What style of portrait do I need?

Things to consider when planning your portrait session.

Portrait Style

If you’re revamping your professional look, portraits can be a confusing area. Should you look serious or happy? Shoot indoors or outdoors? A headshot or waist up?

To help you make some of these decisions, we’ve put together a few portrait style ideas to consider when you’re planning your photo session.

What profession are you in?

Look at other successful people in your field, what kind of photo do they have on their LinkedIn profile?

Professionals like lawyers and accountants tend to favour polished studio headshots, because that matches their job environment.

However, if you’re an artist or a life coach you might opt for something more relaxed outside.

Do some research and see what fits best with your field.

Where is the portrait going?

Think about all the places where you need to have a professional photo of yourself, like LinkedIn, Facebook, your website, or conference programs.

Each scenario might require a different looking portrait.

For example, LinkedIn portraits are usually a square headshot, but if your photo is a website banner you’ll need something wider.

Before you have your portrait session write a list of all the different portraits you need and talk to your photographer about how you can achieve each one.

Indoor or Outdoor?

Indoor and outdoor portraits can say completely different things about you, so before your shoot consider whether indoor or outdoors would suit the photos on your portrait wish list.

You may need a mix of both.

You can read more about this topic in our indoor studio portraits post and outdoor portraits post.