What to Wear for a Professional Headshot

There was a time when deciding what to wear for a professional headshot was pretty simple. Put on a suit. Add a tie if you were a man. Sit in front of the camera. Done.

Things have changed. Business headshots have gotten a lot less formal over the past several years, which gives you more freedom - but it also raises a new question: what should you actually wear?

After photographing business professionals for many years, here's what I've learned: the best place to start has very little to do with clothing. It starts with deciding what you want your portrait to say about you.

What Do You Want Your Headshot to Say?

Think about a criminal defense attorney, a pediatrician, and an author. All three need professional headshots, but they probably don't want to communicate the same thing. An attorney may want to project confidence and authority. A pediatrician may care more about appearing warm and approachable. An author might want something more relaxed and creative.

Before you start pulling clothes out of the closet, ask yourself a simple question: how do I want people to perceive me when they see this portrait? Professional? Approachable? Confident? Creative? Maybe just the guy next door? Once you answer that, choosing what to wear gets a lot easier.

How Formal Should You Dress?

Professional headshots have definitely gotten more casual. Unless someone's in a particularly formal profession or an executive position, I see fewer ties than I used to. A dress shirt with a sport coat has become very common, and depending on the profession, even the jacket may be unnecessary.

That doesn't mean a suit and tie is outdated. For a CEO, financial professional, attorney, or someone in a more traditional corporate environment, it may still be exactly the right choice. The key is making sure your clothing fits the message you want to send.

If you're unsure, take a look at the websites of other respected people in your profession. What are they wearing? Too formal? Too casual? You don't have to copy them - you're just getting a sense of the visual language people in your field are already using, and then deciding how you want to fit into it, or stand apart from it.

What Colors Look Best?

For a traditional business look, it's hard to go wrong with darker, solid colors. Navy, charcoal, black, and other dark neutrals tend to photograph beautifully, particularly for jackets and sport coats - they keep attention where it belongs, on your face.

I generally prefer solids over strong patterns for the same reason. A bold pattern can become the first thing you notice in a photograph, and it can date the portrait more quickly too. A simple navy blazer looked appropriate ten years ago, looks appropriate today, and will probably look appropriate ten years from now. You want someone looking at your portrait to remember you, not your jacket.

What About a White Shirt?

White dress shirts are extremely common in business portraits, and they work beautifully underneath a darker jacket. Where I get more cautious is a white shirt by itself.

A headshot is a small, tight composition. If a large portion of it is bright white clothing, your eye gets pulled toward the shirt instead of the face. Put that same shirt underneath a navy or charcoal jacket, and the balance changes completely. There's nothing wrong with white - you just have to think about how much visual attention it's going to demand on its own.

Should Doctors Wear a White Coat?

I photographed doctors for a medical practice for years, and this became an interesting lesson. Originally, everyone was photographed in a white lab coat - I even kept lab coats at the studio so we'd have them on hand. Eventually, we moved away from that.

Part of it was fit. Lab coats aren't designed to be flattering, and an ill-fitting coat doesn't become flattering just because someone's standing in front of a professional camera. The other issue was all that white - it created a large bright area competing with the doctor's face. Over time, the practice started having people photographed more like they actually dressed for work.

That points to a larger truth: even people in the same profession shouldn't necessarily dress the same way. A heart surgeon who wants to project experience and authority might choose a suit and tie. A pediatrician may prefer something more relaxed, because appearing friendly is part of the job. Someone who normally works in scrubs may decide scrubs are exactly what represents them best. There isn't one correct answer.

Should You Wear Scrubs or Other Work-Specific Clothing?

You can - but it's worth asking where else you might need this headshot. If you're a medical professional photographed in scrubs, that image immediately identifies you with your current role, which is perfectly fine if that's what you want. But six months from now, you might be asked to speak at a conference, join a board, or move into a different position - and suddenly that profession-specific portrait isn't quite as useful.

That's why I often like a somewhat neutral business look. A good professional headshot can follow you from LinkedIn to a company website to a speaking engagement without ever feeling out of place. Of course, if your employer has specific requirements, follow them - I photograph for companies that tell employees exactly what to wear so every portrait in the group has a consistent look. In that case, the decision's already been made for you.

Do You Need to Bring Multiple Outfits?

For a straightforward headshot, usually not - most people only need one good outfit. A branding session is different: if you're building out a collection of images for a website or social media, having a few different looks can make sense. But if the goal is one strong headshot, I'd rather spend the time refining the lighting, expression, and pose than turning the session into a fashion show. If you want two finished looks - one smiling, one more serious - that's easy enough to do without changing clothes at all.

What About Jewelry and Glasses?

Jewelry is fine. I just don't want it to become the star of the portrait. If you normally wear a particular necklace or pair of earrings, there's no reason to remove them - they're part of how you normally present yourself. Just be careful with anything unusually large or reflective. The same principle runs through the whole wardrobe: nothing should compete with your face.

Glasses are no different. If you normally wear them, wear them. I've had people consider taking their glasses off for the portrait, even though everyone who knows them sees them in glasses every single day - and that never made much sense to me. Your headshot should look like you on a really good day, not a different version of you invented for the camera. Glare is a real concern, but that's the photographer's problem to solve with lighting and posing, not yours to solve by removing your glasses.

If your situation is a little more complicated - stronger glasses glare, or you're just more self-conscious about how you photograph - that's actually a good reason to invest in a more experienced photographer rather than a reason to compromise on what you wear. A skilled photographer should be equipped to handle exactly that kind of challenge.

Does Your Outfit Need to Match the Background?

Generally, no - this is something people worry about more than they need to. Choose clothing that looks good on you and says what you want it to say, and let the photographer figure out what background works with it. That's part of the job.

The one exception is if your company has already set a specific background for every employee - if everyone's being photographed against red, for instance, you probably don't want to show up in something that clashes badly with it. But for an individual headshot, I wouldn't build a wardrobe around the background. I'd build the background around the person.

The Most Important Thing to Wear

After all this talk about jackets, colors, and glasses, the most important question is still the one we started with: what do you want your headshot to say about you?

The right outfit for a CEO may be completely wrong for a children's doctor. The perfect wardrobe for an attorney might make a creative professional look stiff and uncomfortable. Your clothing isn't supposed to make the headshot - it's there to support it. Choose something that fits well, feels like you, and makes sense for how you want to present yourself. Keep distracting patterns and accessories to a minimum. When in doubt, simple and timeless usually wins.

Then stop worrying about your clothes. A good photographer should take it from there.

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If you still have questions, I'm here to help!