From the Studio - Indigo Studio

What to Wear for a Professional Headshot Session

Wondering what to wear for a professional headshot is one of the most common questions we get before a session, and it’s worth getting right. The camera picks up on details you’d never notice in a mirror: a pattern that vibrates on screen, a color that washes out your skin tone, a collar that bunches oddly when you turn your head. Here’s how to walk in prepared.

Stick to Solid Colours

Busy patterns, small checks, and fine stripes can create a strange visual buzzing effect on camera called moiré. Solid colours photograph cleanly and keep the focus on your face rather than your outfit. If you want texture, choose something subtle, like a slightly ribbed knit, rather than a bold print.

Choose Colours That Complement Your Skin Tone, Not Your Wardrobe Favourites

Jewel tones (navy, burgundy, forest green, deep teal) tend to flatter most skin tones and photograph well against a variety of backgrounds. Avoid pure white if possible, it can blow out under studio lighting and can wash out your features if it doesn’t suit your skin tone. Pure black can look severe and tends to lose detail in shadow areas. A good middle ground is a dark, saturated colour rather than the extremes of black or white.

Fit Matters More Than Brand

A well-fitted top is the single biggest factor in how polished a headshot looks. Ill-fitting shoulders, a collar that gapes, or sleeves that bunch will show up clearly, especially in a shot cropped at the chest or shoulders. If you’re unsure, err toward slightly fitted rather than loose. It’s worth trying on your outfit and taking a quick phone photo beforehand to check how it sits.

What to Wear by Industry

(A guideline – not hard and fast rules)

Corporate and Finance
A blazer or structured jacket in navy, charcoal, or black, paired with a simple top underneath, reads as polished and trustworthy. Keep accessories minimal.

Creative Industries
You have more room to show personality here. A well-fitted knit, a subtle statement piece of jewellery, or a distinctive but not overwhelming colour can help convey your creative identity without distracting from your face.

Healthcare and Academia
Clean, simple, and approachable tends to work best: solid tops in muted or jewel tones, minimal jewellery, and an overall look that feels credible rather than flashy.

Layer for Options

Bringing 2 to 3 outfit options, including at least one layered look (a blazer over a top, for example), gives you and your photographer flexibility during the session. Different outfits can also serve different platforms, a more formal option for LinkedIn or a company website, and a slightly more relaxed one for a personal bio page or social media.

Small Details Worth Checking

Necklines: crew and V-necks both work well; just make sure the neckline sits naturally and doesn’t gape or ride up.
Jewellery: simple and understated. Avoid anything that catches the light aggressively or dangles distractingly if you’ll be moving your head between shots.
Glasses: if you wear them regularly, wear them for the shoot too, it’s more authentically you. Your photographer should know how to angle lighting to avoid glare and will guide you in posing.
Hair and makeup: slightly more polished than your everyday look tends to photograph better, since camera lighting can flatten features. A touch more definition than usual (brows, lip color, a light powder to reduce shine) goes a long way.

What to Avoid

Busy patterns, fine stripes, or small checks
Bright, saturated colors that pull attention away from your face
Wrinkled or overly loose clothing
Logos or text on clothing
Anything brand new that hasn’t been worn or tried on beforehand

The Bottom Line

Your headshot should look like a polished version of you, not a costume. When in doubt, choose something you already feel confident and comfortable in, then let good lighting, composition, and a bit of preparation do the rest.

Ready to Book Your Session?

If you’re not sure your wardrobe has the right options, bring a few choices to your session and we’ll help you pick the strongest one on the day, that’s part of what makes a bespoke sitting different from a quick phone photo.

Get in touch to book your headshot session.

Book your headshot

AI Headshots vs Professional Headshots

Upload a handful of selfies to an app, wait ten minutes, and download a set of “professional” headshots. It’s fast, it’s cheap, and it’s dead easy to spot.

That’s exactly the problem.

If your headshot is the first thing a client, recruiter, or investor sees, it’s doing a lot of work before you’ve said a single word. Right now, AI-generated headshots are quietly undermining that work in ways most people don’t notice until it’s pointed out to them.

The Uncanny Valley Is Real, and People Feel It Even When They Can’t Name It

AI headshot generators are trained on averages.

Skin gets smoothed into a waxy, pore-less texture. Hair strands blur into helmet-like shapes at the edges. Ears come out slightly asymmetrical. Backgrounds have that soft-focus blur that never quite matches how light falls on a real face.

Most viewers can’t articulate what’s off, but they register it. Something reads as “not quite right,” and that subconscious flicker of doubt attaches itself to you, not the technology.

In a professional context, the one thing you can’t afford is triggering unconscious distrust before a conversation even starts.

They Signal a Corner Was Cut

There’s an implicit hierarchy in how people judge professional images:

A photo taken by a professional signals investment in yourself, your brand, your business.
Even a well-lit, well-composed smartphone photo signals effort.
A visibly AI-generated headshot, however, signals the opposite. It tells people that image quality wasn’t worth ten minutes of your time or a modest budget.

For lawyers, consultants, agents, financial advisors, or anyone whose job is built on trust, that reads as a red flag.

If you’ll cut corners on how you present yourself, what else might you cut corners on?

The “Generic Professional” Problem

Because these models are trained on the same broad datasets, AI headshots tend to converge toward a similar look. The same studio lighting, same three-quarter angle, same faint smile, same blazer.

The result is a headshot that could belong to almost anyone. It’s polished, but it’s not you. And in a sea of LinkedIn profiles, looking like everyone else is its own kind of invisible.

A real photographer captures the details that make you recognisable: the way you actually smile, the posture that’s distinctly yours, the setting that says something about who you are.

That’s not a nice-to-have.

That’s the entire point of a headshot: to put a specific, trustworthy human face on your name.

Browse our headshot portfolio to see the difference in practice.

People Are Starting to Notice, and Talk About It

AI headshots have become common enough that they’re now a recognisable category, instead of just a technology.

Recruiters, hiring managers, and clients increasingly report clocking them on sight, and social media is full of posts poking fun at the tell-tale signs like the weird hands, the extra teeth, and the too-smooth skin.

Once a client suspects it is AI, you’ve lost the thread of the first impression you were trying to make.

Career experts have noted that a poorly done AI-generated headshot is easily recognised, reads as inauthentic, and can hurt a candidate’s chances, according to recent reporting from CNBC.

The Real Cost of “Free”

AI headshots are marketed on speed and price. But a headshot isn’t a cost centre. It’s marketing collateral you’ll use for years, across your website, LinkedIn, press mentions, speaker bios, and pitch decks.

Measured against what it actually does for your professional image over that lifespan, a professional session isn’t expensive.

It’s one of the cheapest high-leverage investments you can make in how the market perceives you.

What a Professional Session Actually Gets You

Real skin texture and real light, which read as authentic and trustworthy at a glance
Direction on posture, angle, and expression that actually looks like the best version of you, not an average of thousands of strangers
Consistent, on-brand images across every platform, sized and composed correctly
A face people can recognize when they meet you, because it’s actually your face

If your headshot is worth having at all, it’s worth having done right.

Ready for a Headshot That Actually Looks Like You?

We’ll help you show up the way you actually want to be seen. No uncanny valley, no generic blazer, no second-guessing whether a client can tell.

Book your session today and see what a real photograph can do for your first impression.