With nearly a thousand portrait and headshot subjects captured to date, I’ve seen firsthand how being relaxed and confident produces the best photos. Whether you’re prepping for an individual session or coordinating a team shoot, this guide offers practical advice for dressing and preparing, ensuring you’re ready to step in front of the camera. Let’s dive into how to get the best results for professional headshots, focusing on comfort, authenticity, and trust in a way that you can control.
Contents
1. Building Trust: Stay Relaxed and Get to Know Your Photographer
2. Make as Few Decisions as Possible on Shoot Day
3. What to Wear for Professional Headshots: Complexion and Colour Theory
4. Finding Balance: Neutral Tones vs. Bold Colors
5. Fit and Comfort: Looking Your Best While Feeling at Ease
6. Minimalist Accessories: Let Your Face Be the Focus
7. Incorporating Your Brand Identity into Your Look
8. Coordinating Team Wardrobes: Consistency Without Uniformity
9. How Much of Your Body Should Be in Your Headshot? (AND WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS)
10. The Importance of Seeing Your Shots as You Shoot
1. Building Trust: Stay Relaxed and Get to Know Your Photographer
The key to great headshots lies in being comfortable in front of the camera, but that’s easier said than done, especially if you’re new to it. Having a relaxed conversation with your photographer beforehand – whether over the phone or in person – helps you feel more at ease. By the time you’re shooting, you’ll feel like you’re working with someone familiar, which will make a huge difference in the quality of your photos.
A mistake many junior photographers make is putting their subject in front of the camera the moment they walk into the room. This becomes tempting for corporate headshots because subjects may have little time with their photographer. This is likely what you experienced when you had your photo taken during school, and I’m sure you have school photos that you hope will never see the light of day again.
A reference I’ve made many times is to the renowned portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz. In her book, “At Work”, she describes for her celebrity portraits that she spends one day ahead of shooting with that individual without a camera present. The following day, at the photoshoot, sometimes the shoot online takes 20 minutes. The rapport and familiarity was already built in order to get the organic feeling expression they wanted.
For all my headshot clients coming to me as individuals, part of my process is that I nearly force them to hop on a phone call at the minimum before shooting. This is because written communication going back and forth can only go so far. For every shoot, especially if my client isn’t a model, is that there’s an awkward warming-up phase. The photos after getting into a rhythm of working together are almost always my client’s favourites, and what I hope to do by meeting beforehand is reduce the warming-up window.
Now, most headshot sessions do not take multiple days like Annie Leibovitz. The reality is, if your employer is paying for a headshot session, you may have fifteen to as little as five minutes with your photographer. And that’s okay – I work with clients as a corporate headshot photographer in short windows too.
While I try and sit them down and make as much conversation as time allows before shooting (without even touching my camera), sometimes conditions don’t make that relaxation step possible. Keep reading to learn more about getting prepared for these kinds of short headshot sessions to the best of your ability.
Headshot photography session with a cityscape window view.
2. Make as Few Decisions as Possible on Shoot Day
When the day of your headshot session arrives, aim to keep things simple. Plan your wardrobe and accessories ahead of time to avoid last-minute stress. This allows you to focus on feeling calm and prepared, rather than worrying about decisions right before stepping in front of the camera. This includes steaming everything the night before.
If you’re bringing multiple looks or wardrobe changes, have them laid out in order. What we want to do is eliminate decision fatigue.
Decision fatigue is why Mark Zuckerberg and many other tech leaders wear the same outfit every single day. They delegate out every task from making their breakfast, who they’re meeting with, and who’s driving their car.
This well-studied theory states that you have a limited number of decisions that can be made each day with your full brain capacity. After exceeding that fixed number, your ability to make those thoughtful decisions decreases. You’re able to make decisions, but they’ll be nowhere as sharp as your first several of the day.
For this reason, as it applies to myself, I love shooting in the morning with my clients (not to mention morning light in London is favourite). I make a template for me and my clients to map out their outfits, the locations we’re shooting, any underlying stories we’re trying to tell. Leaving no guess-work on the day of shooting, especially for people who are new to stepping in front of the camera, is the key to images my clients are confident with.
Work with your photographer or your employer ahead of time to understand what you’ll be wearing, bringing, and walking into when it comes to your headshot session.
Headshot photography session with a styled wardrobe choice to match our beige background at Cloud Theory Studio.
3. What to Wear for Professional Headshots: Complexion and Colour Theory
Choosing the right outfit is crucial for capturing headshots that reflect your professional image. Neutral tones often safe bets for corporate settings, but don’t shy away from adding a pop of color that represents your personal or company brand. The goal is to feel authentic and confident in your attire, so wear something that makes you feel comfortable and reflects who you are. We’ll dive into the specifics.
Real Example: A London corporate headshot planning conversation
Taken right from my email conversations with a London financial services company, these are the word-for-word, point-form tips that I shared with my corporate client who passed the message (via their letterhead) onto the individuals I was photographing.
While it’s a lot of information, I was informed about the importance of these headshots for my client’s upcoming rebranding efforts. As many had rarely worked with a photographer, having it all laid out for them made for comfortable preparation and trust that they were in good hands:
General Preparation
We'll be shooting a variety of photos, so I encourage you to try different looks, expressions, jacket/tie combos, different shirts, etc. I recommend at least one different shirt swap as I find folks are often surprised which they like (and which photographs better).
You won't need to decide on your photo selection on our shoot day – you'll get them all later in a selection gallery to pick from. This lets you sleep on it – and even get other people's feedback as it may be hard to narrow down for yourself. You'll also be seeing the images as we shoot (they upload to my computer in real time) so you can provide me with feedback on what you like and don't like so we can focus on what works well for you. No two sessions are alike!
For women (and men!), applying light, translucent powder makeup is recommended right before shooting. This is going to eliminate any shine or glossiness of your skin when my flash goes off. This is the toughest to remove when editing and I hope to mitigate that while shooting.
I will have translucent powder (with no tint) and a sanitized brush which I am happy to apply on everyone who may not do this ahead of time (especially men, as I imagine many will likely not be doing a morning makeup routine). Instead, oil-absorbing sheets are a great alternative if you prefer not to have makeup on you.
Use a steamer (or iron) the night before. This is important! I even recommend changing into your photoshoot clothes at the office. Wrinkles are difficult to Photoshop out and make you look natural. Bring your clothes on a hanger!
Our window-view background will be primarily light blue, with slight aqua. We want to create colour contrast against this background. What will achieve this is dark greys, navy, greyscale (white through black), beiges, browns, warm colours ('desert rose' pink, maroon, burgundy, red, orange, etc.), and any bright accent colours.
Haircuts 3-5 days prior is ideal, though not necessary. Give yourself a few days to get used to styling the look. Do not make any dramatic, new hairstyle changes right before the shoot.
What to wear
Generally, for your wardrobe:
Dark colours are perceived as more formal, dominant, authoritative.
Light colours are more friendly and approachable.
Some bright colours (especially as accents) convey confidence and energy, though they work best for people of colour and darker complexions. Lighter complexions have muted colours as more complimentary.
High-contrast pairings, such as dark jacket and a lighter shirt, can combine a lot of these feelings above.
The more tailored the clothing, the better.
Dressing comfortably is going to make you look more comfortable in the images.
Layering is key to style. Often, more layers photograph better than less.
If you wear glasses all the time, make sure they're spotless for the shoot. If you have lenses without coatings, that’s even better. If your lenses pop out, that’s the best. No matter what, I can adjust my light to a high angle to mitigate your glasses’ coatings showing in the images.
If you wear an Apple Watch, I recommend removing it for the shoot. It will make the images appear relatively dated and less timeless than traditional watches if visible in the photos. The same goes for other tech wearables.
For women:
Higher necklines are recommended
Stick with simple jewelry
The goal is to create space between your arms and body, so it shows your silhouette.
Arms pressed against your sides will make your silhouette wider. This is why a hand on the hip looks good (it creates a triangle of space). Hands in your pockets also produces this and it looks the most natural. There are many hand positions we can do to achieve this “triangle of space”, but keep this in mind if you're considering baggy sleeves or shirts/jackets that may hide your silhouette or considering an option with pockets. That said, turning on a sharper angle and positioning the camera from a higher position pointing down can help mitigate any silhouette concerns.
For men:
If you have a lighter complexion, I recommend always avoiding black suits. The high contrast is not as flattering on lighter skin. Greys (dark or light), navy, subtle patterns, and every other colour will complement AND go with the background better.
If you are going to wear a black suit, I would avoid a white shirt with it (especially with a black tie). This may be too formal and stick out when laid out with the other portraits
Avoid loose undershirts, so they don't show when a button is undone.
Avoid floppy collars! Iron these too if your shirt doesn't have a collar-stay insert.
Solid colours (for shirts) often turn out the most flattering. Muted colours are my preference and always look great and it will compliment the background well too. If you’re going for patterns, keep them understated, and don’t double up pattern-on-pattern.”
I use these general terms and guidelines to keep each person’s wardrobe and preferences flexible. I never want someone to think they necessarily need to go out shopping the day before a shoot – though that can sometimes boost confidence. These are all principles to make the focus land on the subject’s face and avoid distractions.
When working with some of my political consulting clients, who’ve worked with the likes of Barrack Obama, Joe Biden, and some of the world’s largest corporations on their lobbying efforts, I’ve had them consistently say that they’ve just “…had their colours done” before we shot together.
There are services, both professional and self-serve (i.e. resources online), to match you with the colours that compliment your skin and hair colour best. While my tips are great for working with what you already have, if you’re looking at making more purchases and colour psychology is interesting, I recommend investigating matching colour to your skin and hair types further.
Headshot photography session with a London skyscraper window view background for a well-known accounting firm.
A Short Lesson On Colour Theory
Colour theory is about what colours match well together. Going beyond colours that work well to your skin and hair colour, colour theory speaks to the different layers of your outfit along with the background you’ll be in front of.
Using the colour wheel below is the easiest way to understand colour theory for headshot photography.
In short, colours directly opposite from each other will have strong colour contrast. I referenced colour contrast before. Colour contrast is how colours stand out when placed upon each other (but still look good together).
Colours next to each other are complimentary. These are the ones that play well with each other and flow together rather than sharply stand out.
Generally, you want colour contrast against your background and complimentary colours within your outfit.
The colour wheel isn’t restricted to picking two colours that are directly opposite. A way to pick a complimentary colour palette is to break the colour wheel into odd numbers. Break it into even thirds or fifths to create a set of colours to work with. If you have a background that you can’t change, use that as your anchor.
While other colour wheels look more like a gradient rainbow, this particular colour wheel I find the easiest to pick from and understand the different tones. Don’t forget that greys, blacks, and whites go well with all of these! Think of them like your wild cards that can always be played.
Headshot photography session for a London sports training program. With red being the dominating background colour, the neutral black outfits were worn across all team members for consistency and less colour contrast.
4. Finding Balance: Neutral Tones vs. Bold Colors
Now that we’ve covered the basics and general guidelines, we can play with colour as a way to add personality to your shoot. Though I’ve set “rules” (though “guidelines” are a better term for it), they’re meant to be bent or broken.
Neutral tones offer a clean and polished look, especially for corporate headshots. It is always safe bet and won’t get your employer mad at you. If you’re in a traditional industry like accounting and finance, I recommend that route.
Think about the colours you wear for a headshot photography session like how resumes should look in your industry.
If you’re in accounting and finance, your resume is expected to follow a traditional template and it’s irregular to create something colourful and bold (though, rules are meant to be broken). With that in mind, stick to your traditional, neutral colour palettes.
If anything, lean into blue. Either a navy suit or a light blue shirt is the most conservative and effective way to add colour that makes you look great and keeps the attention on your face. If you want to add your own seasoning, mix in a pocket square or tie with an understated pattern.
However, if you want to show more personality, consider incorporating bold colors if you feel they can complement your skin tone. A small amount of an accent colour, however, can often be supported by most people’s complexions when tastefully applied.
If you’re in marketing, a tech company, the creative industry, sales, or anywhere where a bold resume is encouraged to make you stand out from the pack, this is where a bold headshot colour choice could benefit you.
If you have a suit or jacket with colour, they can look exceptional – often much better than a neutral suit with a bold-coloured shirt because a suit or jacket creates a frame around you. It adds colour to the layers versus the base (i.e. shirt).
For women, bright colours and patterns are easier to style (and get away with). Remember for bright colour that layers are your friend. Using neutral tones and whites, blacks, and greys to create separation with those bold colours is the best way to style them.
An example of a bold colour choice that works exceptionally well for my client. Photographed in my London studio for an entire team.
An example from the same shoot of a neutral, earth-tone colour choice that works well for my client.
5. Fit and Comfort: Looking Your Best While Feeling at Ease
Comfort is key when it comes to your headshot session. Avoid clothing that feels restrictive or awkward, as discomfort will show in your expressions. A well-fitting outfit that allows you to move and feel at ease is essential for looking natural in your photos.
If you’re feeling discomfort, fall back on layers. It’s an easy way to add depth to an image, it’s something for your hands to work with, and can often mask ill-fitting shirts or feelings of self-consciousness.
If you’re feeling hesitant, bring it anyway, but bring another option. Often, the wardrobe combo my client thinks will photograph best might be different in reality. Don’t second guess your initial choice and bring it with you, even if you’re feeling self-conscious, but bring your backups (and steam them too).
While it may be uncomfortable to some, be sure to bring a belt – especially for men. For a tucked in shirt’s waistline, it always looks more clean with a belt to support it.
Outdoor headshot of a tech salesperson wearing a t-shirt in a London park. With a more relaxed outfit, it creates an approachable feel for the line of work he's in. While a t-shirt may not work for everyone's professional audience, staying comfortable makes getting organic smiles like this easier.
6. Minimalist Accessories: Let Your Face Be the Focus
While accessories can add a touch of personal flair, keeping them minimal ensures that the focus stays on your face. Overly bold jewelry or busy patterns can distract from the subject, so opt for subtle accessories that enhance rather than overpower your look.
Coco Chanel would say that before she would leave the house, she would take off at least one accessory she added. Keep this in mind when heading to your session: what can I eliminate?
Use jewelry and accessories to enhance your wardrobe and bring attention back to your face, but they should never be the highlight for professional headshot photography.
Headshot photography session with a cityscape window view. The gold accessories compliment and frame her face, but they don't overshadow it.
7. Incorporating Your Brand Identity into Your Look
Your headshot should reflect your professional image and your personal brand. If you’re a coach, consultant, or creative, consider how your wardrobe choices can communicate your personality and work style. For businesses, cohesive brand colours across team members can help create a unified professional image.
Speaking to solo entrepreneurs and founders, your portraits become how you convey your message to the world. Often, a headshot alone isn’t enough to tell your story. It may need to stray from many of the principles and guidelines mentioned here.
Where headshot and portrait photography meld with professional brand storytelling, we enter the space of personal branding photography.
Personal branding photography incorporates elements of lifestyle photography: storytelling within an image that captures natural, candid expressions – whether staged or organic.
If you’re exploring a series of images of yourself working to illustrate your approachability, especially for service providers, consider reading my article about how to elevate your image with a personal branding photographer in London.
On the other hand, if you’re a larger brand or business looking to visually capture your company culture, story, or product in action using the same approach and personal branding photography, “commercial lifestyle photography” is the branch of photography service for you.
Commercial lifestyle photography focuses on anyone from your team members to customers. It creates a compelling series of images with emotion and expression that its audience wants to emulate. Lifestyle photography imagery works best on the company about pages, social media, banner images, and especially on print mediums: all areas that frame and support your professional headshot photography.
Lifestyle photography often has various lighting used to create images that pop and stand out. While natural light is used regularly, commercial lifestyle photography can be used for advertising campaigns that need to stand out from the crowd, and off-camera lighting makes these images pop.
Lifestyle photography is a broad term that covers many areas that’s often confusing to many. Check out my article explaining what lifestyle photography is from my perspective as a London photographer.
Headshot photography session for a London financial services company photographed in a garden. As they focus on working with small family businesses in the countryside, outdoor portraits with greenery emphasizes their brand identity and the audience they're looking to feel approachable to. A cityscape skyscraper background wouldn't work for their purposes.
8. Coordinating Team Wardrobes: Consistency Without Uniformity
When organizing a headshot session for a larger team, coordination is key. Opt for complementary colours and similar levels of formality, but avoid a uniform look. Encourage team members to bring individuality into their outfits while maintaining consistency for a cohesive team photo.
While if you’re only getting individual headshots photographed, the planning is simple and it should be left to everyone’s discretion with their wardrobe based on respective brand guidelines. Be sure team members know the background they’ll be on with high-level guidance of what will go well (only necessary if anything other than white or grey).
On the topic of formality, when it comes to ties, either everyone wears ties or no one wears ties. In many shoots, clients get a tie and a tieless photo. Formality levels with individual headshots should always be consistent.
Where detailed outfit planning is necessary is group photos and lifestyle photography.
In group photos, your photographer will be able to arrange everyone so that the colours chosen are staggered. Be mindful that if everyone wears the same colour except for one, that one individual will always stand out. This can be a stylistic choice for emphasis on role; however, for groups larger than five, it may come across as gimmicky.
If you’re planning to incorporate team photos along with lifestyle photography around the office, be sure to meticulously track everyone’s outfit colour choices in advance to avoid extreme uniformity or harsh contrast between everyone. Above all, stay consistent on formality levels!
Continuing from the previous London garden headshots, each team member wore blue, navy, black, or white to fit their company colours. We shot rounds of headshots in different areas of the garden so each headshot could compliment another and not look identical, just like their wardrobe choices.
An additional headshot from the same London garden showing another complimentary, consistent angle that doesn't appear repeated.
9. How Much of Your Body Should Be in Your Headshot? (AND WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS)
How much of your body showing comes down to personal preference or your photographer’s style. Generally, close-up portraits shot tight on someone’s face is the norm for acting headshots.
Busts (chest up) is a happy middle ground. However, I prefer shots that have both shoulder present in order to frame the face. Close-up headshots from the chest up with shoulders cut off give no sense of silhouette or proportion. It can often make slimmer people look larger, and larger people look even larger.
A little farther back, shooting slightly above or below the belt line is what I like the most. It enables both shoulders to enter the frame and creates a more flattering body image. We can also add a lot more interest to the photo with posing. Though hands in pockets is a consistent default, it leads a viewers eyes into the face.
Arms crossed is a great pose to show confidence, when executed well. However, if not shot from a slightly higher angle and slight shoulder turn like this one, it can increase the width of a silhouette.
Shooting just above or below the waist gives a sense of posture. It creates a more welcoming perception of body language than if it were only shot up close. Moreover, you can always crop in – especially when making a headshot your LinkedIn profile picture. It’s better to shoot and have more space to work with then having your photographer come in too close.
For a less traditional headshot and more along the lines of environmental portraits (shooting a portrait in someone’s place or work or meaningful environment), I love “cowboy framing”. This is shooting from just above the knees up.
Cowboy framing is great for people of all heights: because it makes anyone look taller (especially short people like me). When you get feet in the frame, you instantly give a sense of height perception. Shooting any lower and it’ll look less intentional and come across that the feet have been cut off; your viewer will want to see more versus a cowboy framing will lead a viewers eyes into the body and face without leaving more to be desired.
An example of a cowboy shot (though shot a little bit higher up than above the knees) which gives more context and is great for editorial portraits – rather than a LinkedIn profile picture. We captured this for her magazine feature which allowed us to take up more page space with her portrait.
Now the age old question, what to do with your hands?
The hands in pockets have always been the most natural and what I go for most. It is confident, casual, and positive body language. If you’re wearing a suit, put your arms in your pockets through the two slits on the back-bottom portion of your jacket. It’ll feel awkward at first, but this keeps the front of your suit jacket flat.
After getting a shot like this, I move onto other positions like arms crossed, hands behind back, hands together in front, a hand on hip (for feminine posing), or hands on a table, back of chair, or other props and surfaces to take it a step further.
Frankly, as a guy, hands in pockets will be your best bet almost all the time. Women’s outfits allows us to get more creative. It’s great to try different options, but knowing that there may be only a couple positions that looks well presenting leaves less decisions to be made on the day of and ensures you don’t feel like you’re doing anything wrong.
Written from a photographer’s perspective, if you’re interested in the best posing and ways to smile naturally – especially when you have limited time with your photographer, I recommend checking out my guide about posing people who aren’t models for headshots. It’s a great way to learn how to coach yourself to craft a natural smile – even though you may be forcing it.
An example of a hands-on-hip pose which is flattering for many female-presenting figures. A great alternative for any gender is hands in pockets. The triangle of space it creates shows the body silhouette and is always slimming – which can also be achieved with hands in pockets.
10. The Importance of Seeing Your Shots as You Shoot
I always encourage clients to see their photos as we shoot. It’s normal to feel uncertain at first, but once you see a shot you love, you’ll instantly relax and trust the process. This feedback loop helps create better headshots and gives you the confidence that you’re capturing exactly what you need.
As a photographer, showing all the images as we shot was something I used to avoid. I felt self-conscious that a client may ask for something I didn’t know how to change, or my mistakes would require a significant amount of editing and what the client is seeing is not representative of the final product.
However, as I’ve matured and grown more confident in my headshot photography work, I nearly force my clients to see them as we go. They do not need to see every photo, but what I’m trying to get is one good photo that they feel confident with.
Once a client sees a photo they like, the demeanour instantly changes. The rest of our shooting becomes relaxed and comfortable now that we’re speaking the same language.
Headshot photography session of my friend, who was at first apprehensive about seeing her photo, but after seeing ones that looked good, it made getting natural smiles like this one effortless.
I always feared the silence clients would have when looking at photos, as I eagerly await them to share great feedback. The way I cut that silence is by simply asking them “What would you change?”
By offering an open-ended question, it lets them think about adjustments they’d make – often things I may not notice and could be self-conscious things. They’ll often see a side (left or right) they prefer which we can then focus on along with other items. Use seeing the images as a tool to focus on what is working well.
The feedback loop is impactful in fostering clients with images they’re confident with. It’s a great way to know if you’re ready to move onto the next look or scene. I get that confirmation in my lifestyle photography sessions too as we check items off of our shot list.
If your photographer isn’t showing you the images as you go, ask them if you can, or why not otherwise. Though it might put them on the spot, at the end of the day, it’s your photo session. Editing afterwards enhances your shoot, but cannot change things you’re not happy with.
The feedback loop is an important part of headshot photography. You may not find it in all forms of photography, like editorial portraits for example, but for personal branding and headshots, you need to be confident with the end product to represent yourself.
In this headshot session, showing the photos as we went was essential for her quick outfit and jewelry changes along with her hair. While I usually work with an assistant who notices these things, sometimes as I'm focused on shooting I don't notice details people notice in themselves. Seeing photos as you shoot offers the ability to make changes on the fly and creates a positive feedback loop.
Final Thoughts: Your Headshot Should Be a True Reflection of You
Your headshot isn’t just an image – it’s a representation of your professional identity. Whether you're capturing a corporate portrait or branding for a larger team, staying comfortable, confident, and prepared will help you achieve the best results. With over 1,000 headshot sessions to date, I’ve seen the transformative power of a relaxed, authentic shoot, and I’m here to guide you through that process.
If you’re looking for headshot photography in London for yourself or your team, I invite you to check out my headshot photography services and get in touch for a free consultation.
If you’ve got a photoshoot already lined up, I wish you all the best for your session and I hope this article was paramount to your planning process. Consider following my recent work on Instagram and joining my infrequent email newsletter through my signup below.
Thanks for stopping by and Iet’s stay connected!