LinkedIn Profile Photo. How to look Professional for Potential Employers.

Jagadeesh Kumar quote: ‘A photo can speak more than what a thousand words can speak’. Looking at this quote, we all look at this as a positive thing, but it can have a negative slant as well. Your LinkedIn profile photo introduces you to potential employers and clients. Get that wrong, and you might as well write a thousand words about what a poor employee you would be.

As mentioned many times on our blog, your LinkedIn profile photo is the first impression any employee gets from your Linkedin page. You do not get a second chance to make a good first impression, so when your potential employer is going through many job applicants, a poor LinkedIn profile photo will do you no favours.

Based on the LinkedIn analysis, simply adding a good picture increases your profile’s visibility by 14 times and increases your chances of receiving a response by 36 times. Let us suggest a few tips to help you look professional in your profile photo.

Get the right background. Be aware of what is behind you when you are getting your LinkedIn profile photo taken. It can be a plain background or an office environment which suggests professionalism. Do not have a non related business background. You might like the photo your friend or partner captured of you on holiday, but boats and palm trees are really not suitable.

Go to a professional portrait photographer. They will have access to studio lighting and a long portrait lens, which all contribute to making you look more professional in your LinkedIn profile photo.

Dress like you are going for your first job interview. Please do not overdo it but look like you are proud to be going to work and that you have made an effort. Remember looking like you are working from home is not going to look professional.

Do not cut corners if you want to look professional. A selfie on LinkedIn will make you look unprofessional and may even be a bit disrespectful toward potential employers.

LinkedIn Profile Photo. How to look Professional for Potential Employers.

Professional LinkedIn Profile Photo.

Professional headshots for business websites.

Why it is important to commission professional headshots for your corporate website.

You are going to invest in a new or refurbished website, and you approach a few website designers. They design your site and then ask for some corporate headshots for the ‘meet the team’ page. You would be surprised how often we see this page filled with snaps of people taken by friends and family. It looks very unprofessional and a lazy shortcut to save a few pounds. Pictures of people taken at the beach, on a ship, at a wedding and the worst was a lady holding a baby! This is your business’s shopfront and potential clients will visit this your website to get information about your staff and directors. Make sure you leave them with a positive impression of your company. For the sake of a couple of hundred pounds, you could be losing clients if your people look unprofessional and your rivals have decent corporate headshots.

Commissioning professional headshots is a simple process. Find a corporate portrait photographer in your area that has a portfolio that you like the look of. Check their availability and make sure all your people are in on the agreed date. Make available your biggest room and then decide on what background you want the photographer to supply. Most popular is white but you can choose a darker background if that suits your website. Becoming more fashionable is to have an office background which places the headshot in a working environment. Make sure the corporate photographer is bringing professional studio lighting with them as this is essential as they produce a soft flattering light. Ask the photographer to capture a good range of stances and expressions so you have plenty of choice when it comes to selecting your final headshot.

One of the main things to understand is that you want the rofessional headshots to look consistent in style. When you look at the ‘meet the team’ page you should see a uniform look to all the corporate headshots as this shows the potential client that you have spent time and money on your business website.

LinkedIn professional headshot in London

LinkedIn professional headshot in London

Professional corporate headshot for company websites

Professional corporate headshot for company websites

 

Frequently asked questions about LinkedIn profile photos.

Here is a list of FAQs we receive before undertaking a LinkedIn profile photo commission.

1. How long will it take? We allow 30 mins for a typical LinkedIn profile photo commission. Sometimes people want to utilise the entire 30 mins to explore a wide variety of LinkedIn profile headshots. Other people prefer things to happen quickly, so we capture a professional corporate headshot with a white background, and they can view the image before them getting back to work.

2. How many Linkedin profile photos will I receive? This, again, depends on how long the individual wants to spend in the studio. On average, we capture around 40 profile photos, and we send all of these via our wetransfer site. From these the client can select a couple they are going to use on their LinkedIn profile page, and we photoshop them for LinkedIn.

3. How much does a LinkedIn profile photo cost? We charge £150 plus VAT for individuals to come to our studio, or we can bring our studio set-up, which includes lighting and background roll to your London offices. The results will be identical, whichever location you prefer.

4. How long does it take to get the profile photos back to me? We can turn around the headshots the next day, and once we have the preferred headshots for editing and retouching, we can return these the following day. So all in all, approx 48 hours. For urgent updates with a new LinkedIn profile photo commission, we can turn things around within 24 hours.

5. Can I come to your studio for my new LinkedIn profile photo? Yes, we are currently using an office room in Beech Street, which is easily accessible from The City or the West End. We are open from 9 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday. You can book via https://www.corporatephotographerslondon.com/contact/, and please do not turn up without an appointment as we are often out working in London offices.

6. Why are professional LinkedIn profile photos so expensive? Simple to answer. Professional photographer, high-quality studio lighting, background roll and stands, travelling to clients’ offices and studio hire costs. You can avoid these costs and get a friend to take a portrait on their phone, but you can see on LinkedIn who has cut corners on their profile photo and who will be getting the business benefits and has a professional LinkedIn profile photo.

Frequently asked questions about LinkedIn profile photos.

Frequently asked questions about LinkedIn profile photos.

Why you must have a good quality LinkedIn profile photo.

We often post articles about the benefits of having a quality LinkedIn profile photo and here are a few more reasons why you should do this. LinkedIn guidelines say that if your profile photo is not a good likeness of yourself then it can be removed. If they remove your poor quality profile photo you can upload another one. If they remove your profile photo 3 times you will not be able to upload another photo and your profile image will go back to the default image. Having the default LinkedIn profile image makes your profile page look amateurish because it appears you could not be bothered to complete your profile. Another reason for uploading a quality LinkedIn profile photo is that if you try and upload other types of images these will also be removed. You might want to promote your company rather than yourself on Linkedin but uploading a company or business logo as your profile photo will result in it being removed by Linkedin. As will images of Landscapes, animals and any words and phrases. Overall be careful with what you upload as your profile photo as it is three strikes and you are out and that is a hazardous position when you are using LinkedIn as a professional.

If you commission a professional LinkedIn profile photo check with the headshot photographer prior to the shoot that they will format the finished headshot for use on LinkedIn. These are the guidelines from LinkedIn on profile and background photos specifications.

  • The maximum file size is 8MB.
  • Profile photo: Pixel size is between 400 (w) x 400 (h) pixels and 7680 (w) x 4320 (h) pixels. We recommend adding a photo that won’t require much cropping. You can adjust the photo after it has been uploaded.
  • Background photo: Recommended pixel dimensions are 1584 (w) x 396 (h) pixels. Learn more about adding or editing background photos.
  • The file type must be PNG or JPG. Note: We don’t support GIFs.

If it still won’t upload, try again using a different browser. If that doesn’t work, follow the instructions below to compress and save your profile photo as a PNG file and then upload it to your profile.

Why you must have a good quality LinkedIn profile photo.

Good quality LinkedIn profile photo sample headshot.