What Colors Should I Wear For Professional Headshots?
If you are here, you may be wondering what Colors to wear for your professional headshots.
We have some important tips about what to wear for headshots, and some rules. We will talk about what to bring, what not to bring, and how to prepare your clothing for your headshot session. Most importantly, we will answer the common question:
What colors look best on camera for corporate headshots?
We’ll go over 6 tips on what colors to wear for headshots:
Best colors for every skin tone (and what works for everyone)
Colors to choose depending on your profession
Colors to avoid for your headshots (and why)
What about patterns and prints?
Do professionals headshots in Orlando have different rules?
When it’s ok to break the rules
Let’s get started and go over everything you need to know before you come for your corporate professional headshot session in Orlando!
Firstly, it’s important to know why your outfit colors matters for professional headshots.
Color has a huge impact on how others respond to your headshot. A potential client or peer will often make an instant judgement about whether they like you and can trust you based on seeing your professional portrait (often unconsciously). Colors evoke emotion and communicate things we may not even be aware of. Therefore, choosing the right color can be pretty important for your online image!
Colors can either flatter someone or make them look tired or even sickly! We want your colors to be complimentary to your skin tone, hair color, and features.
Color speaks to your personality! Our job is to capture who you are and what you have to offer in the corporate or business world.
Headshots should show your personality
This delightful professional had a joyful personality, yet needed to balance her vibrancy with a corporate business look. We opted for a deep gray backdrop in order to ground her professional portrait in the business world, and she chose a bold pink blouse and fun earrings so that her friendly personality shone through.
The best colors for headshots for every skin tone
If you just want to be safe, relatively conservative, and wear a good color for your headshot, here are tones that work with nearly every skin tone, personality, and profession. These colors are always our first recommendation and then we talk about adding in a bit more personality from there if you’d like to see something a bit different for your personal portrait.
Black
While it might seem like black is a negative or “dark” color, it actually photographs very well
Black is a clean, crisp, highly-professional look.
It will make you appear like an expert in your field. It also is a strong color choice for headshots, so this color works best for confident corporate professionals.
Black is the most flattering color to wear for headshots. It will hide insecurities and draw attention to any skin that is showing. This means, for instance, a long-sleeved v-neck will create a look that is flattering and only draws attention to a long neckline.
White
If you are confident in your body type, white flatters all skin tones and hair colors.
White keeps your coloring true, and can highlight your eye color very well.
White is clean and crisp-looking.
Tip: Be careful to choose nice fabrics so your outfit doesn’t appear cheap or unprofessional, and make sure your white is very clean and free of wrinkles.
White is a friendly color, but can also yield a professional corporate look.
A shade of medium to deep blue
Blue is a nice neutral that looks nice on nearly everyone.
Make sure the blue is not too light or too dark. If the blue is pastel, it will wash out most skin tones - if it’s too dark, it will look black in your headshot.
Blue communicates cool confidence and approachability
Jewel tones
Rich maroon, deep purple, emerald green, and even warm deep tones like rust or olive green look good on most skin types.
Gray
Gray is a nice neutral. Choose a gray that is lighter or darker depending on what you feel represents your personality best.
Here are some examples of good color ideas for headshots that work for nearly every skin tone:
2. What colors should you pick for your profession?
Clothing for corporate business professionals
Choose a relatively neutral color for your headshot.
Add a blazer or fitted jacket if you prefer, neutral in color tone.
Your clothing should not stand out as the main focus for corporate professional headshots. Avoid bright colors, patterns, loud prints, or dynamic shapes.
Go for black, gray, medium blue, neutral green. The colors should be medium to dark in tone.
This advice is particularly useful for large company headshot events, where you business needs to feel unified.
Other professions that we recommend neutral dark tones for: technology company, banking, lending, church staff, and other companies which have a large pool of employees.
Here are examples of corporate headshots with a blazer for vest - a fitted blazer works well for men and women! Headshots with a blazer or vest are very professional and perfect for the corporate world.
Colors to wear for doctor headshot, dentist, etc.
White! It’s clean, crisp, and professional, and will communicate professionalism.
Colors to wear for lawyers and law firm headshots
Keep your color tones dark and powerful. Dark colors communicate expertise. Black, deep green deep blue, or deep red are good choices.
Avoid earthy tones or colors that are too warm (red being the one exception)
Here is an example of a law firm’s headshot session.
Men should dress highly professionally, and women need dark colors with fine fabrics. Vests for men add even more professionalism. This law firm decided to avoid ties for the men, however, ties would also be a very appropriate choice for attorney headshots.
Headshot outfit colors for realtors, small business owners, and entrepreneurs
You can go with a standard neutral - these tend to be the most flattering outfit colors and work for any profession.
However - you can also add more personality to your headshot so your brand will stand out.
For instance, if your brand is sunflowers, you would want your outfits to feel light and sunny, warm tones, and possibly even a print. Choose deep orange, bold yellow, or cream, and avoid dark tones like black.
For small business owners, your brand and voice is a huge part of your business, so pick outfits that flatter you and your communicate your brand.
Your client base is expecting to work with a person (instead of just a company), so make sure you pick an outfit that has personality and will make you stand out!
What to wear for artist and musician headshots
Here, we get to have fun!
The more your outfit stands out, the better! Try things on and wear lots of color, shape, and texture.
Add accessories that compliment your personality.
Still avoid pastel colors, and neon colors, as these never photograph well.
Here are some examples of outfit ideas for realtors, small business owners, artists, and musicians - stand out with personality-rich outfits.
3. Colors to avoid for headshots
Pale colors and pastels.
Very light tones usually wash out in the camera, and also can wash you out! Do not bring pale yellow, light blue, light purple, light pink, etc.
The only exception would be a rich cream. While it may require some special lighting so that it doesn’t photograph white, cream is a beautiful color if it works well with yoru skin tone.
Neon colors and very bright colors
The camera doesn’t know what to do with these colors! You can choose bold colors, just avoid the move into neon tones.
For lack of a better term, “70’s colors”
Pea green, earthy rust, and brown tones do not flatter skin tones, and can even cause you to look sickly.
4. Should you wear prints and patterns for headshots?
Patterned fabric for professional headshots
While we generally recommend colid colors for headshot photos, medium to small prints for headshots are ok, such as pin stripes and plaid for men.
Do not bring tiny patterns, like ribbing or micro plaid. Tiny patterns confuse the camera lens, especially when the colors are nearly the same (or the same, as in the case of a ribbed sweater).
What about wearing prints for headshots?
For corporate headshots, avoid printed fabric, as this type of headshot should have you and your smile as the focus, rather than the outfit.
Printed fabrics command a lot of attention. Wearing prints is ok, if it’s in line with your brand and message.
Printed fabric works great, especially when paired with a solid color.
Here are some examples of prints and patterns that worked great for these professional headshots:
5. Does Orlando have different rules for headshot outfits?
It depends!
If you have a job that is specific to Orlando, we might recommend wearing brighter colors or incorporating a pattern that has vibrancy. Orlando clients respond well to color!
If you are having your portrait taken outdoors against palm trees or Orlando architecture, we recommend a solid color - ideally blue or purple so that the color doesn’t clash with the greens and foliage.
If you are part of a larger corporation that is not based in Orlando, FL, we recommend sticking with something neutral and classic.
6. When is it ok to break the rules for headshot colors and outfits?
Whenever you feel like it would be the best choice for you!
Ultimately, your headshots - whether corporate business, small business, and everything inbetween - should reflect your personality. Your online image should make you feel well-represented in a way that also communicates the message of your company or small business.
Common rules that are usually ok to break for your outfit color if you feel passionately about them: pastel colors or loud prints. The effect will hold, but if you are ok with the response of your color choice (for instance, pastel colors that are very light will wash out your skin tone and photograph lighter than you may want. But if that shirt is your absolute favorite, go for it!
It’s ok to break the outfit rules especially if you have booked a two-outfit session. Make one of your outfits more standard, and then with your second outfit, have fun!
We hope this article has helped you know what colors to wear for headshots.
If you have more questions or would like to schedule your headshot in Orlando, FL, get in touch with us! We would love the opportunity to be your corporate headshot photographer.