Learn expert tips and techniques on how to take a professional headshot. Discover how to use natural light, pose confidently, and edit your photos for a polished, authentic look that enhances your personal brand.
If you still haven’t made your professional headshots, then you are missing out big time both in your social and professional life. These photos are literally your visual handshake with others, and if well-executed, they can help you significantly elevate your personal brand. For those who landed here searching for how to take a professional headshot, this is what you should be doing to do so:
How to take a Professional Headshot
1. Define your Purpose
The very first step is to define why you are taking this headshot and what the industry is. If it’s strictly a corporate and business space, then you have to select headshots with a clean and formal look. If you are someone who has an audience on the creative side, then you can do best with natural and comfortable headshots.
Social media influencers and content creators go with headshots that convey a story about what they do and showcase an authentic but bold version of themselves. Knowing what the purpose of your headshots is will help you decide the theme, style, and other things like outfit, lighting, and background.
2. Posing and Clothing Style
Now you know the purpose of your headshot, the next step is to find suitable clothing and a pose. Clothing with simple, neutral solid colors works best. Avoid anything apparel that has distracting logos and patches. Don’t wear jewelry items, and if you want makeup, make sure that it’s not heavy or mask-like. It’s better to hire a professional when doing makeup for headshots.
For pose, angle your body about 10 to 45 degrees away from the camera or smartphone; this will create a more dynamic and slimming effect on the face. Keep your shoulders relaxed and back straight. Aim for a gentle expression that feels genuine, in our expression, not trying to be an attractive version, actually works the opposite.
3. Be Pro at Lighting
Although there are tons of indoor lighting solutions available, we still recommend natural light over them as it can produce soft and flattering results while reducing harsh shadows. The easiest way to get these is to use sheer curtains or white reflectors to soften sunlight and try to take these headshots during early morning or late afternoon.
If you are not blessed to have such lighting conditions, then investing in a rim light with temperature control is your best option. Learn three-point lighting, for which this rim light can be your main light, and for the other two, we recommend investing in small lights to use above your head (for background separation) and another one at 45 degrees to reduce shadows on your sides.
Nowadays, you will see a lot of headshots with Loop lighting, which uses soft shadow by the nose for gentle modeling. Butterfly lighting is also quite common, in which lights are placed above and in front to create a small shadow under the nose, which gives a classic yet flattering look.
4. Camera Settings and Equipment
You can either use a high-end smartphone or a mirrorless camera to get the best results in terms of clarity and color profile. Get out of automode and use aperture priority (A or Av) or manual (M) mode for headshots, which is very important here.
To get the most object isolation and more clarity on the face with blur in the background, you need to use the widest aperture possible. Apertures like f/2.8, f/2.0, or even f/1.8 are suitable for a professionally taken headshot.
Set your shutter speed at least 1/200th or faster to avoid any motion blur with ISO 100 or 200 to ensure a noise-free shot. If you are using a Nikon, then use single-point autofocus (AF-S) and One-Shot AF if using Canon. With digital cameras, always shoot in RAW to get more flexibility in editing to correct color.
5. The Post-Production Polish:
Okay, you shot a nice image of yourself with your gorgeous smile and sharp-looking clothes, but this is just half the job being done. Shooting in RAW gives you more flexibility in editing, and should not be ignored. First, crop to a pleasing composition, something from the mid-chest up with a little space above your head.
Next, tweak Highlights/Shadows, colors, white balance, and exposure. This is done to make sure that the whites look white, not blue or orange, and correct shadows and lighting in areas, if any areas are too bright, and add more contrast to add a slight punch. To finish the look, use Radial Filters to add dark edges to the frame, bringing more attention to the face.
Best Camera Lens for Crips Headshots 2025
The above five steps are how to take a professional headshot like a pro, but your results still won’t be as pro if your camera and its lens are bottlenecked. The SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm Full-frame Carbon Fiber Anamorphic Lens should be on your radar if you want headshots that are distinct from others with unique, artistic characteristics.
Originally designed for cinematic footage, these lenses can capture extremely soft oval or elliptical bokeh in the out-of-focus areas in the background. This instantly creates a painterly canvas of a soft background with critically sharp features of your face. We recommend selecting the SIRUI Saturn 75mm variant from the lineup, as this focal length will help slim your face and will provide incredibly flattering compression in your headshots.
Wrapping Up:
Learning how to take a professional headshot requires you to learn the basics of lighting, posing, background, and using the camera in manual mode. The trio lens series of the SIRUI Saturn can create stunning and professional-looking headshots, which help you to stand out in a sea of ordinary portraits.
