What makes an excellent Linkedin headshot?

Excellent Linkedin headshots have a straightforward composition, removing as much as possible from the photo to help engage the viewer with the subject.

The brief we operate from is to present the subject’s character powerfully via the face. So, naturally, we avoid unnecessary additions and providing too much clutter and spurious information.

How do we generally achieve this? Straight away, we use a simple backdrop, or natural background, that doesn’t compete for attention and tends towards being more low-key.

If you intend trying to capture your own excellent Linkedin headshot, that would be the first area to address. Everything else can fall into place after that.

Keep yourself unencumbered by distractions. We talk about this a lot, as it does make a big difference to the final image. Avoid too much jewellery, and keep hair and make-up as an assist rather than a grand statement. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but it can be too distracting for most business and corporate images.

The detail work is done by looking for the clutter, the oddities, and the distracting elements and removing those. Then, we can add and subtract elements throughout a shoot to make a more powerful statement.

When we look at advertising imagery, we need to appreciate that the blank sheet that the photographer starts with only shows what’s necessary. A message told in its simplest form is usually (not always) more memorable than something complex. However, it is undoubtedly easily recalled.

Your eyes are a critical feature for the success of the Linkedin headshot. They need to be in focus, lit well, and expressive.

Critically, your expressions either work for you or don’t. Many people can freeze up in front of a camera and show unusual or inauthentic expressions. We’ll take the time to find what genuinely works for you. Some people are good at smiling (most people are), but some don’t. Some can look like they’re trying very hard to be serious, but the final effect is disarming. Some look uniquely uncomfortable, like they’ve been captured mid-thought, stuck between being told to be sincere and warm, yet it’s now alarming.

Our skill is helping people be seen as they’d like and deserve to be seen, even when they’ve felt that all the photographs they’ve featured in, let alone a professional Linkedin headshot, never worked for them.

And finally, excellent Linkedin headshots don’t look like they’ve been retouched. In our area, many new advertising hoardings were installed on a recently completed project. Many depict headshots; unfortunately, some suffer from overtly heavily-handed photoshop or retouching. We aim to have the retouching on clients’ headshots look natural.