What not to wear for a headshot: episode 1

I have a few rules for choosing clothing to wear during your headshot. One of those rules is this: no t-shirts with stuff on them. Stuff like logos, crazy patterns, glitter, bows, splatters of mud, or anything else that distracts from your face.

A headshot should be a photo of your head, and anything else in the photo- the background, your clothing, jewelry, etc.- should be incidental and exist only to frame and compliment your face. Anything that steals the show from your face is a no-no.

If you see your t-shirt before you see your face, then it's got to go. Change, that is. Being shirtless for a headshot is also a no-no.

Check out these examples-- in the first photo, her face is competing with the awesomeness of a giant griffin fighting a dragon on her t-shirt. If you're put into an empty room and there's a young woman standing in one corner but and a griffin fighting a dragon in the other corner of the room, which corner are you going to be looking at?

Don't let your face be upstaged by a griffin.

And the second photo is pretty self-explanatory. If you're going to wear a t-shirt with someone's logo on it, you might as well be selling their product in the photo, and not your own face. Now excuse me, I suddenly want a refreshing carbonated drink...