If you want your portraits to say something real about the person in front of your lens, environmental portrait photography is the genre to learn. Here are 7 pro tips from 27 years of shooting celebrities and working artists in real locations, plus the one-light video that sparked this guide.
Read MoreYou found a photographer you like for your corporate event. The work looks right, the price looks fair, and then the contract arrives. It asks for half the fee now, before a single photo has been taken. Your first thought: is this normal, or am I being taken for a ride?
It is normal. Here is how photographer payment terms actually work, why the money moves before the event, and what my own terms are after 27 years of shooting corporate events in Los Angeles.
Yes, paying before the event is standard. Almost no working photographer shoots a corporate event on a promise and an invoice sent afterward.
My own terms are simple. "Half is due to book the date, half is due on the day of the shoot." That is the whole policy. The first half locks your date on my calendar. The second half is due when I show up with the cameras.
If you are comparing photographers, the ones asking for money upfront are not the ones to worry about. The ones with no contract and no clear terms are.
You found a photographer you like for your corporate event. The work looks right, the price looks fair, and then the contract arrives. It asks for half the fee now, before a single photo has been taken. Your first thought: is this normal, or am I being taken for a ride?
It is normal. Here is how photographer payment terms actually work, why the money moves before the event, and what my own terms are after 27 years of shooting corporate events in Los Angeles.
Yes, paying before the event is standard. Almost no working photographer shoots a corporate event on a promise and an invoice sent afterward.
My own terms are simple. "Half is due to book the date, half is due on the day of the shoot." That is the whole policy. The first half locks your date on my calendar. The second half is due when I show up with the cameras.
If you are comparing photographers, the ones asking for money upfront are not the ones to worry about. The ones with no contract and no clear terms are.
A date on the calendar is a photographer's inventory. When I hold your date, I turn down every other inquiry for that day. Corporate event season in Los Angeles is concentrated, and a Saturday in December can get three inquiries in a week. The deposit is what makes the hold real. Without it, I am declining paid work on the strength of a maybe.
Costs also start before the event. For a corporate event, I scout the venue or study the floor plan, build a shot list with your planner, confirm the run of show, book a second shooter if the coverage needs one, and prep and check every body, lens, and backup. That work happens days before anyone picks up a camera, and it is part of what you are paying for.
There is a third reason nobody says out loud. The deposit separates serious buyers from tire kickers. A client who will not put down a deposit in October is the same client who cancels in November when the budget gets reviewed. The photographers who skip deposits learn this lesson once, usually the expensive way.
Across corporate and event photography, the standard structure is a booking retainer plus a balance. The retainer is usually 25 to 50 percent of the total, due when you sign. The balance is due on or before the event day. Some photographers collect the full balance a week before the event. Some collect it on the day. Both are normal.
Full payment upfront, meaning 100 percent before the event, is less common but it is not automatically a red flag. What matters is not the timing of the money. It is whether the terms are written down. A photographer who wants everything upfront and hands you a clear contract with dates, hours, deliverables, and cancellation terms is operating normally. A photographer who wants everything upfront and has no contract is a risk at any price.
For reference, my corporate event rates are 750 dollars per hour, 2,500 for a half day, and 4,500 for a full day, with 200 to 300 finished images delivered the next day. The payment structure is the same at every tier. Half to book, half on the shoot day. You can read the full breakdown in my corporate event photography pricing guide.
I keep this simple on purpose. After 27 years, I have learned that complicated payment terms create complicated problems.
Half is due to book the date. That half is a non-refundable deposit. If you cancel, you do not get it back, because I held the date and turned away other work. But you are not losing it either. As I tell every client: "No, but they can reschedule the date." The deposit moves with you to the new date.
The second half is due on the day of the shoot. Not a week before, not thirty days after. On the day. By the time I walk in with the gear, the business side is finished and we can both focus on the event.
This is the same structure whether you are booking me as a corporate event photographer in Los Angeles for a full-day conference or for a half-day leadership summit. The simplicity is the point. You always know where you stand.
Paying upfront is normal. These are the things that are not normal.
No written contract. If the payment terms, the date, the hours, and the deliverables are not in writing, do not send money. A professional photographer has a contract. This is non-negotiable.
Vague deliverables. "Event coverage" means nothing. The contract should say how many hours, how many photographers, what the turnaround time is, and how many finished images you receive. My contracts specify all of it, including next-day delivery of 200 to 300 images.
One hundred percent upfront from a photographer with no verifiable track record. Established photographers can ask for full prepayment because their reputation is the guarantee. If you cannot find a portfolio, reviews, or a real business behind the name, full upfront payment is a gamble.
Pressure tactics. "I need the full amount today or I give your date away" is not how professionals talk. A short hold while you review the contract is reasonable. Manufactured urgency is not.
Pay by a traceable method. Card, bank transfer, or PayPal. Not cash, not a wire to a personal account with no invoice. You want a paper trail that matches the contract.
Read the cancellation and rescheduling terms before you sign. The two questions that matter: what happens to my deposit if we cancel, and what happens if we move the date. With me, the answers are that the deposit is non-refundable and the date can be rescheduled. Know your photographer's answers before the money moves.
Confirm what the balance timing triggers. Some photographers will not release the final gallery until the balance clears. That is fair, but it should be stated in the contract, not discovered afterward. My balance is due on the shoot day, so this never comes up.
Ask who is actually showing up. If you are booking a studio or a company rather than an individual, the contract should name the photographer assigned to your event or guarantee an equivalent. This is one of the questions I tell every corporate client to ask before booking, and you can find the full list in my guide to booking a corporate event photographer.
Yes. A non-refundable booking deposit is the industry standard for event photography. The deposit compensates the photographer for holding your date and declining other work. What varies is whether the deposit can be applied to a rescheduled date. Mine can.
Either is normal. Many photographers collect the balance a few days before the event so the shoot day is purely about the work. I collect it on the day of the shoot. The arrangement that should make you cautious is a balance due thirty or sixty days after delivery with no other terms, because it usually means the photographer has been burned before and has not fixed the underlying policy.
That depends on your photographer's contract, which is why you read it before paying. Under my terms, your deposit moves to the new date. You do not lose it and you do not pay it twice. Ask any photographer you are considering for their rescheduling policy in writing before you sign.
Four to six weeks is typical for most corporate events. For large conferences and galas, two to three months is safer, especially in peak season. Booking early also gives you leverage on terms, because you are not negotiating against a deadline.
Current market ranges run 250 to 500 dollars per hour, 1,500 to 2,500 for a half day, and 2,500 to 4,500 for a full day. My rates sit at 750 per hour, 2,500 for a half day, and 4,500 for a full day, with 200 to 300 images delivered the next day. The full breakdown, including what drives the price up or down, is in the pricing guide.
Paying your photographer before the event is not a warning sign. It is how the business works. The date is the product until the photos exist, and the deposit is what reserves it.
What separates a professional from a risk is everything around the payment: a written contract, specific deliverables, clear cancellation and rescheduling terms, and a track record you can verify. Get those four things and the upfront payment is simply the cost of holding a date with someone in demand.
If you are planning a corporate event in Los Angeles and want terms you can read in two sentences, get in touch. Half to book the date, half on the shoot day. That is the whole policy, and it has worked for 27 years.
If you are searching for a dating profile photographer in Los Angeles, you already know the uncomfortable truth: your photos are doing the talking before your bio gets a single read. Research keeps saying the same thing in different ways. Profile pictures dominate first impressions on dating apps, and the effect is not subtle.
One 2025 study of 445 dating-app users found that a 1.5-point increase in photo attractiveness (on a seven-point scale) led to a 20% increase in matches, while a comparable improvement in the bio text produced only a 2% rise. Researchers chalk it up to the halo effect: a strong first impression from a photo makes viewers unconsciously assume other good qualities, like humor, warmth, and intelligence.
I've spent 27 years photographing people in Los Angeles, from celebrities to executives to actors who need their faces to do the selling. The same rules that make a headshot land a job make a dating photo land a date. Here is how to think about hiring a dating profile photographer in LA, and what your photos need to actually do.
Online dating is a visual medium wearing a text costume. People claim they read bios, but the swipe decision happens first, and it happens fast. Analyses of dating-app behavior put photos at up to 90% of the swipe decision, with one survey finding 83% of users make immediate judgments about potential matches based on profile images alone.
Here is the part most people miss: you are probably a bad judge of your own photos. Researchers at the University of New South Wales had 102 students pick their best profile pictures, then had strangers pick for them. The stranger-selected photos earned more favorable first impressions from independent judges. You see your own history in a photo. Strangers just see a face. A good dating profile photographer gives you a trained stranger's eye, plus the technical skill to make the photo in the first place.
You do not need twenty photos. You need five or six that each do a different job:
1. The clear lead photo. Your first photo and your most important one. Good light, direct eye contact, relaxed expression, face clearly visible. No sunglasses. Eyes are the whole point.
2. The honest full-body shot. One real full-body photo removes all guesswork and builds trust. It should look like you on a normal good day, not a gym mirror selfie.
3. The lifestyle photo. A cafe, a clean city street, a park, a rooftop. This makes the profile feel current and social, and it gives context without stealing attention.
4. The hobby photo. One image that shows a real interest, not a staged prop. Surfboard if you surf, book if you read, hiking trail if you hike. It gives someone an opening line that is not "hey."
5. The social photo. One group shot is enough, and only if you are obviously the focus. Roughly a third of daters skip profiles where they cannot tell who the account holder is.
6. The warmth shot. A genuine laugh, a pet, golden-hour light. Something that makes you look approachable instead of curated. The best dating photo looks like you on a day when you are happy, confident, and genuinely yourself.
Plenty of photographers own a camera. A dating profile photographer owns a process.
They direct, not just shoot. Most people are not models, and "just be natural" is not direction. A professional coaches expression and posture the way a director coaches an actor. The session should feel like a conversation with breaks and adjustments, not "stand there, smile, next."
They plan locations that look like your life. The best location is the one that makes you look natural, not the most impressive one. Coffee shops and clean streets in Silver Lake, the beach path in Santa Monica, a park in Griffith, a rooftop downtown. Three to four locations in a couple of hours beats ten locations in a rushed blur.
They build variety into the session. The rookie mistake is one location, one outfit, one smile, and five photos that all look like the same afternoon. Bring two or three outfit options, swap a jacket between locations, and the profile instantly looks more dynamic.
They select with a stranger's eye. Part of what you are paying for is a professional who chooses your strongest images without your baggage. Ask whether photo selection help is included. It should be.
Solid colors photograph better than busy patterns. Thin stripes and small prints create a visual buzzing effect in photos. Navy, charcoal, olive, cream, and burgundy are reliable; for women, solid colors that complement skin tone beat anything with a loud print. If you love color, lean into it. Bold color is one of the easiest ways to make a photo jump off the screen.
Dress one level better than you would on a first date. That looks intentional without looking fake. Wear something fitted rather than boxy: big, comfortable layers disappear in photos, while fitted (not tight) reads better on screen.
Avoid giant logos, sunglasses as your lead photo, bathroom mirror selfies, and photos that require an explanation. If you have to explain the photo, it does not belong on your profile. For the full session-prep checklist, see my guide to how to prepare for a headshot session.
Dating profile photography in LA typically runs from a few hundred dollars for a short session with a specialist to a couple of thousand for a full multi-look shoot with professional retouching and styling guidance. What drives the price: the number of locations, wardrobe changes, whether hair and makeup is included, and how many retouched final images you get.
Be suspicious of bargain sessions promising dozens of "fully edited" images for under $200, and of anyone who will not show you a full gallery from a recent session. At bargain prices there is no real direction, no retouching, and no selection help.
My own headshot sessions begin at $1,500 for two looks, with three looks at $1,900, four at $2,300, and five at $2,500, each look a full wardrobe and styling change, shot and directed by me. Variety is what sells, whether the photo is going on LinkedIn or Hinge. For the full breakdown of photography pricing in this market, see my guide to headshot cost in Los Angeles.
"Can I see a full gallery from a recent dating session?" A full gallery shows you what the photographer delivers for a normal client, and whether they can produce variety instead of the same smile with a different wall behind it.
"Do you help select the final photos?" This is the stranger's-eye advantage. If the photographer hands you 200 unedited files and wishes you luck, you are not getting the service you are paying for.
"How many locations and outfit changes are included?" Get numbers. You want at least two to three distinct looks so your profile does not read as one afternoon.
"What is your retouching policy?" My rule after 27 years: keep what gives you character, remove what is temporary. Moles stay, pimples go. An over-retouched dating photo is worse than a mediocre one, because the person who shows up to the date has to match the photos. Anything else feels like false advertising.
"How recent should my photos be?" Within the last year, maximum. New haircut, weight change, or facial hair means it is time to update.
Walk away if you see any of these: no contract, no full gallery to show you, stock photos in the portfolio, "unlimited photos" promises (professionals deliver a defined number of edited images), or full payment demanded upfront. A 50% retainer is standard.
Also be wary of the headshot factory: twenty minutes, one backdrop, no direction, no selection help. Dating photos need lifestyle variety and a relaxed, social feel. The session should be built around who you are, not a conveyor belt.
Hiring a dating profile photographer in Los Angeles is a small investment with an outsized return. Your photos are the first 90% of the decision, and a professional session buys you three things a friend with an iPhone cannot reliably give you: direction that makes you look relaxed instead of posed, variety across locations and outfits, and selection by someone who sees your photos the way a stranger will.
The bar is lower than you think. Most profiles are blurry selfies, group shots where nobody knows who is who, and photos from three haircuts ago. Six strong, current, honest photos put you ahead of nearly everyone.
If you want portraits that work as hard on a dating app as they do on LinkedIn, book a session. My headshot sessions begin at $1,500 for two looks, and every session includes the direction, variety, and selection help this article describes.
How many photos do I need for my dating profile? Five to seven strong photos with different outfits, settings, or themes is the standard starting point for most dating apps. Fewer than four looks thin; more than eight and people stop looking.
Can I use my LinkedIn headshot on a dating profile? You can include one polished photo, but a profile of all headshots reads like a job application. Dating profiles need lifestyle variety: a full-body shot, a hobby shot, something social. Mix one professional photo with genuine lifestyle images.
Should I hire a photographer or just ask a friend? A friend with a good phone can get you one decent photo. A professional gives you a planned session: multiple locations, wardrobe variety, direction, retouching, and photo selection by someone who sees you the way a stranger will. If your profile is not getting matches, the photos are the first thing to fix.
How recent should my dating profile photos be? Within the last year, maximum. If your appearance has changed significantly, update immediately. The person who shows up to the date should look like the person in the photos.
Do dating profile photos need to look professional? They need to look like you on your best day, not like a studio catalog. The goal is high quality without looking staged. One or two polished photos mixed with natural lifestyle shots is the combination that builds trust.
Strobe vs continuous lighting is the lighting question every portrait photographer asks once. Here is an honest, experience-based breakdown of power, motion freezing, preview, video, cost, and modifiers, plus my 27-year take on which light to buy in 2026.
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Read MoreAI headshots are fake. They are not authentic. If you show somebody a fake picture, you are telling them that you are a fake person.
That is my position, and I have not softened it. But this week, for the first time, a federal appeals court gave photographers something stronger than an opinion. It gave us a ruling.
The Third Circuit rejected an AI company's fair use defense for training its system on copyrighted work it did not license. The company had fed thousands of copyrighted editorial summaries into its AI to build a competing product, then claimed fair use when the owner sued. The court said no. The use was commercial, barely transformative, and aimed at replacing the very thing it was trained on.
I wrote about the legal side of this ruling in depth on David's Guide. The short version: the court treated an AI case as a plain copyright case, applying the same four-factor test that has protected creative work for decades. No special AI exception.
That framing is the real precedent. AI companies have spent two years arguing that training deserves its own lenient standard, as if the technology itself were a fifth fair use factor. This court declined the invitation. If your business model is training on someone's work to compete with them, expect the same test that has always applied.
Here is what nobody in the AI headshot business wants to say out loud: right now, people can tell the difference between AI images and real photography. And it matters, because people want things that are real. Anything fake is manufactured, and it shows inauthenticity.
A headshot is a first impression you control. When a casting director, a hiring manager, or a client looks at your photo, they are deciding whether to trust you. A generated image tells them you could not be bothered to show up as yourself. That is a strange message to lead with when the whole point is to be believed.
My clients understand this instinctively. No client has ever chosen an AI headshot over hiring me, and I think they are too afraid to even mention AI headshots. Whoever comes to me is not thinking about AI headshots. They want the real thing, because the real thing is the point.
There is a reason for that. The people who hire me are making high-stakes first impressions: actors going out for roles, executives raising capital, founders pitching investors. They cannot afford to look manufactured. An AI headshot might pass on a small phone screen, but it collapses the moment anyone looks closely, and everyone in a position to hire you looks closely. Authenticity is not a luxury in those rooms. It is the entry fee.
People ask me if I use AI. I use Photoshop to edit the background. That is craft: my photo, my decisions, my eye, with software as the tool.
There is a canyon of difference between that and generating a person who never sat in front of a lens. One is photography with modern tools. The other is fiction with a familiar face. I know which one I am selling, and so do my clients.
People confuse the two because both involve a computer. But retouching starts with a real moment: real light on a real face, a real expression I directed in the room. The craft is in the decisions. Generation starts with a prompt and produces a person who was never there. One is a photograph. The other is an illustration of a photograph that does not exist.
Here is the part that should anger every working photographer. AI companies trained their image generators on millions of photographs without asking the photographers and without paying them. A photographer's style is their own. It should not be copied, and it should not be used by companies for their own financial gain while the photographer is not compensated.
Think about what "in the style of" means when a generator offers it. It means the model studied enough of a photographer's decisions, their lighting, their composition, their retouching, to reproduce their look on demand. That is not inspiration. That is automation of someone else's choices, trained on work they were never paid for.
The court's ruling does not fix this overnight. But it establishes the principle that will decide the cases to come: training on someone's work to compete with them is not fair use. It is just taking.
And here is what the AI companies will not tell you: they are already quietly changing their behavior. Licensing deals between AI companies and large publishers have been announced across the industry. The companies paying for licenses are implicitly conceding what the others deny in court: that the underlying material has owners, and owners get paid. The photographers with organized, registered, well-documented archives will be the ones positioned to collect. The ones with a hard drive full of unnamed files will not.
I would tell any young photographer that the best thing they can do is learn how to use AI. AI is just a tool.
I know this because I have lived it. When the digital camera arrived, I was the first to adopt it. My camera was 2.1 megapixels. Two point one. People laughed. But because I moved first, I had no competition, and I made a lot of money. I was very profitable. If I had been afraid of new technology, I would be nowhere.
The photographers who will struggle are not the ones competing with AI. They are the ones pretending it does not exist. Learn the tools. Understand what they do well and what they cannot do. Then go do the thing they cannot do: show up, direct a human being, and make a portrait that is true.
When I picked up that 2.1 megapixel camera, the established photographers called it a toy. They were right about the resolution and wrong about everything else. The camera was not the point. Being first to understand what the new tool made possible was the point. AI is the same test, administered again. The photographers who study it now will be the ones with no competition in two years.
Technology has never been the enemy of the photographer who adapts. The enemy is standing still.
Yes, I believe it will. We definitely need more laws, and we need protection for our own copyright. AI cannot just be going all over the place, taking what it wants.
Laws move slowly, but they move. This ruling gives every photographer negotiating a license, every publisher setting terms, and every artist watching their style get strip-mined something concrete to point to. The direction is set. The details will follow.
None of this requires believing AI image generation has no legitimate uses. It requires believing that the people whose work powers the models get a say in how that work is used. That is not a radical position. It is the position every licensing deal in the history of photography has taken. The only thing new is a set of companies asking to skip the negotiation.
I have no idea. It is such a mystery to me. Hopefully people still use photographers, but I do not even know what is going to happen.
Here is what I do know. In 27 years, I have watched film die, digital arrive, camera phones eat the low end, and social media rewrite the business twice. Every wave was supposed to end photography. Every wave ended with the photographers who adapted charging more, not less.
The through line is trust. A real portrait is evidence that you showed up, that a skilled human saw you and made decisions about how to present you. No generator can produce that evidence, because no generator was in the room. As long as people need to be believed, they will need photographers.
AI headshots are fake, and fake is a choice. It tells the viewer exactly what you think of them: that they are not worth the real thing.
A federal court just confirmed that the work AI companies built their models on belongs to the people who made it. The technology will keep evolving, and photographers should evolve with it. But the foundation does not change. Real work, made by real people, owned by the people who made it.
If you want a headshot that is actually you, you know where to find a headshot photographer in Los Angeles. I will be in the room, camera in hand, like always.
I recently sat down with Lance Burkitt for an episode of The Lance Burkitt Encounter, and it turned into one of the most wide-ranging conversations I have done about this career. We talked for nearly an hour, and Lance asked the questions photographers actually want answered. Not gear trivia. The real stuff. How you get in the room. How you stay in the room. What 27 years behind the camera teaches you about people, fame, and survival.
I got into photography young. That is the short version. The longer version is that I got obsessed early and never found a reason to stop. Most photographers can point to a moment when the camera stopped being a hobby and became the thing. Mine came fast, and I have spent the decades since trying to deserve it.
The early doors opened because I showed up. That sounds like a platitude, but it is the entire business model. You show up where the work is, you do the work better than expected, and someone remembers your name. Then they call you again. Then someone else calls. That is how a kid with a camera ends up photographing Lady Gaga before the world knew her name.
Let me talk about Gaga, because the episode is literally titled around it and people keep asking. Before she was Lady Gaga, she was Stefani. I photographed her pre-fame, and that shoot has stayed with me for a simple reason. Fame does not change a person all at once. It changes the room around them. The photographer sees the before and the after, and the difference is never the person. It is the circus that shows up with the fame. She was the same artist in that room that she is on the biggest stages in the world. The world just had not caught up yet.
Lance runs a straight-talking photography channel with new conversations every week. If you are into portrait, celebrity, or editorial photography, his channel is worth a subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@lanceburkitt. You can find him at https://lanceburkitt.com
And if this conversation reminds you it is time for new headshots, you know where to find me.
One story from the episode I want to repeat here, because it still makes me laugh: the night a 2.1MP camera beat $10,000 film bodies. Early digital. Everyone with money was still shooting film on bodies worth more than a car, and I walked in with a 2.1 megapixel digital camera that the film guys treated like a toy. The images held up. The clients were happy. The film guys were not. Technology does not ask permission. It just shows up and makes the old arguments irrelevant. I have watched that happen three or four times now, film to digital, digital to mirrorless, and now AI knocking on the door. The photographers who survive are the ones who learn the new tool instead of defending the old one.
We spent real time on that in the conversation, the AI question. My take is simple. AI is a tool. It will replace photographers who were already replaceable, the ones doing work a machine can do. It will not replace the photographer who walks into a room and makes a nervous celebrity feel like a normal person for ten minutes. That is not a technical skill. That is a human one. Use AI to your advantage, absolutely, but do not confuse the tool with the talent. The photographers panicking about AI are usually the ones who never learned to direct a human being in the first place.
Which brings me to the thing I have said for 27 years and will keep saying: treat famous people like normal human beings. The camera knows when you are performing for the fame instead of photographing the person. Every great portrait I have ever taken started with forgetting who was in front of the lens. Snoop Dogg. Pamela Anderson. Usain Bolt. Richard Branson. The Kardashians. Different rooms, same rule. The moment you treat them like a trophy, you get trophy photos. The moment you treat them like a person, you get something real.
I have been shooting the Teen Choice Awards since 2000, back when I was filing same-night images from a Nikon Coolpix 950 over a 56k modem while everyone else was still waiting on film. That is where the Beyonce photo above comes from. Same rule applied then as now, and it is the same rule I bring to every session as a celebrity photographer in Los Angeles: the celebrities who trusted me did it because I treated the job like a job, not an audience with royalty.
Lance pushed me on the business side too, and I am glad he did, because photographers do not talk about this enough. Know your worth and your style. The client who haggles your price before the shoot questions every frame after it. The one who pays your rate without flinching trusted you at booking, and that trust carries through the whole session. I spent 27 years photographing some of the most recognizable people in the world, and the best clients I ever had never asked for a discount. Price is a finished sentence. Say it once, then stop talking. That is how I run every booking, from a two-look headshot session to a full editorial day.
We talked about access, because everyone wants to know how you get into the rooms. Editorial work. Magazine assignments. Red carpets. The honest answer is that access is a reputation business. You get access by being someone people want in the room, and you keep it by never making anyone regret it. One bad story follows you for years. One good reputation opens doors you did not know existed. Create opportunities rather than waiting for them. Nobody is coming to discover you. Go discover the work.
There is a story in the episode about bartering my way around the world, trading photography for travel, and about a fashion show in a Hollywood parking lot with 600 people. I will let you hear those from the episode itself, because Lance gets the details out of me better than I get them out of myself. But the point of both stories is the same: the photographers with the best careers are not always the ones with the best cameras. They are the ones who said yes to the weird opportunity, showed up, and delivered.
We also talked about the disappearance of photographers in the UK, the way the industry has thinned out, and what that means for the people still standing. My advice has not changed in two decades. Find your niche. Be the person who does one thing better than anyone. Generalists starve. Specialists get called.
And ditch the circadian rhythm. That one is half a joke and half serious. This career does not run on office hours. The call comes at midnight. The flight leaves at dawn. The best light does not care about your sleep schedule. If you want a predictable life, do something else. If you want this life, the unpredictability is the job.
The last thing Lance asked me was where people can find my work. Twenty-seven years in, the answer is the same places it has always been. My photography at dclee.net. My publication, David's Guide, at davidsguide.com. And on Instagram at @davidcleephotography and @davidsguide.
Watch the full episode here:
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If you are a woman searching for a headshot photographer in Los Angeles, you have two kinds of results: photographers who are women, and photographers who specialize in shooting headshots for women. Both are valid searches. But the search most women are really running is simpler: who in this city will take a headshot of me that looks like me, on my best day, and won't make me look like a different person? I've spent 27 years photographing people in Los Angeles, including thousands of headshot sessions for women across every industry: attorneys, executives, founders, actors, realtors, authors, doctors. Here's what actually separates the photographers who get women's headshots right from the ones who don't.
A headshot is not just a smaller portrait. It is a professional tool with a job to do, and the job is different depending on who is in the frame. For women, the variables are more complex than most photographers admit. Hair changes the light. Makeup changes the skin. Wardrobe has more range and more ways to go wrong. The difference between an expression that reads "confident executive" and one that reads "real estate agent from a stock photo" can be a millimeter of chin angle. A generalist who shoots everything from weddings to newborns may be talented, but headshots for women reward specialization. When you look at a photographer's portfolio, you want to see women across ages, industries, and skin tones who all look like themselves. If every woman in the portfolio looks twenty-eight and lit the same way, the photographer has one look. You need someone with range.
They light for skin, not for the room. Studio lighting that flatters one person can be harsh on another. Experienced headshot photographers adjust for skin tone, texture, and how makeup interacts with the light. When you review portfolios, zoom in on the skin. It should look like skin, with texture and life, not like wax.
They coach the expression, not just the pose. Most women don't walk into a headshot session knowing how to look confident on command, and that's fine. The photographer's job is to direct you there. A good session feels like a conversation with breaks, adjustments, and honest feedback about what is working. If a photographer's process is "stand there, smile, next," keep looking.
They advise on wardrobe and makeup before the shoot. A specialist will tell you what to bring and what to avoid before you arrive, not after the session is over. Solid colors over busy patterns. Necklines that frame the face. Makeup that reads on camera, which is different from everyday makeup. If the photographer has nothing to say about prep, they are not thinking about your result.
They understand the industry the headshot is for. A LinkedIn headshot for a finance executive, an acting headshot for a working actress, and an author photo for a book jacket are three different assignments. The framing, expression, wardrobe, and even the crop change. Ask the photographer what industries they shoot most, and match that to yours.
This is where women's headshots get ruined most often. Retouching should clean up what is temporary and keep what is permanent. That is my rule after 27 years, and it has never failed me: what gives you character stays. Moles stay. Pimples go. A blemish that will be gone next week should not be in a photo you will use for two years. The shape of your face, the lines around your eyes when you smile, the features that make you recognizable, those stay exactly as they are. Ask every photographer you are considering one question: "What is your retouching philosophy?" If the answer is vague, or if their portfolio shows skin with no texture and teeth that glow, you are looking at someone who retouches the person out of the photograph. Casting directors, hiring managers, and clients all notice when a headshot does not match the person who walks in. An over-retouched headshot is worse than no headshot at all.
In the LA market, professional headshot sessions for women typically run from a few hundred dollars for a quick single-look session to several thousand for a full multi-look shoot with a hair and makeup artist, wardrobe consultation, and premium retouching. My own headshot sessions begin at $1,500 for two looks, with three looks at $1,900, four at $2,300, and five at $2,500, each look a full wardrobe and styling change, shot and directed by me. What drives the price up: the number of looks, a professional hair and makeup artist on set, the number of retouched final images, and rush turnaround. What should make you suspicious: bargain sessions that promise dozens of "fully edited" images for under $200. At that price point, there is no real retouching, no direction, and usually no photographer with headshot experience. You get what the camera saw in a conference room, which is not what you are paying for. For a detailed breakdown of how headshot pricing works in this market, see my guide to headshot cost in Los Angeles.
Walk away if the portfolio shows the same retouched-to-plastic look on every woman. Walk away if there is no contract, no discussion of usage or delivery timeline, or if the photographer cannot articulate what makes their women's headshots different from anyone else's. Be cautious of anyone who promises "unlimited edited photos," because no professional retouches an unlimited number of images well. And trust your gut on the consultation call: if you feel rushed or talked down to before you have paid anything, the session itself will not be better.
Preparation is half the result, and a good photographer will send you a prep guide. The short version: bring more wardrobe options than you think you need, in solid colors that complement your skin tone. Keep jewelry simple. Arrive with clean, moisturized skin and hair styled the way you normally wear it, since the headshot should look like you on a normal workday, not like a wedding. Sleep matters more than any product. And eat before you arrive, because low blood sugar shows up on camera faster than bad lighting. I keep a full breakdown of how to prepare for a headshot session that covers wardrobe, grooming, and the week-before checklist in detail.
How do I find a good female headshot photographer in Los Angeles? Start with portfolios: look for women across ages and industries who look like themselves, with skin that has texture. Check reviews, ask what the session includes, and have a consultation call before you book. For more on the vetting process, see Backstage's tips on finding the right headshot photographer.
How much do women's headshots cost in Los Angeles? Professional sessions typically start around a few hundred dollars for a single look and run to $1,500 and up for multi-look sessions with hair, makeup, and premium retouching. My sessions begin at $1,500 for two looks.
Should I hire a makeup artist for my headshot session? Yes, if your budget allows. Camera makeup is different from everyday makeup, and a professional artist knows the difference.
How many looks do I need? Two to three looks covers most women: one polished corporate look, one approachable creative look, and optionally one industry-specific look. Actors need more — see my guide to actor headshots in Los Angeles — since different roles need different headshots.
How often should I update my headshots? Every two to three years, or sooner if your appearance changes significantly. Your headshot should look like you on the day someone meets you.
What should I wear for a women's headshot? Solid colors that complement your skin tone, necklines that frame your face, and fabrics without busy patterns or sheen. Bring options. Your photographer should advise you before the session, not during it.
For acting headshots, Backstage's guide to headshot sizing and cropping (https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/acting-headshot-dimensions-76070/) is worth a read. For corporate profiles, LinkedIn's own breakdown of what makes a strong headshot (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/level-up-your-linkedin-profile-power-professional-headshot-cari-hall-5cfac) covers the essentials.
Hiring a headshot photographer as a woman in Los Angeles comes down to three things: find a specialist whose portfolio shows real women with real skin, confirm their retouching philosophy keeps you recognizable, and prepare properly so the session has something to work with. The cheapest session is the one you have to redo.
David Christopher Lee is a Los Angeles photographer with 27 years of experience shooting headshots, corporate portraits, and celebrity sessions. He shoots corporate headshots for executives, teams, and professionals across Los Angeles. Book a headshot session.
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After 27 years behind the camera, I have seen every version of how this goes wrong. Here are the red flags that tell you a photographer is going to be a problem, and what each one predicts about your shoot.
This is the biggest one, and it is non-negotiable. A professional photographer sends you a contract. It covers the date, the hours, the fee, what you get, when you get it, who owns the images, and what happens if something goes wrong. It takes five minutes to read and it protects both sides.
What it predicts: if a photographer will not put the agreement in writing, the terms are whatever they feel like on the day of the shoot. The price can change. The delivery timeline can stretch. The number of images can shrink. You have no document to point to because there is no document.
I have worked this way since the beginning. Even when I was starting out, shooting events as a teenager, I learned fast that a written agreement is what separates a professional from a hobbyist with a camera.
Ask this question directly: "What happens if your camera dies during my event?" A professional has a real answer. Two camera bodies minimum. Backup batteries, backup cards, backup lenses, and often a backup photographer they can call. Gear fails. The question is never whether it can fail. It is whether the photographer planned for it.
What it predicts: a photographer with one camera and no backup is gambling with your event. If that body fails during the keynote, there is no keynote coverage. You are paying for certainty, and certainty requires redundancy. This is one of the first things I cover in any guide on how to hire a corporate photographer, because it is the easiest thing to verify and the most common thing skipped by amateurs.
This one is sneaky. Some photographers show portfolios full of stunning work they did not actually shoot. Maybe they assisted on a big production and kept the images. Maybe the portfolio is real but it is ten years old and their recent work looks nothing like it.
What it predicts: you are buying a style and a skill level you may not receive. Always ask who specifically will be shooting your event, and ask to see recent, full galleries from similar events, not just the highlight reel. A working corporate photographer in Los Angeles should be able to show you complete recent event coverage on request.
Corporate venues ask for a certificate of insurance. This is standard. A professional photographer carries general liability insurance and can produce a certificate naming your venue as additionally insured. It costs a few hundred dollars a year. It is the cost of doing business.
What it predicts: no insurance means the photographer is not doing enough business to justify the policy, or they are cutting corners on the basics. Either way, some venues will simply refuse to let an uninsured photographer work. Finding that out on the morning of your event is a disaster you can avoid with one email.
A deposit is normal. Most professional photographers ask for 30 to 50 percent to hold the date, with the balance due before or at delivery. That is standard business practice and it protects the photographer from last-minute cancellations.
Full payment upfront, in cash, with no receipt, is a different animal. What it predicts: the photographer has cash flow problems, no business banking, or no intention of being reachable after the check clears. Legitimate businesses take checks, cards, and transfers. Cash-only full prepayment is how people get scammed, and it is how photographers who plan to disappear operate. If someone will not take a check, ask yourself why.
Ask: "What happens if you get sick on the day of my event?" A professional has a network of trusted colleagues to call. After decades in one market, those relationships are part of the job.
What it predicts: a photographer with no backup plan is telling you that your event exists only as long as they are healthy and their car starts. Life happens to everyone. The difference between a professional and a risk is whether there is a plan for it. If the answer is a shrug, your event has a single point of failure.
How many edited images will you receive? When? In what format? Will there be a sneak peek for social media the next day? These questions cause fights after the event, and every one of them should be answered in the contract before the event.
What it predicts: a photographer who is vague about deliverables is reserving the right to deliver less, later, or in a format you cannot use. "I will get you the photos soon" is not a timeline. Get the number, the format, and the date in writing. If the photographer will not commit, they are telling you they cannot.
When you hire a photographer and everything is right, it feels boring. That is the point. A contract arrives promptly. The deposit terms are clear. They ask about the venue, the lighting, the schedule, and the shot list before you think to mention them. They send a certificate of insurance without being asked twice. They have shot your type of event before and can show you the proof.
Boring is what you want. I have spent 27 years building a business where the client experience is uneventful, because uneventful means everything worked.
Pay attention to how the photographer communicates before you pay a dollar. Slow replies and vague answers are the best it will ever be. It only gets worse after the deposit clears, never better. The photographer you want answers clearly, asks smart questions, and treats your event like it matters before there is money on the table.
You do not need to be a photography expert to hire a good photographer. You just need to check for the basics: a contract, backup gear, a portfolio that matches the shooter, insurance, sane payment terms, a backup plan, and written deliverables. Seven checks, and you will filter out nearly every bad hire in the market. The photographers who pass all seven are the ones who will show up, deliver, and make your event look the way it felt. That is what you are paying for.
People use these two terms like they mean the same thing. They do not. Commercial photography is the umbrella term for any photography created to sell something. Advertising photography is the specialized branch that creates images for ad campaigns. Put simply: all advertising photography is commercial photography, but not all commercial photography is advertising. A catalog photo sells by showing the product clearly. An advertising photo sells by making you feel something in a fraction of a second. After 27 years behind the camera, shooting everything from magazine editorials to brand campaigns, I can tell you the difference matters, because it changes what you ask for, what you pay, and what you get.
Commercial photography covers every kind of photography made for business purposes. Product shots for a website. Catalog pages. Corporate portraits. Real estate listings. Food photography for a menu. Headshots for a company team page. If the photo exists to support a business, it is commercial photography.
The job of most commercial photography is clarity. Show the product accurately. Show the team looking professional. Show the space at its best. There is real craft involved, but the goal is straightforward: inform the buyer and build trust. I learned what it takes to sell a product long before I ever charged for a shoot. My parents built a custom t-shirt business from nothing, and I watched the whole chain, design, printing, selling at competitions, start to finish. I saw that selling is a chain and photography is one link in it. A good commercial photo does its job quietly. It answers the customer's question before they ask it. Corporate headshots live here too. When a company hires me to photograph fifty executives with a consistent look, that is commercial photography: clear, professional, on brand, delivered fast.
Advertising photography has one job: stop someone mid-scroll, mid-page, or mid-stride, and make them feel something about a product in a fraction of a second. These are the images inside ad campaigns. Billboards. Magazine spreads. Social ads. Television key art.
Everything about an advertising image is deliberate. The light, the casting, the styling, the exact moment, all of it is built around a concept, usually developed with an art director and a creative team. A portrait can take its time earning your attention. An ad gets a glance. If the image does not land instantly, it fails, no matter how beautiful it is.
I got my first look at this world as a teenager, standing on my first real fashion photoshoot for a teen magazine, watching hair, makeup, styling, and lighting come together around a single concept. Years later I was shooting editorials that ran in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and InStyle. That campaign mindset, one big idea executed perfectly, is what separates advertising photography from everything else under the commercial umbrella.
The distinction is not just theory. When you hire a photographer, these are the practical differences you will run into:
The brief. A commercial shoot brief says: show this product, this space, or this team, accurately and well. An advertising brief says: make people feel this specific thing about this brand, and here is the campaign concept.
The team. Commercial shoots are often lean: the photographer, maybe an assistant and a stylist. Advertising shoots bring the machine: art director, creative director, producers, hair and makeup, wardrobe, sometimes a dozen people serving a single image.
Usage and licensing. This is the big one. Commercial photography is often licensed simply, sometimes as a straightforward buyout for defined uses. Advertising photography is priced around usage: where the image runs, for how long, in which markets, and at what scale. A national billboard campaign costs more than a local print ad because the usage is bigger.
Budget and timeline. Commercial work is typically faster and more contained. Advertising campaigns take longer to plan, longer to shoot, and longer in post-production, because every detail gets scrutinized against the concept.
Ask yourself what the photo has to do.
If you are launching a product line and need clean images for your website, your Amazon listings, or a catalog, you need commercial photography. If you are opening a restaurant and need the food and the room to look their best, commercial. If your company needs consistent team headshots, commercial.
If you are running a campaign with a message, a feeling, and a story, spread across billboards, social, and print, you need advertising photography. You need a concept first, then a photographer who can execute it.
Many photographers, myself included, work across both. The skill sets overlap heavily: lighting, directing people, understanding what sells. What changes is the structure around the shoot. Be honest with your photographer about what the images are for. The usage determines the licensing, the licensing determines the price, and surprises there help no one.
If you want the deeper definitional breakdown of commercial photography as a discipline, I have a full guide to it here. And if you are at the hiring stage, here is how to think about hiring a commercial photographer for your brand.
This is where clients get tripped up most. With straightforward commercial work, licensing is often simple and generous. With advertising, usage is the product. A photographer quoting an ad campaign will ask where the images run, how long they run, and in which territories, because those answers define the value of the license. Get this in writing before the shoot, not after. A clear usage agreement protects both sides and keeps the relationship clean.
One more thing I tell every client: decide the usage before anyone picks up a camera. I have seen projects stall because nobody agreed on where the images could run. Five minutes of honest conversation about usage at the start saves weeks of renegotiation later. If a photographer will not put licensing in writing, that tells you everything you need to know.
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Read MoreMini headshot sessions are everywhere: 15 minute slots at a conference, a pop up studio at a networking event, a photographer offering quick sessions on a Saturday. They promise professional headshots at a fraction of the time and cost of a full session. But are they worth it?
The honest answer: sometimes. It depends entirely on what kind of mini session, who is running it, and what you need. Here is how to tell the difference between a genuine value and a waste of money.
A mini headshot session is a shortened portrait session, typically 10 to 20 minutes, producing a small number of final images, usually one to five. They come in several formats:
The format matters enormously. A 15 minute session with an experienced photographer who directs well can produce an excellent headshot. A 15 minute session that is really a photo booth with no direction produces a snapshot.
If your goal is a single good LinkedIn and company page photo, a well run mini session delivers exactly that. Not a library, not range, not options. One strong image. For many professionals, that is genuinely all they need.
For companies photographing ten, twenty, or fifty employees, mini style sessions are the only practical approach. I set up a portable studio at the office and run each person through in about ten to fifteen minutes. Everyone gets the same background, the same lighting, the same standard. That is how team headshot consistency is actually achieved at scale.
For larger events, an on-site headshot booth handles big lines efficiently. For big lines, clients sign up with a QR code that captures their contact info, which keeps the flow moving and organizes delivery automatically.
A mini session is a low commitment way to experience a photographer's direction, lighting, and retouching before booking a full session. If you love the mini results, the full session will be even better.
Mini sessions typically run $100 to $350 in Los Angeles, compared to $1,500 and up for full sessions. If the choice is a professional mini session or a phone selfie, the mini session wins by a mile. Check headshot prices in Los Angeles to calibrate what the market looks like at each tier.
Fifteen minutes cannot produce theatrical range, commercial warmth, and a third look with full wardrobe changes. Actors need the time, the direction, and the variety that only a full session provides. A mini session headshot will not serve a casting submission well.
If your face is part of your business, one image is a bottleneck. Branding requires multiple looks, multiple settings, and dozens of usable images. That is a full session or a dedicated branding shoot, not a mini.
The people who feel least photogenic benefit most from longer sessions. The warm up period alone can take fifteen minutes: relaxing, finding angles, building confidence. A mini session ends just as a nervous client is getting comfortable. If you know you need time to loosen up, book the full session.
Not all minis are equal. Before booking, check:
If you book one, preparation matters more than in a full session because there is no time to waste:
For companies, the best version of the mini session is the dedicated headshot day. I come to your office with a full portable studio: professional lighting, proper background, tethered shooting so each person can approve their selects on the spot. Ten to fifteen minutes per person, consistent results across the whole team, and new hires can be matched in future sessions from the reference standard we establish.
This is dramatically more efficient than sending employees to individual sessions, and the consistency is impossible to achieve any other way. It is also the most cost effective per person rate in professional headshot photography.
Mini sessions are worth it when you need one strong professional photo, when you are photographing a team at scale, or when budget makes a full session impossible right now. They are not a substitute for full sessions when you need range, a brand library, or time to get comfortable.
Judge the offer by the photographer behind it, not the price tag. Fifteen minutes with a pro who directs well beats an hour with someone who does not. And if you outgrow the mini, the full session is always there when you are ready for it.
Let me tell you a secret from 27 years behind the camera: almost nobody is naturally photogenic. The people who look great in photos are not blessed with special faces. They have either learned a few techniques, or they have worked with a photographer who directs them well. Usually both.
I have photographed thousands of people who walked into my studio convinced they were not photogenic. Every single one of them left with images they loved. Here is why, and how you can do the same.
The idea that some people are just photogenic is one of the most damaging myths in photography. What looks like natural talent is almost always a set of learnable behaviors: knowing your angles, relaxing your face, engaging your eyes, and understanding what the camera sees versus what the mirror shows.
The mirror lies to you, by the way. You see yourself reversed in the mirror every day, so photographs look subtly wrong to you even when they look great to everyone else. Half of not feeling photogenic is just unfamiliarity with your own face from the camera's perspective.
A straight on, symmetrical pose flattens the face and emphasizes asymmetry. Turn your head slightly, about 15 to 30 degrees off center, and you instantly add dimension. I find your best side during every session by shooting both and comparing. Everyone has one, and it is rarely the side they expect.
This is the single most transformative posing adjustment in portrait photography. Push your forehead toward the camera and tilt your chin down just slightly. It defines the jawline, reduces the appearance of a double chin, and brings your eyes forward. It feels strange. It looks fantastic. Every celebrity you have ever admired does this in every photo.
Tension lives in the mouth. Pressed lips, a forced smile, a clenched jaw: the camera magnifies all of it. Breathe through slightly parted lips. Let your mouth rest in a neutral, soft position. If we are going for a smile, we build it from that relaxed base, not from a clenched starting point.
The eyes are everything. I say this in every session because it is the truest thing I know about portrait photography. Your eyes need to be open, alive, with catch lights in them, carrying real expression. Think about something specific: a person you love, a moment you are proud of, something funny. The camera reads the difference between thinking and blanking instantly.
Lean your upper body toward the camera just a touch. It creates engagement and energy. Sitting back reads as distant. Shoulders back and down, chest open. For standing poses, shift your weight to your back foot and angle your body. These small shifts change the entire feel of the image.
Here is the truth most people miss: posing is not your job. It is mine.
When you hire a professional headshot photographer, you are hiring a director. I analyze every face I shoot: the jawline, the cheekbones, the eyes, how light falls across the features. Then I pose you accordingly, adjust in real time, and show you the back of the camera so you can see what is working. You do not need to arrive knowing how to pose. You need to arrive willing to take direction.
This is why professional headshots are worth it for people who feel unphotogenic most of all. The gap between a phone selfie and a directed professional session is largest for the people who think they photograph badly, because direction is exactly what they have been missing.
If you are evaluating photographers, this is central to choosing an acting headshot photographer or any portrait photographer: ask how they direct people who are uncomfortable in front of the camera. The answer reveals everything about their experience.
We shoot serious and subtle expressions too. Not every headshot needs teeth. Some of the strongest portraits I have taken are quiet, confident, closed mouth looks. And if we do smile, I direct you to it gradually: think of something funny, let it build naturally, and I capture the real thing instead of the posed one.
Posing and lens choice solve most of this. Shooting slightly from above slims the face. Angling the body prevents the straight on widening effect. Darker wardrobe tones streamline. Good lighting sculpts. These are standard professional techniques, not tricks, and they work on everybody.
Tell me. I will favor your preferred side throughout the session while still getting enough variety. This is an extremely common request, and there is zero judgment in it.
I shoot in bursts and watch for it. If you are a chronic blinker, I will have you close your eyes, then open on my count. It sounds simple because it is simple, and it works every time.
A good headshot session for a nervous client follows a pattern:
Clothing will not fix posing, but it removes variables. Well fitted clothes in colors that suit you mean one less thing to worry about. Review wardrobe choices for headshots before your session so you arrive with outfits that already work, and we can spend the time on expression instead of outfit anxiety.
You are not unphotogenic. You are undirected. More precisely, you have never been directed well. The techniques above will improve any photo you take, including phone selfies. But the real transformation happens when a professional photographer takes over the posing, the angles, the light, and the direction, and all you have to do is follow along.
My sessions include full direction as standard, because directing is the job. The clients who arrive most convinced they photograph badly are consistently the ones most surprised by their galleries. Trust the process, and let the camera do what it does when someone who knows how to use it is behind it.
White and gray are the two standard backgrounds in corporate headshot photography. Together they account for the vast majority of professional headshots in existence. Clients ask me to choose between them constantly, and while there is no universally wrong answer, there is usually a right one for your specific situation.
Here is how I think about it after 27 years of shooting both.
A white background is bright, clean, and modern. It creates a high key look that feels open and energetic.
White works best when:
The technical consideration with white: it demands precise lighting. The background must be lit separately from the subject to stay clean white without blowing out or going gray and muddy. This is standard work for a professional studio setup, but it is one reason DIY white background attempts often look dingy.
Wardrobe against white needs contrast. Dark and medium tones pop beautifully. White or very light clothing disappears into the background, which is why best color for your headshot planning matters more against white than any other backdrop.
Gray is the corporate standard, and it has earned the title. A medium gray background is flattering, versatile, and timeless.
Gray works best when:
Gray is also the most forgiving background technically. It handles a wider range of lighting styles, from bright and airy to dark and moody, which gives the photographer more creative range within a single backdrop.
The one caution: gray can feel conventional. If your brand is built on standing out, gray will not help you do it. But it will never hurt you either.
Gray wins. It works with every skin tone, every wardrobe color, and every industry. White is excellent but narrower: it needs wardrobe contrast and suits modern brands best.
Gray wins again, narrowly. A gray background headshot from ten years ago still looks current. White backgrounds cycle slightly with design trends, though they have been strong for a long time now.
White wins if your site has a white background, which most do. The photo melts into the page. Gray creates a defined image block, which some designers prefer for structure.
White wins for easy background removal. If your photos will be cut out for composites, presentations, or marketing materials, white (or a very light gray) makes the designer's job trivial.
Gray wins. One gray backdrop can produce bright friendly portraits and dark dramatic ones just by changing the light. White really only does bright.
Black backgrounds create drama and are popular for actors, artists, and luxury brands, but they are too heavy for standard corporate use. Colored backgrounds, blues, greens, brand colors, work for specific companies with strong visual identities, but they date faster and complicate team consistency. Environmental backgrounds belong to outdoor and lifestyle shoots, a different category entirely.
For corporate headshots, the real decision is white versus gray about 90 percent of the time.
Here is the thing I tell every corporate client: whichever you choose, consistency across the team matters more than which one you pick. A team page where everyone is on the same gray background looks professional. A team page mixing white, gray, outdoor, and office backgrounds looks chaotic, even if each individual photo is good.
This is the foundation of consistent team headshots. Pick the background once, document it, and hold the standard for every new hire. I keep reference notes from every corporate shoot so future sessions match exactly.
When a client asks me to just decide for them, here is my default advice. For individual professionals who need one versatile headshot, I recommend gray. It is the safest choice across industries, it handles any wardrobe, and it will still look current in five years. You will never regret gray.
For companies shooting a full team, I also recommend gray, for the consistency reasons above. One standard, every employee, every future hire matched to it.
For personal brands, startups, and anyone whose website has a clean white design, I recommend white, or better yet, both. The white background shots integrate beautifully into modern web design, and the gray shots give you the versatile standard for LinkedIn and press.
For actors, the question is different. Theatrical headshots often work best on darker backgrounds, including dark gray and black, while commercial headshots favor lighter tones. Actors should think in terms of the casting type each look serves, not corporate background conventions.
When in doubt, shoot both. The incremental cost during a session is minimal, and having both backgrounds in your library means you are covered for every future use you have not thought of yet.
In my studio, switching between white and gray takes minutes. Many clients shoot both in a single session: white for the website integration, gray for LinkedIn and general use. Since my sessions are built around looks, and a look is a full wardrobe and styling change, we can pair each background with the wardrobe that suits it best. Dark suit on white, lighter tones on gray, and you leave with a complete set.
If you are preparing for the session, spend time on what to wear for headshots with your background choice in mind. Bring options in both dark and medium tones, and I will direct you to the right backdrop for each outfit on the day.
Choose white for modern brands, bright approachable energy, and seamless web integration. Choose gray for the versatile corporate standard that works everywhere and never dates. Choose both if your usage spans multiple contexts.
And remember: the background is the frame, not the picture. What makes the headshot work is the light on your face, the expression in your eyes, and a photographer who knows how to shape both. Get those right, and white or gray becomes a finishing detail, not a deciding factor.
Working headshot photographers treat white and gray as the only real corporate debate, and gray keeps winning the popular vote. Headshot Pros AZ reports: "A gray background for corporate headshots is a very popular choice among most of my clients" (Headshot Pros AZ). Cole's Classroom, which trains headshot shooters, notes that "white background, in particular, is more often requested than a grey or black background" (Cole's Classroom), which explains why studios keep both on hand.
The consistency point I make in this guide gets backup from PetaPixel's corporate portrait piece: "a lot of times people just want something simple. And they want them all to be the same so everyone in the office has the same shot that you put up on their website" (PetaPixel).
Pick the one that fits your brand, then hold it across the whole team. That is the entire game.
If you wear glasses every day, the instinct is to wear them in your headshot. That instinct is usually right, but there are real technical considerations, and the smartest move is one most people never think of. After 27 years photographing people in glasses, here is the complete guide.
Your headshot is a promise about what you look like. If you wear glasses in every meeting, on every video call, and in daily life, your headshot should show you in glasses. When someone meets you after seeing your photo, there should be no surprise.
The reverse is equally true. If you only wear glasses occasionally, or you wear contacts most days, shoot without them. The photo should match the face people actually encounter.
This is the same honesty principle behind my retouching philosophy: "I leave the things that give people character. If it is a mole or something like that, it stays. If it is a blemish like a pimple, I take it out." Glasses are character. They stay if they are part of you.
Glasses do genuine visual work in a portrait:
I have had clients who took their glasses off for the shoot at someone's advice, saw the proofs, and immediately asked to reshoot with them on. Trust your daily reality over generic advice.
Glasses create two problems for photographers: glare and distortion. Both are solvable, but only with intention.
Studio lights reflect in lenses. The fix is a combination of light positioning, head angle, and frame tilt. I adjust my lights specifically for glasses wearers, angle the frames slightly, and check every test frame for reflections before we shoot in earnest. This is routine for an experienced headshot photographer and a nightmare for an amateur. It is one of the quiet technical skills that separates pros from hobbyists.
What you can do to help:
Strong prescriptions can distort the eyes slightly through the lens, and frames cast small shadows. I watch for both and adjust accordingly. Thinner frames and lenses minimize the effect. If your prescription is strong, mention it before the shoot so I can plan the lighting.
Here is what I never compromise on. The eyes are everything in a headshot: open, engaged, with catch lights and real expression. Glasses sit between my lens and your eyes, which means I work harder to keep that connection strong. The frames should frame the eyes, never hide them.
My standing advice for glasses wearers: shoot with glasses and without. It takes five minutes during the session, costs nothing extra, and gives you options you cannot create later.
Why both? Because different contexts favor different versions. Your LinkedIn might use the glasses shot that matches your daily look, while a speaker bio or publication might run the cleaner no glasses version. Having both means never wishing you had the other.
This fits naturally into how my sessions work. A look is a full wardrobe and styling change, and removing glasses reads as a meaningful variation within a look. We will shoot the glasses, shoot without, and you will decide later with the proofs in front of you.
If you are shopping for frames before a shoot, or choosing between pairs you own:
Some glasses wearers consider switching to contacts just for the shoot. My advice: do not, unless contacts are already part of your routine. Unfamiliar contacts cause redness, watering, and discomfort, all of which photograph worse than any glasses glare ever could. Your eyes need to be comfortable and natural, and that means sticking with what you normally wear.
The exception is if you genuinely alternate between glasses and contacts in daily life. In that case, contacts for the shoot are fine, because both versions are authentically you. Just make sure your eyes have adjusted before we start shooting. Bring the glasses anyway as a backup, since we shoot both versions regardless.
One more consideration for contact lens wearers: bring eye drops. Studio lights and long sessions dry eyes out, and drops between looks keep your eyes bright and comfortable. It is a small detail that shows up in the final images more than you would expect.
Sunglasses have no place in a headshot. Ever. Blue light glasses with a visible tint are a judgment call: if the tint is noticeable in photos, they will look like sunglasses and create the same problem. Clear blue light lenses are fine.
Wear your glasses if you wear them daily. Your headshot should look like you. Work with a photographer experienced enough to handle glare and reflections without breaking a sweat. And shoot both with and without, because options are free during the session and priceless later.
If you are weighing whether professional headshots worth the investment applies to you, consider that details like this are exactly what you are paying for. Anyone can point a camera at a face. A professional solves the glasses problem before you even know it exists, and hands you a gallery where every frame works.
A personal branding shoot is not a headshot session with extra time. It is a strategic content production day where every image needs to work across your website, social media, press kit, and marketing for months to come. The clients who get the most from their branding shoots are the ones who prepare like it matters, because it does.
I shoot personal branding sessions regularly, and the difference between a prepared client and an unprepared one shows up in every frame. Here is the complete preparation checklist I wish every client followed.
Before you think about clothes, answer these questions:
Share these answers with your photographer before the shoot. When I know the strategy, I can direct every look toward it. When I do not, I am guessing, and guessing wastes your money.
A shot list turns a vague shoot into a productive one. Aim for a mix across these categories:
You will not get every category in every look, but the list keeps us intentional about coverage across the day.
Wardrobe is where branding shoots are won or lost. Plan it with the same care as the strategy.
For deeper guidance, review what to wear for your photos well before shoot day, not the night before.
Props make branding photos specific instead of generic. Good props are the tools of your trade:
Bring them, and bring backups. Props get more screen time than you expect, and a dead laptop or an empty notebook looks worse than no prop at all.
For branding shoots, professional hair and makeup is strongly recommended. The session runs long, involves multiple looks, and the images get used at large sizes. An artist keeps you camera ready across the whole day and handles touch ups between looks. Schedule the artist to arrive before the shoot start time so you are ready when the camera comes out.
Grooming basics for everyone: clean nails, moisturized skin, and haircut or color done three to seven days before, not the day before. Fresh cuts need a few days to settle.
The camera reads tension instantly. My job is to direct you, so your job is to trust the process and stay loose. A few things that help:
My branding shoots start at $2,500, which includes studio space and two looks, not hair and makeup. Clients receive 20 to 30 photos per look. When you evaluate branding photoshoot costs, think in cost per usable image across months of content. A well prepared shoot that delivers 50 strong images you use for a year is one of the cheapest marketing investments you will make.
Prepare the strategy first, then the shot list, then the wardrobe, then the logistics. Arrive rested, fed, and on time with pressed clothes and charged props. Trust your photographer's direction once the camera is out.
The clients who follow this checklist do not just get better photos. They get a shoot day that feels easy instead of stressful, and a image library that actually gets used instead of sitting on a hard drive. If you are comparing photographers, run through these questions to ask your photographer before booking. The right one will want your shot list and strategy before shoot day, because preparation is a partnership.
