Headshot is a professional portrait of a person, where only the face and the upper part of the body is visible, mainly stressing on the face expression and eyes of that person. The headshots are generally used for posting online with the job applications and the profiles of the professional people, so that their clients can be impressed by their personalities. Therefore, the dress of that person should be distinctly dignified and should give a professional look to the wearer. So everyone should be careful about the clothing that can be used while posing for a headshot.
Few useful tips for the selection of clothing for any headshot session
- Generally, people should wear only formal wear for the headshot sessions; like two-buttoned suits, shirts or formal kind of gowns. The formal wear is essential so that the people appearing in the headshots look perfectly professional to the viewers.
- It is better to avoid too much colorful clothing for a headshot, as it is best to keep a simple and plain look for these professional photos. Likewise, too many flowery or decorative patterns should be avoided, while selecting the dresses for shooting headshots. No funny pattern or funky style is approvable while selecting dress for a headshot session, as it will make the wearer look cheap to the viewers of his/her profile.
- Whatever dress is chosen, the wearer should be perfectly comfortable in wearing it; so that he/she looks confident in the headshot. But this dress should be a part of his/her personality; it should never become the main point of attraction of the viewers.
- The dress taken out of the wardrobe should be perfectly clean and spotless, so that the wearer does not look messy while wearing it. Moreover, the attire should be well ironed, to make the wearer look smart and confident.
- The clothes should be well fitted and any loosely fitted apparel should be avoided in these photo sessions. The whole point is to highlight the person wearing it, which cannot be achieved by wearing a heavy or voluminous type of dress.
- It is best to wear the traditional types of formal dresses, as the latest trendy attires may become old-fashioned within a few months and then the wearer will have to take another headshot for keeping his/her profile updated. But a few traditional styles are all-times favorites of people and they never seem to go outdated; like the formal suits or simple white shirts with ties.
Selection of the proper colors of headshot attire as per the skin tone of wearer
According to the expert advice of the professional photographers, the color of the dress selected for wearing in a headshot session should be in sharp contrast to the skin tone of the wearer. If the wearer is very fair-skinned, he/she should opt for a deeper shade of any sober color, to make his/her face more prominent in the headshot. On the contrary, if the wearer has dark colored or medium colored skin tone, he/she needs to wear only a light colored dress, to highlight his/her features in the headshot. Some photographers also suggest choosing the color of the dress according to the eye color of the wearer, to personalize the photo even more.
Parts of outfits that can be overlooked by the wearer
Generally, only the face and the upper parts of the body are visible in a headshot and not the lower parts. So the concerned person needs to be conscious only about choosing the shirt or the top that he/she will be wearing in the headshot session. But the trouser or the skirt will not be visible in the photo, for which the wearer or the photographer need not bother about the selection of these parts of the clothing at all. Neither the wearer needs to match the shirt with the trouser or skirt, as the lower part will not be seen at all. Similarly, he/she can wear any kind of shoes in these photo sessions, as the footwear also does not matter in any headshot.
Special kinds of attires preferred in a few specific corporate houses
When a person needs a headshot for submitting in a corporate company for job purposes or to make commercial tie-ups, his photo should be entirely different from that of a model or actor. Hence, the clothes chosen for this kind of headshots should be different too and the wearer needs to be careful while selecting his/her headshot attire. Since some corporate houses may have their unique preferences regarding the attires of their professionals, it is better to consult the website of the concerned company and derive ideas about their official dress codes, from the posted photos of their top officials.
Ideal dresses for the headshots used on commercial purposes
- It is usual for every corporate company to maintain a certain dress code in their offices, which is preferably maintained in the headshots of the people attached to them.
- Most of the offices like to see their employees in long-sleeved dresses, to maintain decency of the workplace, which needs to be shown in the headshots of the people applying there. So generally, most of the corporate headshots should be taken with full-sleeved shirts only.
- Even the women professionals need to be featured with decent shirts or collared blouses in their headshots. It is better if they wear suits or simple coats over their shirts.
- Both men and women can put on jackets over their shirts or blouses, if suits or coats are not available in their wardrobes.
- The women professionals should be careful about wearing minimum jewelry, of very sleek designs. They should look very simple in their headshots.
Consult with the professional photographer shooting headshots
The experienced photographers are well aware of the types of dresses that should be used for making the best headshots of their clients. Hence, it is best to show the chosen attire to the hired photographer, before finally putting it on for a headshot session.
CLICK HERE to see examples of Headshot Clothing for Men
CLICK HERE to see examples of Headshot Clothing for Women
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