Headshot Session Prep Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will my session take?

That depends on you and the goal. Someone who arrives camera-ready, wardrobe selected, groomed, and confident can be done in 10 to 15 minutes. Others benefit from more time: trying multiple outfits, working through a range of expressions, or simply settling in front of the camera. Some clients block out four hours in their calendar, not because the shoot takes that long, but because they do not want pressure from anything scheduled before or after. That instinct is right. There is no prize for finishing quickly.

Should I hire a makeup artist for my session?

For most corporate and professional headshot clients, no. Arrive groomed as you would for the most important meeting of your week, bring touch-up supplies, and that is enough. A matte powder and a clean lip make a visible difference under portrait lighting and require no professional.

For executive portraits, branding sessions, or clients who want a more polished or fashion-forward look, a makeup artist is worth considering. I can provide referrals if you want recommendations.

For team sessions: standardizing makeup approach across a large team creates visual consistency. Worth discussing in the pre-session planning conversation if your organization cares about cohesion across a team portrait set.

Should I get a haircut before my headshot session?

Yes, but schedule it 5 to 7 days before the session, not the day before. A brand-new cut often looks stiff on camera and has not settled into the shape that actually works for you. The haircut you wear every day looks better on camera than the haircut you got yesterday.

Can I bring a friend or colleague?

Yes. Some clients find it easier to settle in front of the camera when someone familiar is in the room. If that is you, bring someone. The one condition: the person in the room should be a calm presence. Someone who jokes around in ways that are hard to recover from, or who provides real-time critiques of expressions as they happen, makes the session harder. If you know that about someone, leave them outside.

What backgrounds do you use?

For on-location sessions, backgrounds are drawn from the environment: architectural elements, clean walls, hallways, exterior facades, lobby spaces. The selection depends on what reads well for your specific context and what is available at your location.

I do not use portable seamless paper backgrounds for most corporate sessions. The context collapse of a bright white seamless against a clear office background is visible in the image and reads as low production value. The environment is the background, chosen deliberately.

If you have a specific background in mind or want to incorporate a recognizable element of your office or workspace, tell me before the session. We can plan around it.

What if I need images in different formats for different platforms?

Different platforms have different requirements. LinkedIn uses a square crop. Speaker bureau profiles sometimes want specific dimensions. Print bios want higher resolution than web applications. Let me know before the session what you are planning to use the images for, and I will deliver files optimized for those applications.

Standard delivery includes high-resolution files suitable for print and web. Specific crops, resizes, or format conversions beyond that are available on request.

Should I update my headshot on a schedule?

Update it when it no longer looks like you. That is the actual rule, and it is simpler than any calendar-based schedule.

The practical markers: significant change in appearance (hair, weight, age), career shift that changes how you want to be perceived, or an image that is more than three to four years old and starting to show it. If a client, colleague, or employer meets you in person and does a visible double-take comparing you to your headshot, it is time.

For clients whose industries put a premium on currency and personal brand, annual or biennial updates are common. For clients in more stable professional contexts, good images last longer.

Can I use the images for advertising?

Standard delivery covers personal and professional use: LinkedIn, bios, media kits, websites, press materials, speaking profiles, and similar non-commercial applications. Advertising and commercial licensing requires a separate conversation and a different fee structure. Bring it up before the session so we can scope it correctly.

What if I hate how I look in photos?

Almost everyone says some version of this before a session. And almost everyone leaves with images they genuinely like. That gap is not luck.

The work of a headshot session is not pointing a camera at someone and hoping for the best. It is direction: posture, angle, expression, energy, the specific micro-adjustments that change what the camera reads. That direction is specific to you. I will tell you what to do throughout the entire session. Your job is to follow it and breathe.

We also review images together during the session, so you are not discovering results for the first time at delivery. If something is not working, we address it before the session ends.

Do you shoot in black and white?

Black and white is available and sometimes the right choice: it strips distraction, it ages well, and for certain industries and contexts it reads with more authority than color. Whether it is right for your images depends on how you intend to use them and what the platforms require.

Most corporate and LinkedIn applications want color. Some industries and personal brands lean toward black and white deliberately. We can deliver both from the same session if you want the option.

I am part of a team that needs headshots. How does that work?

Team sessions are individual sessions run back to back. The challenge with team headshots is that most organizations think of them the way they think of badge photos: fast, functional, interchangeable. That approach produces exactly those results.

I advocate for as much time per person as possible. The practical floor is around 10 to 15 minutes per person. Quality starts to drop below five minutes per person, regardless of what you may hear from photographers who market on volume.

Total session time for a team can range from two hours for a small group to multiple days for large organizations. Logistics for team sessions, including scheduling, location, and sequencing, are handled in the planning conversation before anything is booked.

What does the retouching actually do?

The goal is to make you look like you, on your best skin day, at your current age. Stray hairs that caught the light in a distracting way. Uneven skin tone from overhead office fluorescents. A temporary blemish. Shine that the powder did not fully cut.

What retouching does not do: change the structure of your face, remove features that are part of how you look, or produce an image that makes people double-take when they meet you in person. The image should match the person who shows up to the meeting.

What should I do if my session is outside or in a space with variable light?

On-location sessions in exterior or variable-light environments require more technical flexibility than controlled interior sessions. I bring the lighting equipment necessary to maintain consistency regardless of conditions, but you can help by giving us the best version of the space.

For exterior sessions: avoid reflective surfaces near the shooting area if possible, and check that the area will be accessible and unobstructed at the session time. Outdoor sessions typically have a narrower ideal window, usually early morning or the hour before golden hour. We will discuss timing before the session.

For interior sessions at your office: turning off overhead fluorescent lighting and relying on my kit produces cleaner, warmer, more flattering results than mixing light sources. If you have control over the lighting in the space, we can talk through what to leave on and what to cut.

Can I get a copy of the unretouched images?

No. Unretouched images are working files, not deliverables. Delivering them would be like a tailor handing you a garment before it is pressed and finished. The image you receive is the image as it is meant to look. The raw file is not a meaningful intermediate product for the client.