Headshots
Advice on how to take a professional looking headshot for use online. We cover lighting, framing and location.
Unless your image is going to be printed, we recommend taking your headshot image(s) on a smartphone. Most modern smartphone cameras can take portrait images that are as good as, if not better than, those taken on a DSLR camera.
If you are taking headshots for multiple people within the same team, try to do it in one day to keep the lighting, background and settings consistent.
Framing
- Always use a vertical (portrait) orientation for headshots.
- Take photos of your subject from the chest up
- Ask your subject to look into the camera and pose with a slight body turn, this helps make the headshot look more natural
- Make sure to leave some space around the edges so the subject isn't filling up the photo completely
- Take the photo at your subject’s eye level whenever possible
- Avoid having the subject stand in front of a flat surface, like a wall
- Have them stand somewhere with depth (a corridor, reception area, next to a canal etc)
Lighting
- Use soft, natural lighting whenever possible
- Avoid harsh lighting such as office ceiling lights or bright sunshine
- Position the subject to stand facing the light source
- Never put the light source behind a subject
Settings
- If using a smartphone with a portrait mode option, you can use this (it
doesn’t matter if not, though) - Tapping the face of your subject on your screen will focus the phone
- Avoid zooming, as this will lower the quality of the image
Additional information
- Make sure the subject isn’t wearing clothes with text, images or logos whenever possible.
- Take multiple shots to capture a variety of expressions and poses so you have options to choose from
