Rock your headshot with these tips for bald people

Headshots, Photography Tips

I love your beautiful bald head! But there’s a few things to consider if you’re bald and planning a headshot photoshoot or personal branding shoot. Follow these headshot tips for bald people and you’ll nail your headshot session, selfie or any photos.

Great photography is smoke and mirrors. Accentuate the positive and minimise the less positive bits. I say this from experience – I’ve had weight issues on and off all my life and before I got my teeth fixed, bloody awful teeth. But I learnt to work around these areas and still looked confident in photos. I even wrote another blog post how to smize in photos if you have bad teeth.

So there’s 2 areas we’ll cover to nail your headshot or photos if you’re bald – 1. preparation and make-up and 2. lighting.

1. Preparation and makeup:

First up make sure your head is cleanly shaven before your photoshoot. If you don’t have a makeup artist apply a translucent powder to the top of the head. This step isn’t essential though. It will depend a lot on what sort of lighting your photographer. If it’s very hard lighting it increases shine and you will want to control that. If you’re not sure what to buy, go to a large makeup seller like Sephora or Mecca if you’re in Australia. Explain to them what you are after and they will tell you what to buy and how to apply it.

2. Lighting:

If you’re getting professional headshots done, talk to your photographer about lighting before your photoshoot. For bald people I suggest making sure the key light (the main light) is soft. What does soft light mean? Soft light is a large area of lighting relative to your face. Think of the sun covered by clouds.

What you want to try and avoid is hard light. Hard light will show every detail and have hot spots of glare on your head.

AI generated photo of a bad example of lighting on a bald man.

Photographers will sometimes use a hair light as well. What’s that? It’s a light that highlights the hair and separates the subject from the background. If you don’t have any hair it means there will be a big shiny spot on your head in the portrait. Ain’t nobody got time for that. If your photographer insists on a rim or hair light, ask them to keep it to a minimum.

So really it’s pretty simple. Prepare your head and forehead with powder if necessary. Consult with your photographer and try to avoid light that will highlight imperfections and avoid that nasty shiny glare on your head. Ask your photographer to check for overexposed areas on your head and adjust the lighting if necessary.

Your photographer can also flag part of the key light. What this means is shielding part of the light to ensure it is hitting your face only and not directed at the top of your head.

If you’re in Melbourne and want some cute new headshots, come see us at Photoform*. Clicky click on the image below to take you to the Photoform* headshot mothership.