Wear black.
Unless you shouldn’t.
Wear blue because it looks trustworthy.
Unless it makes you look like you’re about to update your company’s cybersecurity policy.
Avoid red because it’s too aggressive.
Except when red looks absolutely brilliant on you.
There is no single “best” colour to wear for a professional headshot.
And that’s actually good news.
Because choosing what to wear for your headshot isn’t really about following a list of photography rules. It’s about finding colours that work with your skin tone, suit your personality, fit how you want to present yourself and photograph well in the setting we’re using.
So, if you’re staring into your wardrobe before a headshot session wondering whether navy is sensible, green is too much or black is playing it safe, here’s what I’d suggest.
Start with the colours you already know suit you
Your headshot session probably isn’t the ideal moment to experiment with a colour you’ve never worn before.
Think about the clothes you reach for when you want to feel good.
Which shirt gets compliments?
Which jumper makes you feel particularly comfortable?
What colour do you wear when you need to walk into a room feeling confident?
Those are useful clues.
The aim of a good headshot isn’t to transform you into some polished corporate version of yourself. It should still look and feel like you.
If you never wear bright orange in real life, buying an orange shirt specifically for your photos probably isn’t going to make you feel more relaxed in front of the camera.
Confidence usually photographs better than clever wardrobe theory.
Mid-tones are often a very safe place to start
If you want a straightforward answer, medium-depth colours tend to work very well for headshots.
Think navy, forest green, burgundy, teal, muted blue, earthy brown or charcoal.
They usually give us enough separation from your skin without becoming the loudest thing in the photograph.
This is particularly useful because, in most professional headshots, your face should be where the viewer’s attention goes first.
A strong colour can absolutely work, but your clothes shouldn’t accidentally become the main character.
Black can look great, but it isn’t automatically the best choice
Black is popular because it feels simple, smart and safe.
And sometimes it is perfect.
A black top can produce a clean, confident portrait, particularly with carefully controlled lighting and the right background.
But black can also lose detail, especially if we’re photographing you against a dark background. A black jacket over a black top can turn into one large dark shape, particularly when the finished image is viewed at LinkedIn-profile-photo size.
If you love wearing black, bring it.
I’d just suggest bringing another option as well.
White needs a little thought too
A crisp white shirt can look fantastic.
It feels fresh, simple and professional, and it can work particularly well for people whose normal working wardrobe includes one.
The potential problem is brightness.
The human eye is naturally drawn towards the brightest part of an image. If you’re wearing a large area of brilliant white, I need to make sure the lighting, background and exposure keep the attention on your face rather than your shirt.
Again, this isn’t a reason to avoid white.
It’s simply something I’ll take into account when I photograph you.
Blue is popular for a reason
There’s a reason you see an enormous amount of blue in professional photography.
Navy and mid-blue are easy to wear, work with a wide range of skin tones and tend to sit comfortably within most professional settings.
Blue also works particularly well if you want to look approachable without feeling too casual.
But you don’t have to choose blue simply because you’ve heard that blue supposedly communicates trust.
Your headshot shouldn’t be a psychological experiment.
If you look terrible in blue and brilliant in green, wear green.
Be careful with colours that are very close to your skin tone
Beige, pale peach, tan and some soft pinks can work beautifully, but occasionally they’re so close to someone’s complexion that everything starts to merge together.
That doesn’t mean you need huge contrast.
It just means it’s worth looking at the whole combination rather than considering the colour of the clothing in isolation.
The background matters too.
A cream jumper photographed against a warm beige background creates a completely different portrait from the same jumper photographed against dark grey.
That’s one reason I often suggest bringing several wardrobe choices to a session.
We can see what actually works rather than trying to solve everything beforehand.
Strong colours can be brilliant for personal branding
Professional doesn’t have to mean conservative.
If colour is genuinely part of your personality or brand, use it.
A bright yellow jacket, rich red dress or bold green shirt can make a photograph distinctive and memorable.
This is especially true with personal branding photography, where we’re normally producing a range of images rather than one traditional headshot.
The important question is whether that colour feels like you.
If someone meets you after seeing your photograph, I want there to be some continuity between the person in the image and the person standing in front of them.
What about patterns?
Small, busy patterns can sometimes become distracting in photographs.
Very fine stripes and checks can also create odd visual effects on screens because of the way cameras and digital displays reproduce repeating patterns.
That doesn’t mean everything needs to be plain.
Larger, simpler patterns can work perfectly well.
But if you’re unsure, bringing a solid-colour alternative gives us options.
And options are useful.
Think about where the photograph will appear
A headshot rarely exists in isolation.
It might appear against your company website colours, inside LinkedIn’s circular crop, alongside other members of your team or next to text in a speaker biography.
If your company website has a very distinctive visual style, we can take that into account.
Likewise, if I’m photographing an entire team, some coordination can help the finished set feel consistent without requiring everybody to arrive dressed identically.
The goal is harmony, not uniform.
Bring more than one option
This is probably the most useful piece of advice I can give you.
Don’t try to predict the perfect colour at home.
Bring choices.
For most headshot sessions, I’d rather you arrived with three or four possible tops, shirts or jackets than spent the previous evening worrying about which single combination is technically correct.
We can look at them together.
We can consider the background.
We can test different combinations.
And often the colour you expected to work best isn’t the one that ultimately produces your favourite photograph.
Ultimately, wear something that feels like you
There are technical considerations when choosing colours for a headshot, but they’re secondary to something much simpler.
You need to feel comfortable in what you’re wearing.
If you’re constantly adjusting a collar, worrying that a colour is too bold or wearing something purely because somebody told you it looks “professional”, that discomfort has a habit of finding its way into the photograph.
A strong headshot should feel natural.
It should look like you on a particularly good day.
So bring the colours you love wearing, bring a few alternatives and don’t worry about getting everything perfect before you arrive.
That’s part of my job.
If you need a new professional headshot and you’re wondering what to wear, I can help you plan the whole thing.
My headshot sessions take place from my studio in Cranleigh, Surrey, or at an agreed location, and we’ll create a selection of photographs that feel natural, confident and genuinely useful.
Get in touch to book your headshot session, and feel free to send me a few wardrobe options beforehand if you’d like my thoughts.
