How to take a professional headshot with just you and your phone (and it not look like a selfie)

My old LinkedIn profile shot was a quirky selfie where I thought it would be funny to sport some joke glasses a colleague put on me. The glasses cast some weird reflection which made it look like I'd gone to work in drag makeup and I had an awkward smirk-ish smile. As I've updated mine to something a bit more professional, I thought I’d share my top tips on how I did this with just a phone because getting a professional headshot done at the moment might be beyond most people’s reach.

No touch-ups necessary - good natural light is all you need. Oh, and a steady hand. 

My top tips:

1. Find somewhere with a non-distracting background and good natural light
2. Hold phone at eye level and within comfortable reach to take photo (don't tilt it) - better yet, use a rig or stand of some sort if you can
3. In selfie mode (portrait orientation) face the camera head on as though you're talking to someone (we're not posing for an 80's school photo here), tilt your chin down just a tad for a more flattering look
4. Smile your best natural smile - it’s all about being authentic
5. Get trigger happy - take more than a few to choose from

If your phone has a specific Portrait mode, it's worth taking some in this mode too. Sometimes I find they blur the image too much (you want nice, natural looking pics) but in this case, my Pixel 2 has done a decent job of smoothing out my hair without softening my features.

I hope you've found this useful. If you have any tips, do share!