Don't wear this, please...

What Not to Wear for Your Headshot

I’ve written separately about what works for men and women. This post is the other half: the things that consistently cause problems, regardless of who’s wearing them.

None of this is about fashion. It’s about what a camera and a strobe do to fabric.

Busy patterns

Tight stripes, small checks, herringbone, and dense micro-patterns can produce a moiré effect — a shimmering, wavy interference pattern created when the fabric’s repeating detail collides with the camera sensor’s pixel grid. It’s ugly, it’s distracting, and it is very difficult to remove afterward.

Even when moiré doesn’t appear, a busy pattern competes with your face for attention. In a photograph whose entire job is your face, that’s a loss.

Solids and broad, simple patterns. Every time.

Logos and branding

Visible logos date a photograph and can create problems you didn’t anticipate. If you change employers, that branded polo makes the image unusable. If you’re an actor, a logo is a distraction and some casting platforms explicitly discourage them.

The exception is deliberate corporate branding — company polo, branded jacket — when the images are specifically for that company’s website. Tell me in advance and we’ll plan around it.

Pure white and pure black — with a caveat

Neither is forbidden, but both are harder than people expect.

Pure white reflects light back into the face and can blow out to a flat, detail-free shape. Off-white, cream, and light gray do the same job with more forgiveness.

Pure black absorbs light and can lose all shape, leaving your head floating on a dark void. Against a dark background it disappears entirely.

Both can be lit well — a black shirt on a dark set is a deliberate, classic look — but it needs to be planned rather than accidental. Mid-tones are the safe default.

Neon and highly saturated brights

Strong fluorescent colors bounce onto your skin. A neon green shirt puts a green cast under your chin, and correcting it in editing shifts your skin tone too. Rich saturated colors are wonderful; neon is a different thing.

Ill-fitting clothing

Loose fabric bunches at the shoulder and reads as sloppy. Too tight pulls and creases across the chest. Since a headshot is cropped to roughly the collarbone, every fit problem in that small zone is magnified.

Try the shirt on and look at your shoulders in a mirror before you pack it.

Wrinkles

Studio lighting is directional and unforgiving. A wrinkled collar is obvious in the final image and tedious to fix. Press or steam everything, and bring your clothes on hangers rather than folded in a bag.

Distracting jewelry

Large statement earrings, chunky necklaces, and anything highly reflective pull the eye away from your face and can flare under strobes. Keep it small and simple. Your face is the subject.

A few more to avoid

• Sunglasses on the head. Obvious, but it happens.

• Heavy shimmer or highlighter. Catches studio light and turns into shine.

• Recent sunburn. An Arizona-specific hazard. Reschedule rather than shoot through it — sunburn is genuinely difficult to correct without making skin look plastic.

• Tan lines at the neckline, for the same reason.

• Brand-new shoes or clothes you haven’t worn. Being uncomfortable shows in your posture.

When in doubt

Bring it anyway. It costs nothing to have an extra option hanging on the rack, and I’d much rather look at it under the actual lights than have you leave it at home on a guess.

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