How to Turn Selfie to Professional Headshot

man in black suit jacket smiling

To turn a selfie into a professional headshot using tools, you can follow these steps, which are consistent across several headshot generators online & AI:

Best Tools to Convert Selfie to Professional Headshot:

What’s a Professional Headshot:

A professional headshot is a carefully taken, high-quality photo of a person’s face and shoulders, used for commercial and professional purposes such as business profiles, social media like LinkedIn, and career marketing, emphasizing trustworthiness, friendliness, and competence.

Selfie vs. Professional Headshot:
A selfie is a casual, self-taken photo often using a smartphone, while a professional headshot is a meticulously crafted photo taken by a skilled photographer, using proper lighting, posing, and editing or an online/AI headshot generator software to present a polished and professional image.


How to Turn Make a Professional Headshot Manually

woman sitting on chair in studio using professional camera taking a professional headshot
Photo by Fernando Gomez Cortes

To create a professional headshot manually, focus on key elements like composition, lighting, background, and posture. Here’s a comprehensive guide to achieve high-quality results without relying on automated tools:

1. Set Up Your Background

  • Choose a Neutral Background: Plain, solid colors such as light gray, white, or soft blues work best. Avoid bright, busy, or patterned backgrounds, as these can distract from your face.
  • Control the Space: If shooting indoors, clear any clutter from behind you. Outdoors, look for a wall, greenery, or another simple backdrop that won’t take attention away from you.

2. Optimize Lighting

  • Natural Lighting: Find a source of indirect, natural light, such as a large window. Face the light source to avoid shadows across your face.
  • Soft Lighting: If using artificial light, opt for soft, diffused light by positioning a lamp with a shade or using a softbox.
  • Avoid Overhead Light: Light directly above can cast shadows under your eyes and chin, so aim for light at eye level for a balanced look.

3. Set Up Your Camera

  • Use a High-Resolution Camera: Modern smartphones or DSLR cameras work well, but set the resolution to the highest possible setting for clear results.
  • Camera Position: Position the camera at eye level, about 3–5 feet away. Avoid high or low angles, as they can distort your appearance.
  • Frame the Shot: A professional headshot typically captures from just above the head to the middle of the chest. Leave a bit of space above your head, centering your face within the frame.

4. Get the Right Pose and Expression

  • Posture: Stand or sit with your back straight and shoulders relaxed. Slightly angle your body away from the camera while keeping your head facing forward for a natural, professional look.
  • Expression: Aim for a neutral, friendly expression. A slight smile can convey warmth and approachability without being overly casual.
  • Avoid Over-Posing: Simple, relaxed positioning appears most genuine. Avoid crossing arms or leaning too much to one side, as these can create tension in the photo.

5. Dress Appropriately

  • Professional Attire: Wear simple, professional clothing suited to your industry. Neutral tones like navy, black, gray, or white often work best for headshots.
  • Avoid Patterns: Stick to solid colors as patterns can detract from your face. Avoid logos or distracting accessories as well.
  • Grooming: Ensure your hair is neatly styled, and minimize shiny or oily skin by using translucent powder or blotting paper if necessary.

6. Camera Settings and Shot Adjustment

  • Manual Mode (if available): If using a DSLR, set your camera to portrait mode to create a shallow depth of field that focuses on your face while softly blurring the background.
  • Adjust Exposure: Ensure your face is well-lit and avoid overexposing. If you have control over ISO, keep it low (100-400) to avoid grainy photos.
  • Multiple Takes: Take several shots from different angles and with slight variations in expression, so you have options to choose from later.

7. Edit the Photo

  • Basic Adjustments: Use software like Adobe Lightroom or free options like GIMP to adjust brightness, contrast, and sharpness slightly for clarity.
  • Skin Smoothing (Optional): Lightly retouch to reduce minor blemishes, but avoid heavy smoothing for a natural look.
  • Crop and Resize: Finalize the crop to head and shoulders, maintaining a balanced frame that emphasizes your face.

By focusing on these essential elements, you’ll be able to create a high-quality headshot that communicates professionalism and is suitable for resumes, LinkedIn, or other business needs.


How to Turn Selfie to Professional Headshot Online

woman portrait before selfie and after professional headshot using Canva ProfilePhoto app

Turning a selfie into a professional headshot can be done entirely online using a few accessible tools. Here’s a guide to doing it with free or affordable online platforms:

1. Start with a Quality Selfie

  • Use a high-resolution photo with good lighting.
  • Aim for a neutral expression and a clean, straight-on or slightly angled pose.

2. Edit the Background

  • Remove Background:
    • Remove.bg: A free, user-friendly tool that automatically removes backgrounds in seconds.
    • Canva: Offers a background remover for Pro users, allowing easy replacement with solid colors or subtle gradients.
  • Replace with a Professional Background:
    • Canva or PhotoRoom: Add a neutral color like gray, white, or soft blue. These platforms allow you to drag and drop a new background onto the image easily.

3. Enhance Lighting and Adjustments

  • Photo Editing Tools:
    • Pixlr or Fotor: Use these free tools to adjust brightness, contrast, exposure, and shadows. Increase brightness slightly, balance highlights, and adjust contrast to sharpen the look.
  • Lightroom (Online Version): Adjust the shadows, highlights, and overall exposure to give the photo a balanced, well-lit appearance.

4. Retouch and Polish

  • Retouching Tools:
    • FaceTune Online: Allows for basic skin smoothing, blemish removal, and fine-tuning without making it look unnatural. The free version offers essential retouching tools.
    • BeFunky: Another great online editor that has blemish and wrinkle removal tools to smooth out skin subtly.
  • Eyes and Details:
    • Use the sharpen tool slightly around the eyes to make them pop.

5. Crop for Headshot Framing

  • Canva or Pixlr: Crop the image to include only the top of your head to the middle of your chest, leaving a bit of space above your head. Both tools make it easy to center and frame the image properly.

6. Dress Up Digitally (Optional)

  • If you’re not in professional attire, some tools like PhotoRoom have options to add a digital blazer or collared shirt, giving a formal look to a casual photo.

7. Final Touches and Export

  • Resize: Resize the photo to a standard headshot dimension, like 1200×1600 pixels, for online profiles.
  • Download: Download in high resolution for a crisp, professional look.

Recommended Online Platforms (All Accessible from a Browser)

  • Remove.bg for quick background removal
  • Canva for background and cropping
  • Pixlr or Fotor for lighting and color adjustments
  • FaceTune or BeFunky for subtle retouching

These tools together will allow you to create a polished, professional-looking headshot without needing to install any software!


How to Convert Selfie to Professional Headshot Using HeadshotPro AI

AI headshots examples generated by HeadshotPro

HeadshotPro AI is a convenient online tool designed to transform selfies into professional headshots. Here’s how it works and what you can expect:

How HeadshotPro Works

  1. Go to HeadshorPro AI
  2. Upload Your Photos: Start by uploading 12 to 20 varied selfies or existing photos of yourself. This helps the AI learn your features more accurately, resulting in higher quality headshots.
  3. Choose Style Preferences: HeadshotPro allows users to select background settings, attire styles, and other preferences to create the ideal look for corporate profiles, LinkedIn, resumes, or social media.
  4. AI Processing: The AI then processes the photos to enhance facial clarity, lighting, and color grading, creating a polished, photorealistic headshot. The turnaround time is around 1 to 3 hours, depending on the chosen package.
  5. Download and Use: Once ready, you’ll receive a set of headshots (40, 100, or 200, based on the package) that you can download. Users also have full commercial rights to use these images for personal or professional branding.

Additional Features

  • Customization Options: You can tweak the background and attire or adjust lighting and colors to match specific professional needs.
  • Privacy and Ownership: Uploaded photos are processed securely, and you retain ownership of all generated images. HeadshotPro deletes photos within seven days unless manually deleted sooner.

Packages and Pricing

  • Basic ($29): 40 headshots, four styles, delivered in three hours.
  • Professional ($39): 100 headshots with ten unique styles, ready in two hours.
  • Executive ($59): 200 headshots, twenty styles, available in one hour.

These AI-generated headshots are ideal for remote teams, HR, and individuals needing professional imagery without a traditional photoshoot, making it a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to studio photography.


How to Convert Selfie to Professional Headshot Using Aragon AI

Aragon AI homepage with AI generated headshot examples

Aragon AI provides an efficient way to transform selfies into professional-quality headshots by leveraging AI technology developed in collaboration with researchers from Meta and Microsoft. Here’s a step-by-step guide on using Aragon AI and its key features:

How to Use Aragon AI

  1. Go to Aragon AI
  2. Upload Photos: Start by uploading 6–12 photos. Aragon AI recommends diverse images to capture a variety of angles and expressions, helping the AI model recreate an accurate likeness. For best results, upload well-lit photos without heavy makeup or accessories, focusing on clear, front-facing angles.
  3. Set Preferences: Aragon AI offers customization options for backgrounds, attire styles, and facial expressions. You can choose from settings such as corporate or creative looks, select solid or gradient backgrounds, and adjust minor details to reflect your preferred style.
  4. AI Processing: The AI takes about 30–60 minutes to generate a set of headshots, depending on the selected plan. Once processed, you receive several headshots with variations in poses, lighting, and backgrounds, giving a wide range of professional looks.
  5. Select and Download: After reviewing, you can download your chosen headshots in high resolution (2048×2560 pixels), suitable for platforms like LinkedIn, corporate websites, resumes, and other professional uses.

Features and Benefits

  • Speed: Aragon AI’s headshot generation is quick, providing finished photos in as little as 30 minutes with the Premium plan.
  • Quality and Versatility: The headshots are generated at high resolution and include a variety of looks, making them ideal for different professional applications.
  • Data Privacy: Aragon AI ensures all uploaded images are encrypted and not used to train future models, maintaining user privacy.

Pricing Options

Aragon AI offers several pricing plans:

  • Starter: $35 for 20 headshots with a 2-hour processing time.
  • Basic: $45 for 60 headshots in 1 hour.
  • Premium: $75 for 100 headshots within 30 minutes.

The plans are monthly, offering flexibility and affordability compared to traditional photography sessions. Users benefit from an efficient and economical solution for creating professional headshots suitable for online profiles and branding purposes.

Aragon AI provides a practical alternative to studio photography, especially for those needing fast, versatile headshots across different backgrounds and poses while maintaining high-quality standards for professional settings. This makes it a popular choice for professionals seeking to enhance their digital profiles quickly and affordably.