How to choose what to wear for professional business headshots

Let me guess, you’re planning your business headshot photo session and want to make the most of it by doing your research. I applaud you. Preparation is such a crucial element of a photoshoot, especially when it comes to presenting yourself as a face of a business/company. Preparing your skin and body for the spotlight is one thing, choosing how to dress for your photoshoot is another, which cannot be neglected. So let’s talk about what to wear for professional business headshots.

First thing’s first, here’s what personal branding photography is and why it’s important.

Before we dive in what to wear, you need to decide what type of business portrait or headshot will suit your brand the best. There are 2 types of business portraits:

Editorial Business Portrait

Editorial business portrait or headshot is a professional image of you taken at your place of work. Let’s say you are a head chef at a restaurant, and your editorial business portrait will reflect that: you’re dressed in your chef outfit and surrounded by cutlery. This is a more creative approach to business portraits, which is often used in magazines.

Professional Portrait

As opposed to an editorial-style business portrait, a professional portrait or a headshot is normally done in a photography studio in front of a plain background. Professional portraits and headshots are more common. You probably have seen them a lot on LinkedIn, CV profile photos, or “our team” pages of large companies for their employees.

Dress for success in your professional headshots.

How to choose what to wear for professional business headshots

Styles

Think timeless, classic.

If in doubt, a professional suit or a classic office-wear look will usually work. Suit and tie always looks great. If you don’t wear a tie, consider putting on a sweatshirt or a jacket to add a layer or two. This will help avoid a ‘floating head’ look.

If you are a freelancer, or you own a personal brand or small business, you can go for more ‘relaxed look: jeans, trainers and a t-shirt… Dress in what you normally put on going to work (for me that would be an oversized hoody and joggers as I work from home haha )

Choose a cut that flatters your body and fits well.

Your headshot will be representing you for months, if not years. So you want to make sure your clothes make you look the best way possible.

Comfort matters.

While you’re not going to put of your favourite tracksuit or PJs for a professional business headshot, you still want to wear something you’d wear normally to work or a business meeting. For example, if you don’t usually wear skirts, don’t wear one for your photoshoot. If you’re feeling uncomfortable, or not yourself in your photoshoot clothes choice – it will come across that way in your photos.

Pay attention to necklines.

If you are gifted with a long neck, try to avoid V-shape neckline, as it will make your neck disproportionally longer. If you have a short neck, buttoned up shirt might make your neck disappear altogether; in this case try to unbutton last button or two on your shirt.

Long sleeves or short sleeves.

There’s no a strict rule that short sleeves in business headshots look unprofessional. Go ahead and wear short sleeves if you’re happy to showcase those lean arms. For example, no one expects you to wear a long-sleeve office shirt for your headshot if you’re a personal trainer, show off those muscles/tone!

Colours

• As a general rule, choose solid colour clothes for your professional business headshots. Stay clear of large logos and bold patterns as it will distract from your face. Though a bit of colour here and there will add personality to the images.
• Avoid high contrast colours in in your outfit choices, as it will detract from face. For example a white top and black bottoms: our eyes will naturally be drawn to the brightest part of an image – a white top. While in your professional headshot you want your face to be the main focus of the image. That’s why similar or complimenting to each other colour tones are a better choice for your business portrait.
• Choose colours that compliment your skin. Common sense, right? Unfortunately I see it often when outfit colour choices are unflattering. Did you know that certain colours look different on you without tan/with natural tan/with fake tan? I would highly recommend trying your outfit for an upcoming headshot photoshoot at home. Look at it with a critical eye and even take a photo on your phone to give you an idea how it will look in the photos. Some outfits don’t look as good in photos as they do in the mirror.
• Black coloured clothes are more body flattering, especially if you want to hide unwanted parts of your body. It’s a fact. Although they don’t always look great in photos. If your photographer is using a black/dark background, you will lose a lot of detail of your outfit and body in the images when choosing a black colour outfit.
• Think about your BRAND’s colours. Does your brand/business have a colour scheme? By adding little bit of those colours in your business headshots you will show your perspective clients your attention to detail.

Accessories

Adding accessories to your business headshots will help convey more of your personality and character.

Glasses.

Do you normally wear glasses? Even if you do, don’t limit yourself with just one shot. I would recommend having your headshot taken with and without glasses, so you can decide which option you prefer later.

Tie.

Again, have your business portrait taken with and without a tie. It’s alway a good idea to have variety in your photos.

Jewellery.

Accessories like jewellery, necklaces, watches, earrings, etc. Choose the ones that compliment your outfit. Consider subtle accessories over flashy – you want to make sure someone looking at your photos will notice your face before your jewellery.

This is all for today. Thank you for checking out this week’s post! I hope you found it useful, and if you have any questions regarding choosing what to wear for professional business headshots feel free to drop them in the comment section below. If you’re looking for a Birmingham headshot photographer, I would be happy to help you! Please drop me an email and let’s discuss your photoshoot.