How to take a professional headshot with an iPhone

What a headshot is

A headshot is the head and shoulders, cropped close, with the eyes as the point of the picture. It is the photo on a CV, a company page, a LinkedIn profile or a seller’s “about” section. People look at it small, so the face has to carry it.

LinkedIn’s own advice for profile photos is that your face should take up at least 60% of the frame, cropped from about the shoulders to just above the head. The headshot photographer Peter Hurley crops tighter still and often cuts through the top of the head. Show more head and you need to show more chest as well, so the eyes stay in the same place.

That place is the top third. Put the eyes on the upper line of a thirds grid, or a little above it (the rule of thirds, explained). It is the most reliable framing in portraiture.

Where to crop, and where never to

The portrait photographer Gina Milicia’s rule is short: if it can bend, don’t crop it. A frame edge that cuts through a neck, elbow, wrist, knee, ankle, finger or toe looks like an amputation. Crop between the joints instead.

For wider portraits, Milicia’s safe lines are below the knee, mid-thigh, at the waist, across the forearm, or through the top of the head. Those give you the three standard framings:

Step back and zoom in

Phone portraits flatter less than camera portraits for a simple reason: phones are held close. Distance, not the lens, changes the shape of a face. A 2018 study in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery modelled the effect and found that at about 30 cm (a selfie at arm’s length) the base of the nose looks around 30% wider than it does from 1.5 metres.

Portrait photographers stand back and use a longer lens, traditionally 70 to 85 mm on a full-frame camera. Adobe’s photographers point out that it is mostly about the distance to the subject. On an iPhone:

1. Use the back camera. LinkedIn recommends against the selfie camera. It is lower quality on most phones and can flip text and logos.
2. Switch to 2x or 3x if your iPhone has it, and step back until the crop is right. Adobe’s guide to phone portraits suggests 2 to 8 feet, roughly 0.6 to 2.5 metres.
3. Avoid the 0.5x Ultra Wide for faces. iPhone has a Lens Correction setting, on by default, that straightens Ultra Wide and front-camera photos, but it cannot undo the effect of standing too close.

Light: face a window

The most flattering free light is a large window on an overcast day, or a window that isn’t in direct sun.

• Face the window, or turn slightly away from it, so the light falls across the face from the front and side. The side further from the window falls into a soft shadow, which gives the face shape.
• Don’t stand with your back to the window. LinkedIn warns against it: the face goes dark and the background blows out.
• Turn off overhead lights and avoid midday sun. Harsh light from above puts deep shadows under the eyes, nose and chin. Outdoors, open shade or the hour before sunset does the window’s job.
• Mixed light shows. A warm lamp on one side of the face and daylight on the other looks odd in the photo. Use one kind of light.

Background

Keep it plain: a painted wall, a clean door, open sky or a simple corner of a building. LinkedIn recommends a solo shot with a plain background. Step the person a few paces away from the wall so it falls softly out of focus and their shadow doesn’t land on it.

Portrait mode blurs the background more. Apple’s Portrait mode guide explains that the Camera app tells you when you are too close, too far or in too little light, and you can change the amount of blur after the photo is taken. Check the edges of hair and glasses, where the blur sometimes slips.

Height, angle and the pose

1. Camera at or just above eye level. From below, a face looks heavy at the jaw. From slightly above, the face looks open and the jawline is clean.
2. Turn the shoulders, not the face. Angle the body a little away from the camera and keep the face toward it.
3. Forehead toward the lens. Hurley’s best-known tip is to push the face slightly forward and down, which defines the jawline and stops a double chin. It feels strange and looks right.
4. Squint with the lower lids, a little. Wide eyes read as nervous. Hurley calls a slight squint with the lower lids the “squinch”.
5. Breathe out, and take a lot. Professionals shoot dozens of frames for one headshot. The keeper is often the frame just after a laugh.

Taking it yourself

You need the phone to stay still at eye height and something to fire the shutter.

• A stand. A small tripod with a phone clamp, or a stack of books on a shelf. Set it at eye level, a couple of metres away.
• The timer. In the Camera app, swipe up above the shutter, tap the timer, and choose 3, 5 or 10 seconds. Apple’s camera guide has the steps. Use 10 seconds: it is long enough to sit down and settle.
• An Apple Watch. The Camera Remote app shows the iPhone’s view on your wrist and fires the shutter, with the iPhone within about 10 metres. You can check the framing before each frame.

Ask a friend if you can. It is easier to relax when someone else is pressing the button, and they can check the crop. Give them this page.