Different people have different headshot needs. For example, actors typically need a different type of headshot than someone working in corporate finance. That’s why understanding the types of headshots available can help you determine which style is right for you.
In this article, we’ll explore the five most common types of headshots, providing a clear overview of each. We’ll look at what they are, how they are used, and the typical backgrounds, outfits, and poses they feature.
Here’s a quick summary of the five main types of headshots:
- Business headshots
- Acting headshots
- LinkedIn and social media headshots
- Creative headshots
- Team headshots
Let’s dive in!
1. Business Headshots
These headshots are a key tool for presenting yourself professionally.
What Are Business Headshots?
Business headshots, also known as corporate headshots, are professional photos used for work, business, or professional purposes. While they are often associated with formal, corporate, or academic fields—such as law, medicine, entrepreneurship, academia, sales, or office work—anyone who wants to present a polished and professional image, regardless of their profession, can have a business headshot.
How Are Business Headshots Used?
Business headshots are commonly used on company websites, business cards, marketing materials, email signatures, CVs/job applications, and media kits. They help create a strong first impression by portraying positive attributes such as professionalism, competence, and friendliness to the target audience, helping you attract clients, land a job, sell your services, build credibility, and more.
What About Executive Headshots?
Executive headshots are a subcategory of business headshots, intended for individuals in high-ranking positions within an organization, such as CEOs, CFOs, managers, and directors. These headshots are designed to look highly formal, professional, and sleek, portraying a sense of leadership, confidence, credibility, and trustworthiness.
While they are used similarly to other business headshots, they are also used for specific purposes related to executive roles, such as leadership pages, media interviews, speaking engagements, and investor presentations.
What Backgrounds, Outfits, and Poses Are Used for Business Headshots?
Here are the types of backgrounds, outfits, and poses commonly used for business headshots:
Backgrounds
Plain gray or white backgrounds are often used, sometimes with a gradient. Additionally, office settings, corporate environments, modern urban cityscapes, or outdoor natural settings, such as parks, may be used but are typically blurred.
Outfits
Outfits are often formal, such as a business suit, or work-related attire, like a lab coat or scrubs for a doctor or nurse, or an apron for a chef. In less formal industries, such as tech and startups, the attire might be smart casual. These outfits are typically in neutral or muted colors.
Poses
Business headshots often feature simple and minimalist poses to maintain a professional appearance. A standard pose includes the subject facing the camera with shoulders squared or slightly angled, often with a natural smile.
2. Acting Headshots
These headshots are essential for any aspiring or established actor looking to land roles.
What Are Acting Headshots?
Acting headshots are professional photographs specifically for actors and actresses. Virtually every actor or aspiring actor needs them, as they are a standard requirement in the entertainment industry. Whether you aspire to be a movie star, act in commercials, perform on stage, or work as an extra in a television show, having a quality headshot is essential.
How Are Acting Headshots Used?
In the entertainment world, casting directors, producers, and agents use headshots to assess an actor’s appearance and suitability for a role. These images are essential for actors seeking auditions and parts in movies, theater, or commercials. When actors apply for roles, they will send their headshots along with their resume and any other required materials. Additionally, actors may use their headshots on their personal websites and social media profiles.
What Backgrounds, Outfits, and Poses Are Used for Acting Headshots?
Here are the kinds of outfits, backgrounds, and poses typically used for acting headshots:
Backgrounds
Acting headshots typically use neutral or simple backgrounds, such as solid colors, gradients, or blurred outdoor settings. This ensures the focus remains on the actor without distractions.
Outfits
Outfits are often tailored to the types of roles being targeted, meaning almost any outfit can be used to reflect the era or style of the genre. However, outfits should always be well-fitting and presentable. Most actors will have at least one headshot in casual everyday clothing and another in formal attire, such as a suit.
Poses
Actors often have multiple headshots with different poses and expressions to showcase their versatility and ensure they can submit the most appropriate one for the role they’re seeking. The goal is to capture a natural and engaging look that highlights the actor’s unique personality and potential character types.
3. Social Media Headshots
These headshots can help you create the right first impression on social media.
What Are Social Media Headshots?
Everyone is on social media nowadays, with many using these platforms to promote their personal brand. Whether you are an avid user of LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or all of the above, a high-quality social media headshot helps you portray yourself in the best light possible.
How Are These Headshots Used?
Social media headshots can be used for both personal and professional purposes. Whether you are a content creator looking to build an audience, promoting a product or service, aiming to enhance your employability, or seeking networking opportunities, a professional headshot—rather than a poor-quality image—can be used to help you build credibility and create the right impression to achieve your goals.
What Backgrounds, Outfits, and Poses Are Used for Social Media Headshots?
Here are the sorts of poses, outfits, and backgrounds often used for social media headshots:
Background
For LinkedIn headshots, a plain background—either a solid color or a gradient—is often used to achieve a professional look. For other social media platforms, you might choose a blurred indoor or outdoor setting, while content creators may opt for a background that reflects their brand colors or theme, such as neon lights for a gamer.
Outfits
For professional networking platforms like LinkedIn, more formal clothing is often worn, such as shirts, blouses, and suits. However, for other social media platforms, everyday or fashionable clothing may be more appropriate, or industry-related attire if promoting a service or product—for example, sports clothing for a fitness coach.
Poses
A natural, relaxed pose, with the subject either standing or sitting and offering a slight smile, is often used for social media headshots. Shoulders are normally either squared or slightly angled from the camera. The goal is to appear friendly, approachable, competent, and confident.
4. Creative Headshots
These headshots help creatives make an eye-catching first impression that draws attention to their work.
What Are Creative Headshots?
Creative headshots are specialized portrait photographs tailored for individuals in creative fields such as art, music, design, and writing. Unlike traditional headshots, which emphasize professionalism and approachability, creative headshots are designed to showcase the subject’s unique personality, artistic flair, and distinctive style.
How Are Creative Headshots Used?
A professional in the creative industries may use their headshots on their website, in author bios, portfolios, social media accounts, album covers, promotional materials, and more, to create a memorable and interesting impression that attracts attention and interest in their work or events. Creative headshots are a powerful tool for marketing, networking, and developing a personal brand in creative and artistic fields.
What Backgrounds, Outfits, and Poses Are Used for Creative Headshots?
The typical poses, outfits, and backgrounds used for creative headshots can be:
Background
Backgrounds in creative headshots can differ significantly from the plain, neutral backdrops commonly seen in business headshots. They often align with the subject’s style or the branding of their current work. This means you might see vibrant colors, black-and-white photos, outdoor or in-studio locations, dramatic lighting, or themed or abstract backdrops.
Outfits
Clothing worn in creative headshots can range from smart casual to vintage garments to unique costumes that make a bold statement, and everything in between. It all depends on what clothing aligns with the artist’s brand. Props related to the artist’s craft are often included, such as a guitar, paintbrushes, a typewriter, or a camera.
Poses
With an interesting outfit, background, lighting, and colors, a standard face-the-camera headshot pose may be all that’s required to capture a creative yet professional look. Others may prefer experimenting with unique angles, holding props, or using dramatic or theatrical expressions to make their headshots even more intriguing.
5. Team Headshots
These headshots help companies and organizations present a professional, cohesive image that leaves a positive impression on customers, investors, and others.
What Are Team Headshots?
Team headshots refer to a collection of individual headshot photos featuring members and staff from the same company or organization. The objective is to maintain a consistent style throughout, ensuring that the branding and aesthetic are cohesive and professional. Often, the headshots are all taken at a similar time by the same photographer to ensure consistency.
How Are Team Headshots Used?
You’ll often find team headshots on the ‘About Us’ or ‘Our Team’ pages of a business’s or organization’s website. However, team headshots are also frequently used in press releases, business cards, marketing materials, email signatures for staff accounts, and sometimes social media profiles. They help to convey the professionalism, values, and culture of the team, which could help the company land new clients, attract talent, and appeal to investors.
What Backgrounds, Outfits, and Poses Are Used for Team Headshots?
Team headshots will often feature the following types of backgrounds, poses, and outfits:
Backgrounds
Team headshots, especially those for corporate companies or large organizations, often feature a plain gray, navy, or white background, perhaps with a gradient, or a blurred office or workplace setting. This helps to create a professional, uniform look across all staff members. Smaller businesses and teams may opt for more creative backdrops that match their branding, but these will typically be consistent across all team members to ensure cohesion.
Outfits
Outfits depend on the type of company or organization, but they are typically formal in traditional industries like finance, smart casual in creative industries like tech, or work-related in fields like medicine. A dress code is often provided to ensure that everyone wears similar colors and styles of clothing.
Poses
Poses are often very consistent across the team, with the most common being a standard pose of looking directly into the camera, with shoulders square or slightly angled away from the camera, usually accompanied by a smile or neutral expression.
How to Determine Which Headshot Type Is Best for You?
The truth is, there’s a lot of overlap between different types of headshots. For example, you might have an acting headshot that looks very much like a business headshot because it suits the acting role you’re pursuing, or you might have a business headshot that appears more like a creative headshot because you work for a trendy startup.
The most important thing is to consider how and where your headshots will be used, and then choose the types of backdrops, clothing, poses, and expressions that will be most suitable for that context.
Many people find that they need various types of headshots—such as a team headshot for the company website, a formal business headshot for LinkedIn, and a more casual or smart-casual headshot for social media. It pays to make a list of all the places you might need headshots!
Fortunately, if you work with a professional headshot photographer or a leading AI headshot generator, such as us here at PixelPose, you can usually fulfill all your headshot needs in one place. In fact, if you need multiple headshots, AI platforms are probably your best bet, as they are far more cost-effective and fast.
That said, before choosing a provider, it’s always wise to look at examples of their work to ensure their style matches what you’re looking for.
Putting It All in Focus
Choosing the right types of headshots is essential if you want to make the best impression. Whether you need business headshots, acting headshots, LinkedIn headshots, creative headshots, team headshots, or a combination of these, this article has hopefully provided some helpful guidance on your options.
If you’re looking for a versatile solution that covers all your headshot needs, PixelPose offers a fast and cost-effective way to create professional-grade AI headshots in any style.