Professional Headshots Guide

A headshot background should support you without competing for attention. That doesn't mean a plain studio wall is required — a softly blurred outdoor background works well too, and I often shoot headshots outdoors around Sluseholmen or Frederiksberg using a longer lens to blur the background into a soft wash of colour behind you.

What matters is consistency of tone: avoid backgrounds with strong colour contrast, visible text, or busy detail that will read as clutter once the image is cropped small for a LinkedIn thumbnail.

Solid colours photograph best, and mid-tones — navy, charcoal, burgundy, forest green — tend to work across the widest range of industries and platforms. Avoid pure white (it can blow out against bright skies) and pure black (it can lose detail against a dark background). If you'd usually wear a blazer or structured layer to a client meeting, bring it; structure reads as more polished at headshot crop distance than a soft t-shirt does.

Bring a backup top in a different but complementary tone in case the first doesn't suit the background as well as expected once we're on location.

The single biggest difference between a good headshot and an awkward one is expression, not lighting or outfit. I aim for a relaxed, slightly warm expression rather than a full performed smile or a completely neutral stare — both of which tend to look either forced or cold in a small crop. A few real questions during the shoot usually produce this far more reliably than asking someone to 'look professional.'

Headshots get viewed small — a LinkedIn thumbnail, a team page grid, a press byline — so I frame tighter and simpler than I would for a portrait gallery: usually chest-up or shoulders-up, camera roughly at eye level, with a slight angle to the body rather than square-on to avoid a flat, mugshot-style look.

I also shoot a small variety of angles and crops within the session so you have options for different platforms — a tighter square crop for LinkedIn, a slightly wider one for a website team page.

If you're a freelancer, consultant or founder, I'll usually suggest a slightly more personal, location-based approach — a headshot at Sluseholmen or in the city centre that hints at your actual working life rather than a totally neutral background. It signals personality without sacrificing professionalism, which matters more the more visible your personal brand is.

For corporate team headshots, consistency across everyone matters more than individuality — same background tone, same framing, same lighting setup for the whole group, so the team page looks unified.

A headshot session runs the same DKK 1,000 for 45 minutes as any other session, including your edited gallery, and that's genuinely enough time — headshots need fewer setup changes than a full portrait shoot, so we can cover two or three looks and background options comfortably within that window.

You'll receive a curated, edited gallery you can pull from for LinkedIn, your website and any press requests, all sized appropriately for digital use. I'd also suggest treating headshots as something to refresh every year or two, rather than a one-time task — a current photo matters more for professional platforms than people tend to assume.