15 Incredibly Useful Tutorials On Headshot Photography

A headshot is a type of portrait photo which shows a person’s face and includes their shoulders as well. Even though photographing headshots seems pretty easy and straightforward, there are some tricks you need to know in order to make your clients truly satisfied with your work.

Headshots are really important because they are usually used in a professional context to create a good first impression and they need to be shot and edited in an impeccable way. Professional headshots can be done for many reasons like, business headshots, job profiles, corporate headshots, acting headshots for acting profiles, LinkedIn profiles, etc. and depending on the roles, some people may have several studio headshots with a variety of styles and backgrounds for specific types of profiles.

Check out the following 15 links if you want to learn more about headshot photography!

female headshot
Photo by Allison Heine

Tips & Tricks On Shooting Headshots

1. 5 Tips for Photographing Great Headshots – In this simple article on headshots we have covered how to separate the subject from the background, how to choose proper lighting and how to pose your clients and help them pick the right clothes.

2. Our Favorite Tips For Achieving Winning Headshots Using Speedlights –  In case you want to know what kind of lighting setup you need for great headshots and how to use a speedlight and diffuse or bounce the light, you will find this article extremely useful.

3. How to Capture Perfect Headshots: 6 Useful Tips – Composition and post-processing matter a lot in any type of portraiture, including business portraits for business purposes and headshot photography. Read this article to learn more about these additional factors you need to consider when photographing headshots.

4. The 7 Keys to Mastering The Headshot – For more tips on posing and a few examples of headshots in color and in black and white, check out this article.  It also explains how to choose the proper lens, right focal length and avoid barrel distortion for a resulting good headshot.

headshot of woman
Photo by Maria Badasian

Detailed Tutorials

5.  Setting Up a Successful Headshot Session – If you're a beginner when it comes to portrait photography in general, look no further! This detailed tutorial (it has two parts) explains everything you need to know about photographing amazing headshots. It also explains how to have engaging consultations with headshot clients when taking headshots.

6. Mastering Headshot Photography: 17 Tips for Success  – This is another in-depth tutorial which comes with many examples of stunning headshots done outdoors. This tutorial is quite technical and it will help you choose the best lenses for headshot photography.

7. Headshot Photography: How To Take A Professional Portrait – In this well-organized article on headshots you can find useful tips on everything from choosing the right camera settings to picking the perfect backdrop for your client.

8. Headshot Photography Tips – This is one of the longest and most elaborate articles on headshots! If you like truly detailed instructions, take your time to read this incredible tutorial that covers every single aspect of photographing and processing headshots.

9. The Headshot Setup That Will Save You Time  – If you're a professional headshot photographer who wants to know how to quickly arrange 3 different headshot setups that can fit various clients and their needs, check out this insightful article.

headshot

Video Tutorials

10. How To Shoot Headshots – Watching video tutorials on headshot photography can definitely speed up your learning process! This 8-minute video offers some great tips on the proper choice of lighting and background for the photo shoot. Natural light and a light coloured or white background is usually preferred.

11. How to Shoot Great Portraits And Headshots With Just One Light – If you're on a budget but still want to dedicate yourself to portraiture, definitely watch this 5-minute video! You'll learn that don't need any elaborate lighting in order to capture eye-catching headshots.

12. Headshot Crew Tutorials – These 3 tutorials are geared towards more advanced portrait photographers and they explain several lighting setups for headshot photography and how to pull authentic facial expressions from your subjects.

headshot of man
Photo by Andre Hunter

Editing Headshots

13. How To Edit Corporate Headshots In Lightroom – Corporate headshots need to be flawless! If you're struggling with editing this type of headshots, make sure to check out this article which explains the author's workflow in Lightroom.

14. A Guide To Effectively And Efficiently Editing Large Batches Of Headshots – This is another really useful tutorial geared towards headshot photographers who shoot large batches of headshots and need to edit them in a consistent way.

15. How To Retouch A Professional Headshot In Photoshop CC –  After you've done editing headshots in Lightroom, you'll probably want to move to Photoshop for additional touch-ups.  This amazing tutorial explains every step of editing headshots in Photoshop in the most detailed way.

We hope that these tutorials helped you learned something new about headshot photography! No matter if you're an amateur or experienced headshot photographer, always remember that the most important tip for a headshot photographer is to keep practicing as practice makes perfect!

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About Author

Jasenka is a photographer with a background in web design. You can find out more about her on her website, see some of her newest images at 500px or get to know her better here.

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