting rooms are nice, the offices are a bit bland. There are a few waiting areas with low couches, that may be nice for casual shots.
There are rows of desks in a cubicle farm that looks nice for a cubicle farm, but I can’t imagine would be useful for any business imagery unless you’re selling a call center. They are also too closely spaced, so you would get strangers in the background unless you booked out after hours.
The common area can be booked out as well. It may be useful for personal branding style photography, for a small business.
The Executive Centre Australia Square
Level 33, Australia Square, Sydney
Wilson Parking downstairs, excellent access
Another one in a round building. This one is mainly made of long term small offices. There are a few meeting rooms suitable for lifestyle/action photography.
There is a waiting area at reception that might be nice for a casual chat type of photo. There are small cubicle sized meeting rooms that might be interesting for an individual.
Other breakout areas are comfortable but not really useful in a business imagery sense.
Regus – Sydney, 20 Martin Place
Level 10, 20 Martin Place, Sydney
Regus are mostly focused on more individual work spaces than the collaborative feel of some of the other options. They have some offices that work for a plain headshots. The meeting room we was simple and functional. But being glass on all sides, meant we needed to have the blinds down for the photography. This doesn’t make the most appealing look.
They do have a few small breakout spaces, which may be good for one or two portraits, but are otherwise quite limited.
Victory Offices George St
Level 32, 200 George St, Sydney
They have a range of meeting rooms from small to ones that accommodate 20+ seated. The theme is a bit more business corporate. Most of the space is for long term small offices.
There aren’t many options in terms of breakout areas. There is a small area at reception that has a cityscape with two chairs, that’s about it.
Servcorp Barangaroo
Level 35, Tower One, Barangaroo
No parking nearby, difficult to navigate loading area (I’d advise not using it at all)
They have a range of small breakout areas but for some reason we were not able to use them. Check again as these rules change depending on who’s on duty on a particular day.
The meeting room we used had plain white walls, great for white background headshots. Otherwise everything was quite simple and businesslike.
Servcorp MLC
Level 57, MLC Centre, Sydney
While it has a great view over Martin Pl, the decor is a bit more dated in this office. It’s OK for headshots, but the common areas aren’t really suited for photography. It’s really an office space for working, not for imagery.
workspace365 Clarence St
Level 10 & 11, 66 Clarence St, Sydney
A modern and more casual feeling space across 2 levels with an internal staircase. What I liked about this space is the variety of breakout spaces available. As you can see here, each area looks completely different.
There’s an external balcony that can give you a city view. There are small to large meeting rooms, again with distinct character. You can create a lot of material here.
workspace365 Edgecliff
Level 5, Edgecliff Centre, Edgecliff
Parking at shopping center next door
A smaller co-working space in the Eastern Suburbs. It has small offices to moderate sized meeting rooms. They’ve made great use of the space, there are a variety of usable breakout areas that are separate from other areas and would be effective for business lifestyle photography.
workspace365 Bond Street
Level 4-5, 20 Bond St, Sydney
Wilson Parking below – don’t confuse with Wilson Parking Australia Square opposite
Another one over 2 floors. It has similar decor as Clarence St, and is great for both meeting rooms and breakout spaces. You’ll be able to get a wide range of looks from this.
WeWork Castlereagh St
Level 26-28, 161 Castlereagh St, Sydney
Three full floors of offices, cubicles, meeting rooms, and large common areas. In the typical WeWork style, everything is colorful and over the top. It does make for good marketing collateral if your company wants to feel dynamic and modern.
There are rows and rows of small offices and even isolation booths in the back end. Meeting rooms range from small to somewhere you can hold a mini conference. They have great views of the city skyline, so they will be good for headshots and team shots.
The breakout areas have nice variety, but as they are all thrown in the middle, it is more challenging to find a free space without capturing someone in the background.
WeWork Pyrmont
100 Harris St, Pyrmont
Very difficult to find parking
A huge huge center over several levels. It’s the flagship WeWork in Sydney I guess, with beautiful decor and layout. It’s almost like a community hub.
Sadly availability is iffy. We’ve been in contact with the site manager and ambassador, whom have assured me they would be happy to accommodate outside businesses wanting to create imagery. I’ve also had a business get back to me and say we couldn’t get permission to photograph except from within the meeting room we hire.
So I’m not really sure what to think. Perhaps you need to be a long term office hire to use the common spaces.
WOTSO Bondi Junction
9-13 Bronte Rd, Bondi Junction
A drop off space at the front, and parking at shopping center next door, theoretically it should be easy access. However cars are often seen parked in the drop off space for 15min or more.
Inside there’s a lift to L1 where it is. It’s mostly rows of desks and small offices for longer rental. It’s quite compact and does not have a lot of break-out areas.
There is a small shared space, where you could get some cosy team shots. There’s a meeting room, and a few isolation booths that may suit some looks. Otherwise choices are limited.
