LinkedIn Headshots

The professional headshot register

A LinkedIn headshot does one job: it makes the person who clicks your profile believe, before reading a word, that you are worth reading. That is not about being attractive. It is about the visual register the photo carries — the light, the posture, the attire, the way the background anchors or competes with the face. A good professional headshot has been deliberately staged. A bad one has not.

The LinkedIn pack works across three registers chosen to cover the main professional contexts. Smart casual — tailored knit, soft window light from the left, modern office blurred behind — reads cleanly in creative fields, product roles, and any context where "suit and tie" would be overclaiming. Editorial — business casual, soft directional light, neutral office backdrop — is the all-purpose register: formal enough for corporate, approachable enough for anything else. Urban skyline — same smart-casual attire, city view bokeh behind — signals scale and ambition without requiring either.

All three registers shoot in the same optical grammar: 85mm equivalent focal length, Kodak Portra 400 film emulation, fine grain. That grammar produces the characteristic headshot quality: shallow depth of field that separates the face cleanly from whatever is behind it, film grain that reads as texture rather than synthetic smoothness, warm tones that sit well against skin. The output is a photograph of you, not an illustration of one.

What distinguishes a professional AI headshot from a casual AI portrait is not the technology — it is the staging choices that go into the prompt. Attire matters: a tailored merino knit reads different from a hoodie, and both read different from a suit. Light placement matters: window light from one side creates the modeling that gives a face dimension; overhead bulbs flatten it. Backdrop matters: a softly defocused office environment reads as context; a blank white backdrop reads as a passport photo. Every element in this pack is a deliberate staging choice, not a default. The result is a headshot that looks like it cost a professional shoot because it was designed like one.

How to photograph yourself for an AI LinkedIn headshot

The pack works from one photo. Better source photos produce better AI headshots. The free preview shows you in 15 seconds whether the likeness is going to land.

1. Use even, indirect natural lightStand beside a window, facing it or at a 45-degree angle. Avoid overhead bulbs, phone flash, and direct sunlight — all flatten the face or introduce harsh shadows that compete with the pack staging.
2. Shoot front-facing at eye levelNo selfie-stick uplook. No overhead angle. Camera at eye level, slightly below if anything. The pack frames you in a half-length composition — an extreme angle will fight that framing.
3. Use a plain, non-distracting backgroundA white wall, a soft-coloured wall, or a featureless indoor background. The AI replaces the backdrop with the pack register; a busy background makes it harder to isolate the face cleanly.
4. Wear something close to what you would wear professionallyThe pack stages you in smart-casual or business-casual attire. Starting from similar clothing in your source photo — a collared shirt, a neutral knit — helps the result read as consistent rather than transplanted.
5. Upload 2 to 5 photos if you have themOne is enough. More varied angles — front, three-quarter, different lighting — sharpen the likeness. Upload them all at once; the pack uses all of them together.

Frequently asked questions

What does the output actually look like — is it photorealistic or does it look AI-generated?

Photorealistic. The output is a photograph of you — not illustrated, not cartoonish, not obviously synthetic. The pack stages you in professional business attire with studio lighting: smart-casual knit in a window-lit office, editorial business casual on a neutral backdrop, or smart casual with a city-skyline bokeh behind you. The free preview tells you in 15 seconds whether the likeness is going to land on your face before you pay a cent.

What's the difference between the free preview and the paid pack?

The preview is one headshot from your photo, shown live in about 15 seconds so you can judge the result before paying. The paid pack is nine headshots across three registers — smart-casual, editorial, urban-skyline — three portraits each. €9.99, ready in about 45 seconds.

Can I use these as my LinkedIn profile photo?

Yes — that is the primary use case, and it doubles as an AI profile picture anywhere else you need one. LinkedIn crops profile photos to a circle at small sizes; the pack delivers portrait-ratio (2:3) images so you have real headroom to crop. The three registers give you a smart-casual option for creative fields, an editorial option for corporate roles, and a skyline-backdrop option when you want to signal ambition.

Can I use them on my CV, resume, or professional profile outside LinkedIn?

Yes. The output is portrait-ratio and full-resolution — the shape that looks right on a printed CV, an email signature, a company about page, or a directory listing. No watermark, no logo.

Can I use this headshot for a dating app like Tinder, Hinge, or Bumble?

Honest answer: the LinkedIn register reads professional rather than approachable-social, so it is not the strongest choice for a dating profile. It will work better than a bad selfie, but the styling is deliberately formal. If dating-app performance is the goal, a pack with a warmer, more casual register would serve you better.

How is this different from HeadshotPro, Aragon, or photoai?

The structural difference is delivery model. HeadshotPro and Aragon ask you to upload a training set of 10-20 photos and wait hours for a model fine-tune; the output can be excellent but the process takes a day and costs more. This pack takes one photo, streams a free preview in 15 seconds, and delivers nine headshots in 45 seconds for €9.99. The trade-off is that single-photo likeness is harder than a fine-tuned model — the free preview exists precisely so you can verify the likeness before paying.

How is this different from running a "professional headshot" prompt through Stable Diffusion or Midjourney?

Text-to-image tools like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney generate a person that looks like your description, not a portrait of you. The LinkedIn pack uses your uploaded photo to anchor the identity — the output is you, in a professional register, not a generated stranger in a suit.

What if I only have a selfie or a casual phone photo?

One good selfie is enough to start. The free preview shows you the likeness in 15 seconds — if it is off, the prep tips above are the fastest fix. Even lighting and a front-facing angle matter more than camera quality. Five mediocre photos do not beat one good one, but multiple well-lit angles do sharpen the result.

Can I use the headshots for a press release, company bio, or team page?

Yes. The editorial and skyline registers in particular read well at the scale of a company website or a press-release photo. The output is full-resolution with no watermark. The commercial-use terms allow professional use without restriction.

Is this a good fit for an executive, CEO, or founder headshot?

Yes. The editorial register (neutral office background, polished business casual) and the skyline register (city view bokeh) are both appropriate for an executive or founder profile. If your context is specifically a pitch deck or VC press, the Founder Pitch Deck and Investor VC Partner packs have registers designed around those surfaces.

Can I use these for a professional headshot for a lawyer, doctor, financial advisor, or other licensed profession?

Yes — the pack works for any profession that uses a professional portrait. The editorial register reads cleanest in conservative professional fields: dark neutral attire, clean background, composed expression. For healthcare, law, or finance, the smart-casual register may read too casual; the editorial register is the right choice.

What happens to the photo I upload?

Your photo is processed on European servers. We use it to generate your preview and, if you buy, your pack of nine. We do not share it with third parties.

Can I use the output commercially?

Yes. The output is yours. You may use it for professional purposes — LinkedIn, company websites, press materials, CVs. See the terms for the full scope.

When the LinkedIn headshot pack fits

• For a LinkedIn profile photo that reads as professional without booking a photographer
• For a CV or resume headshot in the correct portrait-ratio format
• For an email signature photo that does not look like a cropped party photo
• For an executive, CEO, or founder headshot for a company about page
• For a team page portrait that is consistent with your colleagues' headshots
• For a professional headshot for a lawyer, doctor, financial advisor, architect, or dentist profile
• For an about-page photo on a personal website or portfolio
• For a real estate agent or financial planner professional profile photo
• For a conference badge or speaker bio photo
• For a press release or media-kit photo accompanying a company announcement
• For updating a headshot that is more than two years old without scheduling a studio session
• For a professional profile photo on a recruiter, legal, or healthcare directory listing

About narcis

Most AI portrait tools ship every pose, profession, era, and aesthetic in one giant catalog. The output looks like every other AI photo on the internet — a glaze over a stock face. Narcis goes the other way. One tool, one job: turn a photo of you into a portrait worth keeping. Each pack is hand-curated against actual references — paintings, photographers, registers — and tested on real faces before it ships. Free preview before you pay. Packs are one-time — no subscription to buy one; Studio, the unlimited composer, is optional at €12/month and every pack includes 30 days of it. No template generator. Built and run by one team, on our own infrastructure.