How to Prepare for Your Headshot Session

Stepping in front of a camera for a professional headshot is something most people do rarely — and that infrequency is exactly why it can feel high-stakes. Whether this is your first professional headshot or you're updating images that are years old, the preparation you do in the days and hours before your session has a direct impact on the quality of what you walk away with.

At Photography Shark Studios, based in Rockland, MA, we photograph Boston headshots for professionals across industries: executives and attorneys in Quincy and Braintree, real estate agents and financial advisors throughout the South Shore, actors and performers building their submission materials, and entrepreneurs who need photos that represent their brand. These sessions all share the same preparation fundamentals. Here's what you need to know.

Wardrobe: The Most Important Prep Decision You'll Make

Your outfit communicates before you say a word. In a headshot context — a frame that typically shows your face and upper body — what you're wearing takes up a significant portion of the image and sets the tone for how the entire photo reads.

Stick to solid colors. Patterns — stripes, florals, plaids, graphics — pull the viewer's eye away from your face. A solid jewel tone (navy, forest green, burgundy, slate blue) or a well-chosen neutral (heather grey, warm camel, charcoal) keeps the focus on you. Avoid very bright white, which can overexpose under studio lighting, and avoid black-on-black combinations where your clothing disappears into a dark background.

Dress for the role you want. Think about the context in which your headshot will be used. LinkedIn profile for a financial services role? Business casual to business formal. Personal branding for a creative business? Something with more personality and color. Actor submission materials? Something that reads clearly as your primary type. The photo should match where it's going to live.

Fit matters. Clothes that don't fit properly — baggy shoulders, a collar that gaps, a jacket pulled tight — photograph as evidence of inattention. Well-fitted, well-ironed clothing communicates care and professionalism. It doesn't have to be expensive. It has to fit.

Bring two or three options. Changes take 10 minutes and cost nothing additional in most sessions. Bringing backup options means that if one choice isn't working for lighting or backdrop reasons, you have a solution. It also gives your final gallery more variety if you want to use images in multiple contexts.

Jewelry and accessories. Minimal is usually right. A simple necklace, classic earrings, a watch. Avoid large dangling jewelry that catches light unpredictably, anything with logos, or accessories so statement-making that they compete with your face.

The Week Before: Skin, Sleep, and Hydration

Great skin in a headshot isn't primarily about expensive skincare products. It's about basic habits consistently applied.

Water. Drink considerably more water than usual for three to five days before your session. Hydrated skin has a natural plumpness and glow that photographs well. Dehydrated skin looks flat and dull in photos, and no amount of editing compensates for it cleanly.

Moisturizer. Apply a lightweight moisturizer morning and night in the week before your session. Dry patches, flakiness, and uneven texture all become visible at close-range photographic focus. Smooth, hydrated skin is easier to photograph and requires less post-processing work.

Sleep. Nothing reveals tiredness like a headshot. Dark circles, drooping eyelids, skin that lacks its normal color — all of these are consequences of poor sleep and they're captured with perfect accuracy by a camera. Protect your sleep for the two nights before your session. Seven to eight hours is the minimum you're aiming for.

Sunburn. If your session is in summer, be deliberate about avoiding sunburn or significant tan lines in the week before. A sunburned face is uncomfortable to photograph and difficult to color-grade consistently across a full gallery.

Shaving and waxing. If you shave your face or wax any area that will appear in the photo, do it 24–48 hours before the session, not the morning of. Fresh shaving and waxing often produce redness and irritation that shows up in photos.

Hair and Makeup: Looking Like Yourself at Your Best

The goal isn't to look dramatically different from how you normally look. The goal is to look like the most polished, confident version of your everyday self.

Hair. Get any haircut, trim, or color treatment two weeks before your session, not the day before. New haircuts need a few days to settle and look natural. Style your hair as you would for an important meeting or interview — the context in which your headshot will be viewed. Bring product and styling tools if you're uncertain about maintaining the look through the session.

Makeup for women. Go slightly more deliberate than your everyday application. Photography lighting, particularly studio strobes, softens the appearance of makeup — what looks bold in the mirror often reads as clean and natural in photos. Prioritize even skin tone, defined brows, and eyes that read clearly. A lip color that photographs well in your wardrobe palette completes the look. Bring your makeup to the session for touch-ups.

Makeup for men. Most men come to headshot sessions without any makeup, which is completely appropriate. If you know you have specific skin concerns — redness, uneven tone, visible hyperpigmentation — a small amount of tinted moisturizer can help. I keep a small touch-up kit in the studio for small concerns that show up under lighting.

Glasses. If you wear glasses regularly, bring them to your session. Many clients shoot both with and without glasses to have options. If your glasses have strong lens distortion or heavy frames that draw the eye, discuss this with your photographer in advance. Anti-reflective coating reduces lens glare significantly.

The Morning Of: Setting Yourself Up

Give yourself more time than you think you need before your session. Arriving rushed, stressed, or distracted produces visible tension in photos. The camera is an extremely accurate reader of your internal state.

• Eat a normal meal before your session. Low blood sugar affects energy levels, skin color, and the quality of your expressions.
• Drink water in the morning.
• Take a few minutes of quiet before you walk in the door. Sit in the car, breathe, let the previous part of your day go.
• Arrive 10 minutes early. Use the buffer time to settle into the space, check your hair and outfit, and start to feel at ease before the camera comes out.

Posture: What It Communicates and How to Get It Right

Posture in a headshot communicates confidence, engagement, and presence before the viewer has processed anything else about the image. Slumped or forward-rolled shoulders read as apologetic. Rigidly upright with locked neck muscles reads as uncomfortable. The sweet spot is relaxed and upright simultaneously.

The practical technique: Before each shot, consciously roll your shoulders back and down — away from your ears. Take a breath and release it. This takes three seconds and produces a visible improvement. Do it every time.

Neck elongation: Bring your chin very slightly forward and tilt it slightly down. This sounds counterintuitive, but it creates a cleaner jaw line and more defined neck than pulling the chin back (which creates compression and the appearance of a double chin). Experiment with this in the mirror before your session.

Weight and angle: For standing shots, putting your weight slightly on your back foot creates a more natural, relaxed stance than weight evenly distributed. Angle your body slightly rather than pointing directly at the camera — a 15 to 30 degree turn to one side creates depth and is more flattering for most body types.

Expressions: The Most Important Technical Skill

The quality of your expression is the single most important element in a headshot. A technically perfect photo with a flat or forced expression is a failed headshot.

The problem most people have: When people know they're being photographed, they perform an expression rather than genuinely experiencing one. The result is a "smile" that doesn't reach the eyes, a "confident" expression that reads as stiff, or an "approachable" look that seems put on.

The fix: Practice in the mirror before your session. Specifically, practice the difference between a face that is doing nothing and a face that is genuinely interested or engaged. That micro-difference — eyes that are alive rather than glazed, slight engagement around the corners of the mouth — is the entire ballgame.

During the session, I'll often give prompts to access genuine expressions: think about something you're excited about, recall a recent moment that made you laugh, imagine you've just been asked a question you find genuinely interesting. These techniques aren't tricks — they're access points to authentic expression.

Communicating With Your Photographer

The clearer the picture you give your photographer of what you need, the better the results. Before your session, share:

• What you do professionally and where your headshot will be used
• The tone you're going for (authoritative, approachable, creative, warm)
• Any concerns about specific features (I want to minimize this, I feel most confident when I'm angled this way)
• Reference images — screenshots of headshots you've seen and like, showing the vibe rather than asking your photographer to recreate someone else's look exactly

Good photographers ask good questions before the session starts. If your photographer doesn't ask any of these questions, that's a signal.

What to Expect During the Session

A standard Boston headshots session at Photography Shark Studios runs 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the package. The first few minutes are typically a warm-up — getting settled, taking a few frames to establish what the light is doing and how your wardrobe is reading. Don't judge the session by the first ten minutes.

We'll review images periodically during the session, not just at the end. This gives you real-time information about what's working and lets us adjust before committing to a direction that isn't serving you.

Plan for three to five wardrobe changes if you've brought options, each taking 10 minutes or less.

After the Session

Edited galleries are typically delivered within two to three weeks. When reviewing your proofs, try to look at the images the way your intended audience would — not as yourself evaluating your own appearance, but as a professional in your industry seeing this photo for the first time. Which images communicate competence and personality? Which ones would make you want to know more about this person?

Engage a trusted colleague or mentor to help you select finals if you can. We are reliably poor judges of our own headshots.

Related reading: For a more granular day-of preparation checklist, see the morning-of checklist before your headshot session.

Ready to Book Your Session?

Preparation is the difference between walking away with headshots that transform your professional materials and walking away with mediocre images you'll need to retake in a year. Photography Shark Studios brings over a decade of experience photographing professionals across Boston and the South Shore.

Book your headshot session today and let's create images that work as hard as you do.

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