What to wear for professional headshots

01

The one rule that covers most of it

Wear something you already own, that already fits, and that you have already worn comfortably for a whole day. A new shirt bought for the session is the most reliable way I know to look uncomfortable in your own photograph.

Clothes that fit badly show up in a headshot in a way they never do in the mirror. Collars that gape, shoulders sitting wrong, a jacket that pulls when you sit down. The camera finds all of it.

02

Color: mid tones win

Solid mid tone colours photograph best. Navy, charcoal, forest green, burgundy, slate blue. They separate you from the backdrop without pulling attention off your face.

Pure white tends to blow out under lighting and can leave skin looking sallow next to it. Pure black loses all the detail in the fabric and can turn into a floating head on a dark backdrop. Neither one ruins a photo, but neither is doing you any favours.

If your company has brand colours and these are going on a team page, a nod to them works nicely, especially against white.

03

Patterns, logos and jewellery

Fine tight patterns like narrow stripes or small checks can shimmer oddly on a digital sensor. Bigger, softer patterns are fine. When you are not sure, go solid.

Visible logos date a headshot quickly and limit where you can use it. Jewellery is good in moderation, as long as it is not catching the light and pulling the eye off your face.

• Best: solid mid-tone colors, clean necklines, fabric with some structure
• Careful with: pure white, pure black, tight stripes, small checks
• Avoid: prominent logos, anything with a slogan, very shiny fabric
• Take off: Apple Watches and smart watches, lanyards, name badges
• Empty: trouser pockets and shirt pockets, phone and keys with your bag
• Bring a spare: two or three options is plenty, more slows the session

04

Necklines matter more than people think

A headshot is cropped tight, so the neckline takes up a real chunk of the frame. Structured collars, crew necks and simple V necks all work well. Very wide or very low necklines leave a lot of bare skin in a small picture, which usually reads more casual than people intended.

Layers help here. A jacket, cardigan or overshirt gives the frame some shape and gives us a second look without you changing clothes.

05

Pockets and watches, the two things everyone forgets

Anything in a trouser or shirt pocket shows up as a bulge. Phone, keys, wallet, pens, a badge. Leave all of it with your bag rather than on you.

And take off the smart watch. They date a photo faster than anything else you have on, the screen catches the light, and if it wakes up mid frame you get a bright rectangle on your wrist. A plain watch is fine if you want one.

06

Glasses, hair and the practical stuff

If you wear glasses every day, wear them. A headshot without them will not look like you. If your optician will lend you empty frames for the session, reflections get much easier to handle, but do not worry if not. I light around glasses all the time.

Haircuts a week before, not the day before. Whatever grooming you normally do, do that. And bring a lint roller, because dark fabric picks up more than you would believe on the drive over.

07

Layers give you more than one photo

A jacket, cardigan or overshirt you can take off halfway through roughly doubles what you get out of a session without changing clothes. Jacket on reads more formal, jacket off reads more approachable, and both come from the same lighting.

It also gives us a way out if something is not working. If the shirt on its own looks flat, the layer fixes it in seconds.

08

Think about where the photo is going

A LinkedIn picture shows up about the size of a thumbnail. Fine detail disappears completely, which is another reason for solid colours and simple necklines. If it has to work at a hundred pixels, it has to work as shapes.

A press or speaker bio usually prints bigger and sits next to other people's photos, so it wants to look deliberate rather than casual. A company team page wants to match your colleagues more than it wants to express you.

Tell me where it is going when you book and I will crop for it.

09

For teams: consistency without a uniform

When I photograph a whole staff, the aim is a set that looks like one company rather than twelve unrelated portraits. The easiest way there is a short note sent round in advance. Same backdrop, same general formality, a colour family rather than an exact colour.

I would not ask everyone to wear the same thing. A team page where all twelve people are in the same blue shirt reads as a uniform, and it strips out the bit that makes people look approachable.