How to Take Your Own Headshot

As a Marketing Director, I often need headshots from people. And this can be a huge struggle!

Believe it or not, you don’t need to find a professional photographer or schedule a session. I put together this quick one-minute TikTok video to show how easy it is to take your own headshot from the comfort of your own home or office:

@kellyschuknecht

Is it time for a new headshot? Here’s how to take one yourself in 5 simple steps. #tips #noexcuses #headshot #marketingtips #marketing

♬ original sound – kellyschuknecht

Here are the steps:

  1. Prop up your phone. I have mine propped up on my computer. My phone has a pop socket, so it was easy to hang on the top of the screen. If you don’t have a pop socket, simply prop your phone up on some books or whatever you have around.
  2. Set the camera on your phone to Portrait mode. Portrait mode focuses on the subject (you!) and blurs out the background slightly. You can even adjust the amount of blurriness in the background after you take the photo, if you want.
  3. Adjust your hair and clothing as needed. You’ll probably need to do this several times between photos, but make sure to get your hair in place, tame any flyaways, smooth out your clothes, etc.
  4. Set the 3-second timer. This will give you time to get in place for each photo. If you need to move further away from the camera, you can set the 10-second timer.
  5. Take lots of photos! This is key. Take lots and lots of photos. Take as many as you can. Move the camera around. Adjust the background slightly. Move closer and further away from the camera. Try sitting, standing, whatever, but take as many photos as you can so you have several to work with when you’re done. You can always delete the photos you don’t like, but the more pictures you take, the better your chances of having at least one that you’ll like.

That’s it! Once you’re done with your photo shoot, open up the pictures on your phone and see what you got. You can resize them, add filters, change the level of blurriness of the background, etc.

Here are a couple I took in my office:

These photos can be used for social media images, website bio pages, presentation “about me” pages, etc.

Published by Kelly Schuknecht

Kelly Schuknecht is a marketer with a background in the publishing industry. She is passionate about all things related to books and loves helping authors navigate the world of social media for book promotion. She recently launched the course Marketing Your Book on TikTok.

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