Photographs are an essential asset for every professional individual, whether for LinkedIn, a business website or networking events. Low-quality, grainy or unprofessional selfies will surely not help to make a strong first impression. Instead, the target audience may have doubts about their professionalism and skills.
Along with the rise of social media, headshot photography has become one of the basic needs for professionals in every sector planning to create a strong online presence.
In this blog, we’ve discussed 16 effective headshot photography tips that will help you to understand the basic and technical strategies to capture the best head and shoulder shots. You will also learn about the photography equipment you may need. In short, this comprehensive guide is all you need to master headshot photography.
Headshot photographs are a professional style of image that focuses on the face and shoulder of a subject. These close-up shots are usually taken in a professional setting and the facial features remain in the spotlight.
Headshots are usually used for professional or business purposes because of their clear and polished appearance. You can use headshots on social media and other platforms to connect with various professionals and potential clients. Headshots will help you create a positive and strong first impression, which will increase opportunities for networking and career growth.
Portrait vs Headshot: What's the difference?
Portraits and headshots may look quite similar. But the purpose and shooting techniques of both these photography genres are different. Let’s explore the differences between portraits and headshots in detail.
| Categories | Headshot | Portrait |
|---|---|---|
Primary Focus | The primary focus of a headshot is the head and shoulder of the subject. | There is no fixed primary focus point for portraits. Shots can be captured by focusing on the face, partial or full body. |
Poses | In headshots, subjects have to look into the camera lens. Front-facing eye level is the only angle used for headshots. | Subjects have the flexibility of giving different poses for portrait shots. Images can also be taken from various angles. |
Background | The standard background for headshots is solid-color backdrops. There are no restrictions on colors. However, colors that are not distracting are considered ideal. | There is no specific rule for background in portrait photographs. These images can be captured in a studio setup as well as outdoor locations. |
Purpose of use | Headshots are formal images. You can usually use them for professional reasons. Ideal places for using headshots are resumes, LinkedIn profile pictures, email signatures, corporate directories and so on. | Portraits are usually used for personal branding on social media, magazines, portfolios, personal websites and other places. |
Why is Quality Headshot Photography so Important?
A high-quality headshot is essential for making a strong first impression and creating a distinct identity that sets you apart from competitors. Whether you are a small business owner, freelancer, hold a reputed designation in your workplace or looking for opportunities, you need professional-quality headshots to enhance your authenticity and credibility.
Do you prefer that people recognize you from a selfie or a low-quality image with a wall in the background?
Of course not! Informal photographs can make people question your skills and professionalism.
People these days mostly rely on online platforms to research a company or person before meeting in person or reaching out. They explore LinkedIn profiles, social media accounts, corporate directories as well as personal websites to learn about the individuals or service.
Since the image you use on these public platforms will be considered your virtual resume, it is best to use professional-quality headshots to connect with other professionals, get potential leads and create a lasting impression. You should consider headshot photography as a worthy investment, as it will pay off in the long run.
Recommended Headshot Photography Gear
Your choice of the photography gear plays a significant role in the quality and final output of the photographs. Here are the necessary gears you need for capturing professional-quality headshots.
Camera
The first and most important tool is the camera. A high-resolution mirrorless or DSLR camera can provide you with the best results. The quality of sharpness, clarity and details vary depending on the type of camera you use for the shoot. It’s recommended to use an interchangeable lens camera as you will have the flexibility of using multiple lenses.
Usually, full-frame cameras have large sensors that allow more light to create bright and clear images, especially in low-light settings. However, you can use an APS-C camera if you are looking for a budget-friendly option. No matter which camera you choose, make sure the camera has a megapixel around 20 or above. This will maintain the higher quality of the images in case your client wants to print the photographs.
Lens
You can use either a zoom lens or a prime for headshot photography. However, you need to choose the lens carefully. The focal length of the lens directly influences the appearance of the facial features of your subject. The right lens will capture the features in a natural way, while the wrong choice of lens can distort the features and make the images look unappealing.
It’s worth mentioning that lenses with a focal length less than 85mm usually distort facial features in headshots. On the other hand, shorter focal lengths have a large field of view, which are ideal for capturing portraits with their surrounding environment. For this reason, you should use a lens with an 85mm focal length or longer.
Lighting
You need a bright and uniform lighting setup to take high-quality head and shoulder shots. Either natural or artificial light can be used for both indoor and outdoor shoots. When using natural sunlight, make sure it does not fall directly on your subject’s face to avoid harsh shadows. You can select an open shade to get the best headshots using sunlight. This will provide soft natural light and make the flaws in the skin less visible.
For artificial lighting, you can use a strobe light. This high-intensity flashlight is a basic tool for studios. Its position, direction, and intensity can all be adjusted to suit your needs. You can also use two continuous light sources on the right and left sides of the subject to create an even lighting setup. Reflectors and diffusers will also be needed to minimize shadows and bright lighting setups.
Backdrops
Although headshots are close-up shots of the head and shoulder, a portion of the background remains visible in the frame. You should select the backdrop carefully so that it complements the outfit of your subject without overpowering or creating any distraction. Generally, solid neutral-colored seamless paper is considered ideal as a backdrop for a studio setup.
For example, white looks best for almost any type of headshot. But if you prefer to use colorful backdrops, then dark tones like black, gray, navy are great for corporate headshots. On the contrary, actors or models need headshots that represent their personalities. You can use bright as well as muted colors that make the actors look more visually appealing. Outdoor locations like colorful walls or textured surfaces can be used as backdrops for portfolio headshots.
Tripod
You need a good-quality tripod to set your camera. A tripod keeps your camera stable, which is essential for capturing clear photographs. Also, you can maintain a fixed angle no matter how much you move. It will keep your hands free so that you can walk around your set or go to your subject to adjust their outfit, poses and posture without worrying about the framing.
When using a tripod, make sure to turn off the image stabilization feature of your lens. It’s recommended to use a remote shutter release. This will prevent the subtle shaking that cameras can experience while pressing the shutter button, which can make the image hazy.
Top Headshot Photography Tips for Stunning Shots
The following are 16 effective tips for headshot photography to help you master the skills needed to create professional-quality headshots.
Understanding Your Client’s Needs
The style and tone of headshots vary depending on the purpose of the shots and the platform or industry the images will be used. For example, corporate headshots have a formal and professional style. This type of image is captured against a neutral background with a confident expression.
For actors and creative individuals, the style is quite different. Actors have to showcase their skills of showing different types of expressions and emotions for creating their portfolios. So, there are opportunities for exploring creativity with headshot backdrops and poses.
For this reason, you need to have a discussion with the client before beginning the headshot session. You can ask about the industry they work in or are looking for opportunities, the purpose of the shoot and the type of headshots they are expecting. All these answers will help you arrange the photography setup, backdrops, lighting and other necessary preparations.
Schedule a Pre-Consultation Session
A pre-consultation session is necessary to communicate with the client and understand their unique expectations for the headshot. This session can answer many of your queries and help create a collaborative plan for a successful photography session. This meeting can be conducted face-to-face, via video call or over the phone.
It is best to communicate with the clients verbally to get a real-time reply and facilitate a comfortable interaction. You can also suggest outfit types and colors that go well with the style of headshots they prefer.
Choose the Right Clothing
Clothing style, color and fit tell a lot about your personality and professionalism. For this reason, you need to wear the right outfit that matches the theme and purpose of your headshots. Your style of clothing will vary depending on the type of headshots.
Formal outfits are perfect for corporate headshots. On the contrary, casual outfits go better with personal branding headshots. Here are a few examples of outfits to help you decide on the right one.
Formal Outfit Inspirations
You can wear these outfits for using photos on LinkedIn, conferences, workshops, seminars and other corporate events.
For men
- Classic suit and tie
- Blazer paired with a shirt
- Three-piece suit
For women
- Business suit and blouse
- A-line dress with blazer
- Shift dress paired with a structured coat
Informal or Casual Outfit Inspirations
You can use headshots wearing these dresses on social media posts, blogs, personal websites, online communities or business cards.
For men
- Turtleneck and blazer
- Plain t-shirt or polo shirt
- Casual blazer or denim jacket over a t-shirt
For women
- Button-down shirt or blouse
- Denim jacket over a blouse or t-shirt
- lightweight cardigan paired with a tank top
No matter which outfit you choose to wear, make sure it is well-fitted and makes you look great in the photos. You should have a few different outfits on hand in case yours gets ruined or does not go well with the background. Also, avoid wearing shimmery or glossy outfits. Instead, wear matte fabrics.
Wear Solid Colors and Freshly Ironed Clothing
Solid and neutral colors are considered to be the appropriate clothing ideas for headshots. Colors such as navy, gray, black, white, soft brown or beige make the photographs timeless and classic. It’s best to avoid patterns, as they can create distraction and take away the focus from the subject.
You can do color analysis before choosing the color of your outfit. This will help you to identify color that complement your skin tone and brings out your best features.
A downside of wearing solid color is that the creases and wrinkles of the clothes become more noticeable. For this reason, you must iron your clothes before the shoot. You should also fix other flaws, such as loose threads, stains or snags for a neat and professional appearance.
Shoot in RAW
The best headshot photography practice is to shoot in RAW rather than JPEG or other file formats. The major drawback of working with JPEG format is that it compresses the images. For this reason, image data such as color and tonal information gets lost. However, in RAW mode, you can capture images with larger image data. This is necessary to capture the fine details and fix color issues without any hassle.
Now you may wonder that adjusting light or color issues can be easily done through photo editing. So why is this a big deal?
Well, the adjustments are made based on the information in your image. It’s possible that your photographs have underexposure or overexposure issues. JPEG files may lose information about highlight or shadow details when they are compressed. And once this data is removed, you cannot get it back. But in RAW files, you won’t face these issues. You can bring back the original color of the photographs easily through post-production. Hence, we recommend you shoot in RAW.
Pay Attention to the Every Little Things
The thin line that makes a headshot either great or average is the small details. The intricate details, such as stray hairs, wrinkles in clothing, distracting backgrounds, uneven lighting, shadows or posture misalignments can make the photos look unprofessional. You should have great observation skills to identify these problems before attempting your final shots.
Starting the shoot with test shots is recommended to identify the small things that you need to fix for your perfect shots. Tilting your head, leaning forward or backward, trying out different expressions are the basic attention to details guidelines you can use for your subjects to level up your headshot photography game.
Avoid Extreme Posing
Extreme posing is one of the common mistakes that ruin the visual appeal of a headshot photo. Natural poses result in the best headshots. Instead of extreme poses, you can guide your subject to move in small increments. The facial features of every subject require a specific angle that makes them look their best. You might not get that angle at first.
For this reason, take shots and ask your subject to move their face to the right or left side in small increments, such as 5 or 10 degrees. Lowering or lifting the chin slightly can also improve the balance of the face, highlight the jawline and make the subject look more confident.
Pick the Right Makeup
Do you think only women wear makeup for photoshoots? Come on, it’s 21st century! Today, many men wear makeup to enhance their facial features and hide the flaws, such as dark circles, hyperpigmentation, jawline fat and many more. However, this tip is for everyone, regardless of gender: “Do not overdo your makeup.”
Concealing flaws with makeup is not something we don’t recommend, but you should be careful to put on the right amount. For women, don’t use too much foundation, bright eyeshadows, excess blush, heavy lashes or anything that makes you look artificial. For men, avoid heavy foundations or contouring that could appear unnatural on camera. Instead, you can do a light touch to even out skin tone or reduce shine that appears on oily skin.
Studio vs. Backdrop vs. Outdoors
There is no hard and fast rule for headshots that says it should be captured in a studio or specific backdrop. An indoor studio or outdoor location both can make the headshots look great. Since corporate headshots are a bit formal and professional, it’s best to keep the background simple and minimal like a studio backdrop. On the contrary, casual or personal branding headshots can be shot outdoors to enhance the personalities of your subject.
Remember, the main focus of your headshot should be the face of your subject. Don’t use any background that may overpower your subject. It’s better to blur out the background to ensure your subject remains the focal point of the photo.
Shoot in Manual Mode
Auto modes in the camera may seem tempting and easy to use, but it is still the best practice to use the manual mode. Although technology has advanced a lot to give you decent results in the auto modes, this may not be constant throughout the photoshoot session. Professional photographers prefer shooting in manual mode. Hence, we suggest you master the manual settings and upgrade your photography skills.
In manual mode, you have the flexibility of setting the ISO, shutter speed and aperture, which are the most important features that control the exposure, depth of field and clarity of your subject. The advantage of using the manual mode is that you can adjust the settings once and stay relaxed about the settings for the rest of the photo session. Your exposure setting will not change unless you change your location or the lighting setup.
Consider Multiple Locations
A headshot photography session may last around more or less than 30 minutes. It’s possible to explore multiple locations for different styles of headshots. The session may begin with the professional shots within a studio and then outdoor shots for casual style headshots.
The various styles of images in different outfits can make it easy for the subjects to work with various marketing projects without the need for scheduling multiple photography sessions.
Keep the Client Comfortable and be Positive
Natural and forced expressions can both be easily detected in the close-up headshot images. Your subject may give a robotic expression or fail to make themselves look confident when they are not comfortable in front of the camera.
You can talk with your subject to build good rapport and increase their comfort levels. Telling them positive things can boost their confidence too. Praise them and make them feel that they are doing good. Keep talking to them so that silence doesn’t make them feel awkward.
Add Your Heading Text Here
You need to create a balanced and uniform lighting setup to prevent your images from becoming either underexposed or overexposed. Lack of light can make the images look dark. On the other hand, excess light may give the images a washed-out effect. Besides, uneven lighting can cast harsh shadows that create an unflattering look.
For the best lighting setup, you can use a high-intensity strobe, softbox light as well as a ring light. Despite using strong and bright lights, some areas may not receive proper light. You can use reflectors to fill in those dark areas and capture the details properly. Also, place the light sources at a 45-degree angle to the subject’s face. This will result in a soft, natural-looking light that highlights facial features without casting harsh shadows.
Price Accordingly
The pricing structure of the headshot photography session is an important factor that customers consider before hiring the service. For this reason, you have to design your charges carefully so that it does justice to your hard work and the trust of your client.
When deciding on the price, you need to take into account your quality of work, experience and time required for the shoot and retouching photos. You can have multiple package options too. For example, a basic package includes a single outfit shoot with approximately 5 retouched images, whereas a premium package includes multiple outfit changes, multiple locations and additional facilities.
Shoot Tethered
Do you want to speed up your workflow? You can try out using tethering tools. In the tethered photography technique, you have to connect your camera to a large-screen device such as a desktop computer or laptop. You can view the images on your monitor just after taking the shots.
Tethering can help you identify the problems in your images easily and faster compared to from the camera’s viewfinder. You can adjust the camera settings, lighting positions or poses of the models to get your desired shots. You can also show the images to your clients during the shoot and take their feedback.
Don’t Forget to Retouch Your Headshots
You need to go through the post-production process before sharing or posting your images on social platforms or any print media. Common issues you can experience in headshots are regarding color, skin texture, exposure, contrast and the list goes on. Camera settings, lighting and other factors make capturing perfect images nearly impossible. So, you will need to retouch headshots to make them flawless.
However, photo retouching is a time-consuming process. Moreover, professional-quality editing requires expert hands. You can collaborate with any renowned photo editing service provider to retouch your images and reduce your work pressure. For headshots, you may need color correction service for adjusting the color balance. Skin problems such as blemishes, wrinkles, and other flaws in the garments can be fixed through the photo retouching service.
There are also services such as background removal and clipping path to separate the subject from the background. This type of image cutout is necessary for using the headshots in banners or posters. Are you concerned about the editing cost? Don’t worry at all. Graphic Aid offers the best quality photo editing services at an affordable rate and fastest turnaround time. There are also discounts on bulk orders!
Frequently Asked Questions About Headshot Photography
How do you look good in a headshot photo?
The main focus of a headshot is on your face. So, you must relax your face and maintain good posture. You can smile softly or widely to make yourself appear natural and confident. You can also practice a few expressions in the mirror before the shoot to find your most flattering look.
What should I wear for my headshot?
It’s best to wear classic professional outfits. Men and women both can wear collared shirts, suits or blazers. However, you should carefully select the color or the outfit. Busy patterns and bright colors can take away the focus from your face. So, you should avoid them and wear neutral and muted colors such as black, white, beige or pastels that compliment your skin tone. Moreover, women should keep their jewelry minimal.
How long will it take to get my headshot?
Well, the headshot shooting process takes around 30 minutes. However, the delivery time of your headshots depends on the workflow of your photographer. Usually, you can get it within one to two weeks. You should discuss the turnaround time before agreeing to the photoshoot.
What are the best headshot outfits?
The most suitable outfit for headshots is formal attire. The best clothing items for men can be a well-fitted blazer or jacket. This will enhance the structure of your shoulder and make you look professional. On the other hand, women can wear a business suit, dress or formal blouse. Make sure to choose solid-colored outfits instead of prints and patterns. You can also take the shots in multiple dresses to see which outfit suits you the best.
Conclusion
So far we have discussed the difference between portraits and headshots, the equipment you need, effective headshot photography tips and a lot of other necessary insights regarding professional quality headshot photography. Although you will experience some trial and error in the initial phase, your skills will improve over time.
What are you waiting for? Take your camera and start practicing capturing headshots with your friends and family!
