CAREER

How to Get a Great Professional Headshot

Everyone needs one, especially now

Don’t settle for a photo that doesn’t project a good image for you (left). Photo on left courtesy of author; photo on right courtesy of professional photographer Andy Greenwell

With some 80% of office workers now working from home, our online presence is more important than ever. People don’t interact with the real, in-person you, but they may look you up on professional sites. Or maybe you have an opportunity to post your photo on an internal site.

If you don’t have a great headshot, now is an ideal time to get one. And you can learn from my mistakes to get a great one.

In 2014, I organized a headshot photo session for my department. I contacted a staff photographer at the large organization where I work. A trained “professional.” He dutifully came on the assigned day with his handy-dandy kit (a light, a screen background, and a camera), and snapped three, maybe four, photos of each of us.

Our department was billed for two hours of work. A week later, we received the photos — just the way we’d seen them in the camera. The best one of me was the one on the left.

At the time, I didn’t love the photo. None of us loved our photos. We looked pale, blotchy, and awkward. But, he was a professional, and we figured we were just a bunch of un-photogenic people. We shrugged and moved on.