Getting professional headshots done can be intimidating, especially if you’re not used to being in front of a camera. Along with finding the perfect outfit and getting your hair and makeup just right, learning how to pose correctly can help you look more professional, confident, and approachable in your headshots—all the qualities you’ll need to impress potential employers, clients, or colleagues.
In this guide, we’ll go over some of the most important dos and don’ts when it comes to posing for professional headshots, including what to do with your hands, face, the rest of your body, and where to focus your gaze.
We’ll also go over how AI-generated headshots can help you find your most flattering angles, producing stunning photos without the risk of feeling shy or awkward under the harsh lights of a photo studio.
Without further ado, here are the top tips from professional photographers, the dos and don’ts to keep in mind when posing for your headshots.
Do: Know Your Best Angles
Good preparation can make all the difference in how your photos turn out, so you can feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible when the time comes to get the perfect shot. Everyone has a “good side” or an angle that highlights their best features and downplays their least favorite. Do you know yours?
If you’re not sure what your best angle is, there’s no time like the present to find out. Don’t wait until the day you take your headshots to experiment with different angles or poses. Take plenty of practice shots with your phone or camera—and this doesn’t mean just selfies. If you don’t have a friend to help you, use a tripod and the timer countdown to take them yourself.
You don’t have to get dressed up or get your hair done. Just make sure you have good lighting and take plenty of photos with your head and shoulders at various angles (use the tips in this article as a guide).
This won’t work as well in front of a mirror, as we appear much differently in photographs versus real life. Also, even if you do discover a good angle in a mirror, you’ll have a hard time recreating it exactly without a static image to review later.
Don’t: Face the Camera Directly
Angles create texture and interest in any photo. For headshots, the best way to create angles is to shift your head and shoulders in different directions. Not in an extreme way—this isn’t fashion modeling, after all—but when you move your body at an angle, keep your gaze forward so your eyes are still connecting with the camera.
You can play with different versions of this, changing the angle that your body is facing, bringing a hand to the hip, or crossing your legs if you’re seated. Experiment with a slight head tilt to one side or the other, allowing the light to hit your face from a new direction.
Changing your pose can be as simple as shifting your weight from one foot to the other. Don’t overthink it, just make subtle adjustments here and there and try not to stiffen up or stay in one spot for too long.
Do: Make Eye Contact
They say that the eyes can be a window to the soul—this may be even more true when you need to make a good first impression through a photo. Maintaining eye contact with the camera is important for headshots because it creates the illusion of familiarity and makes you appear more approachable.
One technique you can try to keep your expression more natural (rather than an intense stare) is to turn away from the camera, then imagine your best friend is calling out to you from just behind it. When you turn back to look at the camera, your expression should be open and inviting, maybe a bit curious.
If you can pull off this technique, whoever looks at this headshot will get the sense that they already know you, and you’re someone they can trust. Whether you’re using your headshots for your professional profile or personal social media accounts, eye contact is the key to connecting with your target audience.
Don’t: Slouch
Your posture can have an effect on how you feel as well as how you’re perceived by others. When you’re hunched over, it’s more difficult to take deep breaths, and shallow breathing limits the amount of oxygen your brain gets. This can lead to poor focus, decreased energy, and just a bad mood in general.
When you make a conscious effort to roll your shoulders back and stand or sit up straight, this can have an immediate impact on your presence and confidence, whether you’re in a crowded room or in front of a camera. Even if you are leaning slightly forward or have your arms crossed, keep your back straight (but not stiff!), and you’ll notice a big improvement in your results.
Do: Watch Your Chin Position
The position of your chin is an important but often overlooked part of posing for headshots. If you’re working with a photographer, they may instruct you to raise or lower the chin, or tilt it to one side or the other. Try to relax, even if the position feels a bit unnatural. A subtle shift of your chin can make a big difference in how the light hits your face.
To avoid the “double chin” effect, remember to always keep enough space between your neck and chin. If the camera is at eye level, the shadows created by the lighting can give you the appearance of a double chin in photos, even if you don’t actually have one. It might feel uncomfortable or awkward to thrust your chin forward a bit more than usual, but no one will be able to tell.
Don’t: Cover Your Face
A professional headshot should provide a clear, unobstructed view of your face, and you should avoid having anything distracting in the background or the foreground. Some people like to get a few shots of themselves holding an object that relates to their profession, like an instrument for a musician, or a pen for a writer.
But be aware that any extraneous items in the photo can draw attention towards it and away from you. So, if you hold an object in your headshot, make sure it is down below your shoulders and nowhere near your face.
The same rule applies for hats, oversized earrings, shiny jewelry, or even your hands. The next section will give you some tips about what to do with your hands in your headshot, but one thing you don’t want to do is bring one or both of them onto or even adjacent to your face.
Do: Be Aware of Your Hands
If you’re nervous in front of the camera, the two parts of your body that are most likely to tense up are your shoulders and your hands. Most headshots only show your head and shoulders, or perhaps the top half of your torso in a wider shot. So your hands most likely won’t be in the frame at all (which saves you from struggling with the all-important posing decision—what to do with them).
But even if your hands are outside the frame, tensing them up or balling them into fists can have a ripple effect throughout your body. Your arms will start to flex, your neck and face could stiffen up, and you’ll end up looking like a stressed-out hot mess in your headshots.
An easy way to avoid this disaster is to take a few moments to shake out your hands, arms, legs, and check in once in a while to make sure they stay relaxed so you can get the best shots possible. And if one or both of your hands does appear in your photos—as part of your crossed-arms pose, or tucked into a pants pocket—remember to keep them loose and limber for a more easygoing vibe.
Don’t: Exaggerate Your Facial Expressions
Bigger isn’t always better, especially when it comes to the facial expressions you use for your headshot. Smiling at the camera is good. But smiling like a maniac with all your teeth showing and your eyes unnaturally wide could give the impression that you’re desperate or trying a bit too hard.
Think of the audience you want to reach with this image, and present yourself for the camera as you would if you were introducing yourself in person. Your smile should be easy and natural, but if smiling doesn’t come naturally then you can opt for a more neutral expression. With some practice you can convey a lot about your personality with your eyes alone.
One way to ensure that the final headshots will have the look you want is to practice different expressions in front of the mirror or by taking some practice photos at home. Experiment with different types of smile, or just turn your lips up at the corners for a serious yet approachable look.
If you’re taking photos to submit for AI-generated headshots, make sure that you use the same type of expressions that you want to see in the final photos. No one wants a headshot with their tongue sticking out or with one eye closed!
Bonus Tip: Relax and Breathe
If you take only one thing away from this guide, it should be this: getting a good headshot is important, but it doesn’t need to be that serious. If the whole process feels unnatural and stresses you out, you’ll end up with a pile of stiff, awkward photos that barely resemble you.
A great headshot doesn’t just happen magically, even if you have the most professional outfit, ideal lighting, and the perfect pose. A headshot should express who you are as a person, and the best way to show that is to relax, take a deep breath, and try to have a bit of fun. Most importantly, be yourself!. You might be pleasantly surprised with the results.
How does posing work for AI-generated headshots?
In this article we’ve gone over just how much your posing techniques can affect the final look of your professional headshots. But if you opt for an AI headshot generator like PixelPose, you won’t have to do nearly as much work to get the best photos possible—because your most flattering poses will be automatically generated as part of the process.
Using a variety of photos that you’ll upload of yourself, the AI model will create hundreds of headshots featuring you with different hair and makeup styles, with various backgrounds, and with a variety of poses and facial expressions that match your personality style preferences.
For optimal results, your submission photos should be as high quality as possible and should be taken from different angles and with varied backgrounds and lighting. Use this guide to help you create or choose the “seed” photos that will produce the best results for your AI headshots.
When it comes to finding the perfect pose, here are some of the advantages of AI-generated headshots over a traditional photo shoot:
- You’ll save time, because you won’t have to spend hours practicing different poses in advance to try to figure out your “best angles.” The headshot generator is trained on the photos you submit to determine your best features and most flattering angles, which guarantees you’ll be more than happy with the results.
- You don’t have to guess which poses or expressions will help you give the best impression or come across as more professional. The generator is designed to create photos that embody your most confident, approachable self.
- You don’t have to hope that your best facial expression is captured along with your most flattering pose in the same photo. With AI headshots you can mix and match your facial expressions with different poses and angles to get the perfect shot.
To learn more about the process of getting your own AI-generated headshots, explore how PixelPose works today.