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 been comfortable in for a full day. A new shirt bought for the session is the single most reliable way to look uncomfortable in your own photograph.

Clothes that fit badly are visible in a headshot in a way they are not in a mirror. Collars that gape, shoulders that sit wrong, a jacket that pulls when you sit down: the camera finds all of it.

02

Color: mid tones win

Solid mid-tone colors photograph best. Navy, charcoal, forest green, burgundy, slate blue. They separate you from most backdrops without pulling attention off your face.

Pure white tends to blow out under lighting and can make skin look sallow by comparison. Pure black loses all the detail in the fabric and can read as a floating head on a dark backdrop. Neither is a disaster, but neither is doing you any favours.

If your company has brand colors and the headshots are going on a team page, a nod to them works well, particularly on a white backdrop.

03

Patterns, logos and jewellery

Fine, tight patterns like narrow stripes or small checks can shimmer strangely on a digital sensor. Larger, softer patterns are fine. When in doubt, solid.

Visible logos date a headshot fast and limit where you can use it. Jewellery is good in moderation, as long as it does not catch the light and pull the eye away from 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 is a substantial part of the frame. Structured collars, crew necks and simple V-necks all work. Very wide or very low necklines leave a lot of bare skin in a small frame, which reads as more casual than most people intend.

Layers help. A jacket, cardigan or overshirt gives the frame shape and gives us a second look without a full change of clothes.

05

Pockets and watches, the two things everyone forgets

Anything in a trouser or shirt pocket shows as a bulge in a headshot. Phone, keys, wallet, pens, a badge. Leave all of it with your bag, not in your pocket.

Take off Apple Watches and other smart watches. They date a photo faster than anything else you are wearing, 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 you can borrow empty frames from your optician for the session, reflections become much easier to control, but it is not essential. I light around glasses regularly.

Haircuts a week before, not the day before. Whatever grooming you do normally, do that. And bring a lint roller, because dark fabrics collect 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 effectively doubles what you get from a session without a full change of clothes. Jacket on reads more formal, jacket off reads more approachable, and both come from the same lighting setup.

It also gives you a way out if something is not working. If the shirt alone looks flat, the layer fixes it in seconds.

08

Think about where the photo is going

A LinkedIn profile picture is displayed at about the size of a thumbnail. Fine detail disappears entirely, which is another argument for solid colors and simple necklines. If it has to work at 100 pixels, it has to work as shapes.

A press or speaker bio is often printed larger and sits alongside 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 goal is a set that looks like one company, not twelve unrelated portraits. The easiest way to get there is a simple written guideline sent in advance: same backdrop, same general formality, a color family rather than an exact color.

I would avoid mandating identical outfits. A team page where everyone is in the same blue shirt reads as a uniform and strips out the individuality that makes people look approachable.