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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

Examples

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