LinkedIn: Professional Photo

You don’t need to pay a professional photographer to take a picture of you, however you do need to make sure your photograph looks professional. One recent study found that LinkedIn profiles with a picture are seven times more likely to be reviewed and another eye-tracking study found that some recruiters spend up to 19 seconds on your picture alone, so making sure it is solid is important!

• Take a picture specifically for LinkedIn. Don’t re-use a picture from a special event where you looked nice. While you want to look your best, it’s not about how great you looked at that wedding last year, it’s about presenting a polished, professional image appropriate for your intended field. Update the photo every few years so it is a current reflection of you.
• Dress appropriately. If you are going into a very formal field where you would be dressing in a suit every day, you should dress that way for your photo. However, even if you are going into an extremely casual environment where you will wear shorts and a t-shirt to work, you should still dress “up” for this photo. That doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit, but a collared shirt for men or blouse for women is appropriate. Keep it to solid colors; avoid bold patterns and colors. No hats, sunglasses, or big jewelry.
• Indoors or outdoors? Indoors is generally better. You can usually control both the background and lighting better indoors.
• How do I stand? You want to end up with a nice professional photo, not something that could be mistaken for a police mug shot! Stand about 6 feet away from your background (so you don’t cast a shadow on the background). Stand with your shoulders at a 45-degree angle to the camera and turn your head to face the camera.
• Lighting should be even and come from the front. This will ensure you don’t have any dark shadows under your eyes (from too much overhead light) and will help define the features of your face to create a more pleasing image. Ideally the main source of light will be slightly higher than shoulder height, parallel to your shoulders and aimed straight at your chest. When you turn your head to face the camera, this should place the light at the right angle to illuminate you properly and place something called a “catchlight” in your eye. That’s the tiny reflection of your light source that puts the little twinkle in your eye and helps bring the image to life.
• Ideally, you should use a white background. The color scheme of LinkedIn is white, so having a white background helps your image blend into the page in a natural way. Getting a bright, pure white background can be difficult for non-professionals without really great lighting and usually some processing software. Most cell phones can replace backgrounds fairly well now and cell phone cameras are good enough for a quality LinkedIn photo assuming you follow the tips above. If you can’t get a pure white, any plain color background is certainly fine and will look better than a “not quite white” white. The goal is for the focus of the picture to be on your face, not the background, bad lighting, clothing choice, etc.
• The photo should be reasonably close up, focused on only your head and shoulders. Make sure it is in crisp focus! Leave some room around your head, remembering the photo will be cropped to both round and square formats in different parts of LinkedIn and in the mobile app.