Most people arrive at a headshot session having thought about their clothes for about four minutes. Then they spend the next year looking at the result on LinkedIn, on a company team page, in a conference programme and on a casting profile.
Wardrobe is the one part of a headshot you fully control. The light, the lens and the retouching are our job. What you put on is yours, and it decides more of the final image than anything else you'll do that day.
Here's what works in front of a camera, what doesn't, and why.
Start With Where the Picture Is Going
Before you pick anything, decide what the image is for. A headshot for a law firm's team page, a headshot for an actor's casting profile and a headshot for a personal brand on social media are three different pictures, and they want three different wardrobes. Corporate and professional headshots want the version of you a client meets on a good day. That usually means a jacket, or a shirt or knit that holds its shape. Acting headshots want you to read as a believable person rather than a polished executive, so they lean simpler and plainer. Personal brand work has the most room, because the point is to look like a specific human with a specific job. If you don't know which one you need, say so when you book. It's a faster conversation than any wardrobe guide.
Colours That Work on Camera
Mid to dark solid colours are the safest thing you can wear. Navy, charcoal, forest, burgundy, deep grey, black. They sit back and let your face be the brightest thing in the frame, which is the entire job of a headshot. Light colours are harder, not impossible. A white shirt under a jacket is a classic and it works. A white shirt with nothing over it can blow out next to your skin and pull the eye away from your face, especially on a light background. Pale pastels tend to wash people out. Pick a colour that has some contrast with the background and with your skin tone. A navy jacket on a dark grey background is good. A grey jacket on a grey background makes you a floating head. If you're being photographed somewhere with a known backdrop, ask what colour it is. One more thing about colour. Bring the second option. The colour that looks best on you in your bedroom mirror is not always the one that behaves under studio light, and swapping tops takes ninety seconds.
What Colour Suit for a Headshot
Navy and charcoal, in that order. Both read as professional without being severe, both photograph with visible texture and shape, and both work against almost any background. Black suits are harder than people expect. On camera, black can collapse into a flat shape with no detail in it, so the jacket stops looking tailored and starts looking like a dark hole under your chin. It can be lit well, but it needs to be deliberate. If you only own black, wear it, and tell us so we can light for it. Light grey and tan work for a warmer, less formal look, and they suit lighter backgrounds. Avoid anything with a strong sheen. Shiny fabric catches the light in a way that makes a good suit look cheap. Pair it with a shirt that has a collar stiff enough to stay put. The most common wardrobe failure in corporate headshots isn't the suit, it's a soft collar that's been folded in a drawer and sits crooked all session.
Fit Matters More Than the Label
A well fitted inexpensive jacket photographs better than an expensive one that's a size off. The camera reads shape, and the shoulder seam is the first thing it reads. If the seam sits past the edge of your shoulder, the jacket looks borrowed. Sleeves should break at the wrist bone. Shirts should be snug enough through the body that there's no pooling of fabric when you sit, because most headshots are shot seated or half seated and anything loose gathers across the chest. If something needs a tailor and you have a week, that week is a better investment than a new shirt.
Necklines, Patterns and Layers
Simple necklines photograph best. A crew, a collar, a modest V. The neckline frames your face, and anything complicated competes with it. Avoid very low or very wide necklines unless the picture is deliberately editorial, because a tight headshot crop can leave you looking like you're wearing nothing at all. Avoid turtlenecks if you have a shorter neck, since they remove the gap between chin and shoulders that gives a portrait air. Patterns are the most common mistake. Fine stripes, small checks and tight herringbone can produce a shimmering interference pattern on a digital sensor, and it cannot be fully fixed afterwards. Big, bold patterns work but they dominate the frame. Solids, or a pattern you could still describe from across a room, are the rule. Layers earn their place. A jacket over a knit, or a blazer you can take off, turns one outfit into two looks in the same session. That's the cheapest variety you'll get. Skip anything with a visible logo unless it's your own company's. Logos date a photo and they distract.
Should I Smile in a Professional Headshot
Yes, in at least some of the frames. A genuine smile is the single most reliable thing you can do to make a headshot work, because people are reading the picture to decide whether they'd want to talk to you. That said, you want range. A good session gives you a warm open smile, a smaller closed-mouth version, and a neutral confident expression with nothing forced about it. Different pictures need different faces. A law firm bio and a conference speaker page are not asking for the same thing. The forced smile is the thing to avoid, and it comes from holding one expression too long. We work in short bursts for exactly that reason.
Should I Wear My Hair Up or Down
Whichever is how you actually look most days, and then shoot a few of the other one. Down tends to soften the face and frame it. Up reads cleaner and more formal, and it shows your jaw and neck, which suits a crisp corporate look. Neither is better. What matters is that it looks like you, because a headshot that doesn't match the person walking into the meeting has failed at its only job. Two practical notes. Strays and flyaways are easy to tidy in post, so don't panic about them, but a cowlick that's standing up in every single frame can't be invented away. And if you're planning a cut or colour, do it a week before, not the day before.
How to Pose for a Headshot
The short version is that we'll direct you, and you don't need to arrive knowing how to pose. But there are three things worth knowing in advance. Sit or stand with your shoulders turned slightly off square to the camera, not straight on. A small angle gives the body shape. Then bring your chin a touch forward and slightly down, which is the opposite of what feels natural and is why almost every headshot gets directed. Weight forward, not back. Leaning away from the camera makes people look hesitant. Leaning in, even a little, reads as engaged. Posture is the rest of it. Shoulders down and back, long neck. It feels theatrical and it photographs as confidence.
What to Bring
Bring more than you plan to wear. Two or three tops, a jacket if you have one, and anything you're undecided about. Deciding in the room with the light on takes less time than deciding at home with no way to test it. Bring a lint roller, a comb, and whatever you'd use to take shine off your forehead. Studio light is honest about shine. Hang or fold what you bring, don't stuff it in a bag. Creases across a shirt front are fixable in retouching, but it's slow, and the time is better spent shooting. If you wear glasses, bring them and wear them if that's how people see you. Anti-reflective coating helps. We can angle the light to kill reflections, and in the rare case we can't, a frame with the lenses removed solves it. Transition lenses are the real problem, because they darken under studio light and hide your eyes, so bring a non-transition pair if you have one.
What Gets Fixed Afterwards, and What Doesn't
Retouching handles the temporary. A blemish, a stray hair, a crooked collar, a bit of shine, uneven colour. Those are all routine and you shouldn't think about them. What retouching doesn't do is change your face. We don't reshape jaws, slim bodies or swap in a different expression. The picture has to look like you, otherwise it's working against you the first time someone meets you in person. The honest reason to care about wardrobe, then, is that clothes are the part of the image that can't be repaired later. A patterned shirt that shimmers, a jacket that doesn't fit, a black suit with no detail in it. Those are decisions, not accidents, and they're made before you arrive.
The Short Version
Solid mid to dark colours. Navy or charcoal if it's a suit. Something that fits properly at the shoulder. A simple neckline, no busy patterns, a jacket you can take off, and a second top in the bag. Hair the way you normally wear it. Glasses if you wear glasses. Do that and the picture is already most of the way there before the first frame.