Look Competent/Trustworthy for your Headshot
For business websites and LinkedIn Profiles, professionally done headshots humanizes and associates faces to that business or profile, and increase the level of interest by the viewer. Images of management and staff for business websites highlight the fact that your business is comprised of people – particularly important in service related businesses where people are to some degree the product. For individuals, LinkedIn studies show profiles are 14x more likely to be noticed with a headshot.
Most businesses and individuals want to convey several key elements in their profile images:
Professionalism
Competence
Approachability
Beyond that, you may also want to emphasize other qualities that amplify your brand, messaging, or would be of interest to specific clients. For example, a criminal attorney would likely want to send a message of toughness, someone who is going to fight for their clients, vs. a career coach who would want to convey they are someone who you can talk with and can help you.
Let’s look at how you can create headshot photography that conveys these key elements.
Showing Professionalism in your Headshot
Most businesses and career oriented individuals want to convey a level of professionalism - The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as "the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person;"
First, in order to look professional, the image itself should be professionally done – that selfie or shot taken by a friend with you up against a wall, or that picture of you in the parking lot, or cropped from when you attended a wedding is just not professional.
Key elements of a Professional Looking Image
High quality complementary lighting – lighting is one of the most important elements of a photograph – minimal shadows, even, consistent lighting that complements the skin, no “hotspots” or very dark areas, along with proper color balance. Note the difference in lighting from the 2 images above and how the image on the right looks more professional and of higher quality
Background that is NOT distracting, neutral colored, and is complementary to the clothing/hair. The background should allow the viewer’s eye to focus on the face. The only exceptions are environmental type headshots, where you want to convey something about the work environment (eg, a researcher’s shot taken in a lab, or a lawyer in front of a bookshelf with books).
Expression/pose is one of the most important aspects of a professional image. You want to look engaged, looking at the viewer, and the expression should be consistent with your branding.
Your hair should be neat and not in your face
For men, clean shave or neatly trimmed beard
It should go without saying that sunglasses, hats, headbands are not a professional look
Clothing choices convey a great deal about your brand - wear something that is not distracting and is something you’d wear to a meeting with your management or clients. It should fit you well, and the formality should be consistent with your business/industry “norms” – for more on clothing choices, see my blog on Clothing Do’s and Don’ts for Professional Looking Headshots (https://www.barrybraunsteinphotography.com/blog/2020/2/18/clothing-dos-and-donts-for-professional-looking-headshots)
Showing Confidence and Competence in your Executive Headshot
Competence and confidence are conveyed by expression and pose, as well as the other supporting elements of professionalism mentioned above. If you’ve ever presented to a group of other professionals, you’ve likely practiced aspects of confidence. Your demeanor should be nothing over the top emotionally - it’s a look of “I’ve got this”. The angle of your jawline, along with how your head/eyes are positioned relative to the camera (along with your eyebrows) play key roles in how you’re perceived as competent and confident. Look at the 2 images above – the image on the right clearly conveys more confidence than the image on the left, primarily due to the position of the person’ head and eyes, along with his overall expression.
The expression, which is comprised of his mouth which is slightly smiling, along with his eyes, which are also smiling (aka, “smiling with your eyes” – see below). All of this was achieved through a process called expression coaching.
Approachability for your Headshot
Most people want to be perceived as approachable, someone who you would want to meet, talk with, get to know, or work with. The look of approachability comes from the eyes and the mouth. A smile goes a long way towards looking approachable, but determining the right amount of smile is important to conveying the right message, tone. Some people look better smiling a big wide smile with teeth, others with just a hint of a smile.
A genuine smile not only is shown by moving the corners of your mouth closer to your ears, but also by “smiling with your eyes”. Actors practice this all the time – when you smile or laugh naturally, your eyes squinch a bit (the lower eyelid muscles push upwards slightly), so when a person genuinely smiles, they are also smiling with their eyes. This is one of the reasons most high school yearbook headshots look horrible – the kids smile with their mouths but not their eyes.
For headshots, the arms are not shown – but if you were creating more of a portrait shot, you don’t want to have your arms folded in front, which indicates you don’t want to be approached
Summary
A skilled/experienced headshot photographer understands how to integrate all of these elements to produce headshots that convey the right professional message for your business or individual professional profile. A picture is worth a 1000 words – you want the right words for your headshots.
For more information on executive headshots for teams, download my ebook “Marketer’s Guide to High Quality Team Images” here https://www.barrybraunsteinphotography.com/marketers-guide-to-high-quality-team-headshots
Or click here to discuss your executive team headshot needs.