Headshot Wardrobe
Congratulations you booked a headshot session, now comes the fun part, planning what to wear to help make that winning image. First off, I’m going to define my idea of what a headshot is. It’s an image that captures your personality, has clean elements (backdrop and wardrobe), and crops from about mid chest up to just a little above the hair line. But don’t confuse the simple parameters as this being something that is as easy as standing in front of the dmv camera to get your driver’s license image. Plus how many of us actually like our driver’s license image? I suppose if we did, it’d be our headshot photo of choice across all our social platforms :)!
Okay, let’s talk wardrobe! The focus of your headshot should be on your winning face and personality, and the outfit is there to work with that…not distract. What could distract? In general, clothes that are loose fitting, are bright in color, or have large patterns. Avoiding clothing that meet the above criteria will help to keep the focus on you and not your clothing. Have a look at the below gallery to see some examples and I’ll deep dive into why to avoid these items of clothing. I included shots on different color backgrounds to also show how the background selection can affect the wardrobe choice as well.
Loose clothing might feel good, but it hides your form and while some of us may shy away from that, the purpose of the headshot is to present our best self forward to the world. A well fitting shirt or top will draw clean lines that won’t hide you from the world, but help make you pop!
Color plays an important role in your wardrobe selection and here’s why. If the color is too bright or doesn’t work well with one’s skin tone, it can easily distract or take center stage. A little bit of color is great as it helps to provide that pop, but that’s all you want..a pop and all eyes on your amazing face. Overly bright or neon like colors, will easily draw the attention away from you and that’s no good.
Last but not least, patterns. Patterns are fun to get lost in and again not something you want the viewers of your headshot to do when looking at your image. The one instance where a pattern can work, is if it is a tight one that almost makes it look solid. Ultimately your best choice will be a solid colored top.
I hope this quick guide has helped to ease the process of selecting what to wear for your headshot session. Let me know your thoughts and other tips in the comments below.