I’ve photographed hundreds of headshots by now, and the sessions that go best all have one thing in common: the client turned up having already made the small decisions. What to wear, when to get an early night, what to do about unruly hair. None of it is complicated, but if you’re figuring it out in the ten minutes before I pick up the camera, it shows in the photos.
This guide is everything I tell clients who ask how to prepare. Not the generic “just relax and be yourself” advice you’ll find everywhere else. The specific, practical stuff that actually changes how your headshots turn out.
Most of what makes a headshot session go smoothly happens before you even arrive. A few things worth sorting in advance:
Get a proper night’s sleep in the two nights before your session, not just the one directly before it. Editing can soften dark circles, but nothing beats turning up rested — it changes your whole expression, not just the skin under your eyes.
Have a scroll through old photos of yourself that you actually like. Take note of the angle, the clothing colour, the hairstyle. You don’t need a mood board, just a rough sense of what’s worked for you before, so we can build on it rather than starting from scratch.
Keep the day itself as clear as you can. Don’t book your session in between three back-to-back meetings or straight after the school run. Being rushed shows on camera far more than people expect.
Clothing does more work in a headshot than people give it credit for. A few rules of thumb I give every client:
Dress for the role you want, not necessarily the one you’re in. Solid colours photograph better than stripes or busy patterns, and a jacket or collared shirt adds a level of polish that’s hard to fake. Even in more casual industries, it’s worth having one smarter option in the mix.
Go easy on jewellery and logos. Anything large or busy pulls the eye away from your face, which is the opposite of what you want in a headshot. Simple studs, a single necklace with the pendant sitting above the crop line — that’s about as much as you need.
Contrast matters more than colour theory. A dark jacket over a light shirt reads as confident and put-together in almost any setting. If you’re after black and white headshots, keep your top a shade or two different from the backdrop, otherwise you risk blending in and looking like a floating head.
Fit beats fashion. A blazer that sits close through the shoulders will always look sharper than one that’s a size too big, even if it means leaving it unbuttoned. The same goes for collars — snug looks intentional, loose looks like you grabbed the wrong size.
Check your clothes the night before, not the morning of. Lint-roll anything dark, iron out the creases, and if you’ve got facial hair, give it a trim a day or two ahead rather than right before the shoot — fresh shaves can leave marks the camera doesn’t forgive.
This is the bit most people don’t think about, and it makes a bigger difference than they’d expect.
Check your hair in a mirror before we start — not just that it’s brushed, but that nothing’s sticking up at an odd angle. I can retouch a stray strand or two, but a whole clump is a different job.
Skip anything with shine for the last few hours before your session. Studio lighting picks up oil and moisturiser far more than daylight does, so if you need to moisturise, do it the night before rather than on the way in. If you’re not wearing makeup, a splash of cold water and a pat dry works just as well.
If you wear glasses, give the lenses a proper clean, and let me know if they have transition lenses — they can darken under studio lights and make you look like you’re wearing sunglasses.
And take a minute to actually relax before we start. Put a song on, have a laugh, shake out any nerves. Almost nobody who comes to me has done this regularly before, and it always shows less in the finished photos than people expect — that’s as much my job to manage as it is yours.
Get these bits right and the session does the rest. Have a browse of the gallery if you want to see examples of the finished results, or get in touch if you’re ready to book a headshot session of your own.
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