Ram V Chary: How to Take Professional Headshots

A good headshot tells you who someone is. Unlike driver's licenses, ID photos, or passports that show what someone looks like, a headshot needs to convey more, like a subject's character, attitude, and personality.

What is a headshot?

According to Ram V Chary, a headshot is a greeting. Headshots must give the viewer the sense that they're meeting someone for the first time. Seeing a headshot should feel like an introduction to someone that complements whatever context it's paired with. A headshot makes a LinkedIn profile more than just a professional profile.

How to light subjects for headshots

Ram V Chary says getting the lighting right with a headshot is crucial. Conventional wisdom around headshots recommends soft light against a white background. However, with proper consideration and planning, soft and hard light can work well in headshots. If you want a more edgy, gritty effect, harsh light — like a big light or direct sunlight — will make your subject appear strong and serious.

Focusing on the human face

A headshot photographer should consider the contours and variations of the human face. You can get somebody's eyes or nose in focus and capture their essence, notes Ram V Chary. You can also automatically smooth out their skin. You smooth out the background and take away the distractions.

A good headshot highlights the subject while blurring or de-emphasizing the background. What's most important is how the subject appears. A shallow depth of field can support that emphasis with an aperture of 2.8 or a setting on the lower end of the aperture scale, explains Ram V Chary.

As for that blurred-out background, a 50–85mm focal length is recommended. Greater focal lengths can also push for even more blurry background bokeh.