What to Wear for Headshots: Men, Women, Actors, and Corporate

I used to have rules about this. People asked for them all the time. Nothing too busy for a headshot, right? Nothing with weird lines or weird cuts? I had the whole list, and I handed it to a lot of people.

Then a guy came in with a crazy shirt. My first thought was that is nuts, I am not going to like it. He told me it was his favorite shirt, so I said throw it on, and I shot him, and it was amazing. I have not had a rule about clothing since.

What I do now is simpler and harder to write down. I look at the actual clothes, in the studio, on the person wearing them, and I make the call there instead of from a checklist written before we ever met. There are still defaults, and they hold up most days. Overpack and weight the bag toward tops. Spread it across cuts, colors and necklines. Favor texture over a loud print. Keep the jewelry small and bring every pair of glasses you own. But every one of those bends the moment it collides with something you love, because that is exactly the collision the crazy shirt won.

What should you wear to a headshot session?

You have to love it. If you do not feel good in what you have on, you will not shoot well in it, and I will know before you say a word. Clothing you are unsure about does something to your face. You hold yourself a little differently. You keep checking yourself. All of it lands in the picture, and the picture is of your face, not of your shirt.

If your actual style is a loud pattern and a chunky necklace, bring it. We will shoot it and it will probably look like you, which is the entire point.

What to bring to a headshot session

Overpack, and I mean that literally. An option you left hanging in your closet is an option I cannot photograph, and nobody has ever walked out of my studio wishing they had brought less.

What I am looking for is spread, not volume. Bring a range of cuts, a range of colors, and a range of necklines, because those three things change the picture more than anything else you can control. If you are coming in for actor headshots, layer, and ignore the season completely. Tank tops through sweaters and light jackets all belong in the same bag on the same afternoon, because you are not dressing for the weather, you are building range. You are dressing for the roles you want, not the job you have.

And if you look at your closet and it is missing something, go buy it. We keep the tags on so you can return it after the shoot.

Does what you wear below the frame matter?

I care about you from the chest up. Anything below that is not in the frame and never was, which is why the packing list looks the way it does. Whatever effort you were about to put into the rest of the outfit, put it into tops. More necklines, more collars, more colors, more textures. That is where the picture happens. A personal branding portrait session is the exception, since those frames go wider and the whole outfit can end up in the picture.

What color to wear for headshots

My favorite thing in the world is white on white. White shirt, white collar, white background. Clean, simple, timeless. It has been my favorite over the course of my career, and if I get the chance to shoot it, I take it.

The broader habit behind that is matching color families. Black on black. Gray on gray. Beige on beige. Pink on pink. I have done it my whole career and I look for a way to work it into every single shoot.

It is my preference, not a law you have to satisfy, and there are days I go the other way on purpose. One client came in with a bright orange top and I put her on white, and when she changed into green later that session, that went on white too. Contrast was simply the better call for those pieces and I made it.

Where people get it wrong on their own is thinking that matching the color family means disappearing into the background. You still have to separate from it. A background that goes flat, dead black while the subject wears black means the edges go with it, and I do not like what that does to a person. Handling that is my job, not yours. All you have to do is bring the colors you like.

What should men wear for a headshot?

A plain t-shirt on its own is the least interesting thing you can hand me. The same tee under a hoodie, a light jacket or a blazer is a different picture, so pack the layers, not just the shirts.

For corporate headshots and business portraits, the unit I build around is the jacket, shirt and tie combination. Fewer men wear ties day to day now, and a jacket over an open collar photographs just fine, so bring both versions and we will decide on the day. Unlike the actors, you are dressing for the role you already have.

Most men’s collars are too loose on camera, because a collar tight enough to photograph well is uncomfortable to wear all day. That is a fit I handle in the studio, not a reason to go buy tighter shirts.

What should women wear for a headshot?

Spread the range as wide as the closet allows. Strappy tops through chunky sweaters, blouses, dresses, blazers, with as much variety in the necklines and textures as you can pack, because necklines and textures are what I am actually choosing between when we sort the bag.

Color earns its slot by when it gets shot. We usually start with makeup minimal and shoot your bright, light pieces early, then build the makeup and move into darker clothing as the session goes on. Lighter reads younger and more energetic. Darker, with more makeup behind it, reads more sophisticated. Pack the whole span and you leave with both versions of you.

What not to wear for a headshot

Since the frame is tight, anything in it that is not your face is fighting your face for attention. That is the whole filter, and it is not a dress code you have to solve at home. I do not even tell people what I like before they pack, because the bag you bring should look like you, not like a guess at what I want. So bring it all anyway. When we sort it together, this is what usually goes back in the bag, and why.

Busy patterns. Busy and texture are not the same thing. A subtle pattern that reads as fabric, a fine weave, a quiet check, survives the sort all the time, because it gives the frame texture without pulling the eye. A loud graphic print usually goes back in the bag, and stripes, horizontal or vertical, go straight back on sight. If you are a pattern person, bring them anyway. I am not much of a pattern guy myself, and people still walk in with patterns I end up loving. The crazy shirt that killed my rulebook was exactly that kind of no.

Logos and writing. Text in the frame gets read, and reading is attention your face is not getting. When a logo turns up in a shot, the usual fix is cropping above it, so it was never going to make the final picture anyway.

Jewelry. Keep it small. Studs, small earrings, a simple necklace. Anything hanging or chunky will usually pull the eye straight to it, and in a frame this close the eye does not have far to travel. As always, if a big piece is part of how you actually present yourself, bring it and we will look.

Anything that widens you. Sleeves that poof out at the shoulder push the frame wider at exactly the point I am trying to keep tight. Same with heavy shoulder padding.

Asymmetry across the neckline. A top that sits at a different height on each side creates an odd line where your hair meets your skin on one side and not the other. It reads as a mistake even when nobody can name what is wrong.

Anything worn out. A pilled sweater, a shirt with a permanent ring at the collar, a jacket that has been through it. On a screen at small size that reads before your expression does. If a favorite piece is past its life, buy the new version.

Your glasses, all of them. If you wear glasses, bring every pair you own. Anti-glare coatings vary more than people realize from one pair to the next, and the difference between an easy pair and a hard pair is decided before you arrive, not after. I would rather have four pairs to choose from and pick the one that behaves.

Do your clothes need to be ironed for a headshot?

Your collar gapping away from your neck, a tie knot that is too thin, a loose thread on a lapel, a jacket standing off your shirt, wrinkles from the drive over. None of that is your problem. I reach in and fix all of it, on every client, and I keep a steamer in the studio for exactly this reason. The one thing I leave alone is a t-shirt, because a tee is supposed to look lived in and steaming it flat makes it look like something else.

So do not stand in your kitchen at seven in the morning trying to get a collar to behave. Put it in the bag. I will handle it when you get here.

The best outfit for headshots is the one you love

Bring more than you think you need. Weight it toward tops. Spread it across cuts, colors and necklines. Favor texture over loud print. Keep the jewelry small and bring every pair of glasses. And then ignore every one of those sentences if it conflicts with a garment you love, because you in something you feel good in will beat you in something correct every time.

I am not photographing your clothes. I am photographing what your face does when you are not worried about them.

When you are ready, see session rates and book, or contact the studio if you want to talk it through first. And since clothes are only half of it, the squinch is where to start on the other half.