Headshot Angles: How to Find Your Best Side

The short answer: turn your shoulders slightly away from the camera, bring your face back towards the lens, push your chin forward a touch and down a touch, and keep the camera at about eye level. That’s the starting point for almost everyone. From there, the best angle is the one that suits your face, and that’s what this guide helps you find.

We photograph headshots in London every week, for corporate teams, actors and creatives. Below is what we actually tell people in the studio, plus a few bits from other photographers and casting professionals who’ve written it down well.

The five angles that matter

When people say “angle” they usually mean one of five different things. It helps to separate them, because you can change each one on its own.

1. Shoulder angle: how far your body is turned from the camera.
2. Head turn: where your face points relative to your shoulders.
3. Chin position: forward, down, up or tucked.
4. Camera height: whether the lens is above, level with or below your eyes.
5. Light angle: where the light falls on your face.

Most “bad angle” complaints come down to one of these being off, not your face being the problem. Change one at a time and you’ll see what is actually going on.

Shoulders: don’t square up to the camera

Stand square on and you look wide and a bit like a passport photo. Turn your body so your shoulders sit at roughly 30 to 45 degrees to the lens, then bring your head back round to face the camera. That small twist does most of the work. It slims the frame, adds a bit of shape and makes you look relaxed rather than braced.

Two things to watch:

• Lead with the shoulder that suits you. Most people have a stronger side. Try both and compare.
• Keep your weight on your back foot. Photographer Ivan Weiss says he directs people from the feet up, even for a close-up, because how you distribute your weight changes your whole stance. We see this daily. Shift your weight, and the shoulders and face follow.

If you want some poses to try with this, our headshot posing guide walks through eight we’ve tested in the studio, and the headshot poses for men page covers the go-to looks for confident, no-fuss portraits.

Head turn: how much is enough?

There are three basic head positions, and each says something slightly different.

One thing people get wrong: turning the head too far and then rolling the eyes back to the lens. You end up showing a lot of white on one side of the eye and looking a bit suspicious. If you turn your head, turn your eyes with it, then bring the eyes back to the lens only a little.

The far-side ear matters too. If your face is turned slightly, check whether one ear has vanished completely and the other is sticking out. Easy fix: a few degrees back toward the camera.

Chin and jawline: forward and slightly down

This is the one everyone asks about, and it’s the answer to “how do I define my jawline in a headshot?”

The trick feels silly, which is why people don’t do it on their own. Push your forehead and chin gently towards the camera, as if you’re a tortoise reaching for a lettuce leaf, then tilt the chin down just a little. This stretches the skin under the jaw, separates your jaw from your neck and removes the soft shadow that creates the look of a double chin.

A few practical notes from our sessions:

• Small movements. An inch is plenty. Overdo it and you look like you’re peering out of a letterbox.
• Don’t lift the chin to “look confident”. Chin up often makes a person look like they’re looking down their nose, and it exposes the underside of the jaw and nostrils.
• Don’t tuck it in either. Pulling the chin back towards your neck is what creates the double chin in the first place.
• Relax the tongue. Press it gently to the roof of your mouth. It sounds like a myth, but it stops the jaw clenching and keeps the face from tightening up.

Light does a lot of the work as well. Lighting from the side or slightly above creates more depth than flat frontal light, and that depth is what gives a jaw its edge. We come back to this below.

Camera height: eye level, or just above

Where the camera sits changes how your face reads.

• Slightly above eye level: the classic headshot position. Eyes look a bit larger, the jaw looks cleaner, and it’s flattering on most faces.
• Exactly eye level: neutral and honest. A good choice for corporate teams where you want consistency across lots of people.
• Below eye level: makes people look powerful or imposing, but it also puts the underside of the chin and nostrils on show. We use it rarely and on purpose.

For selfies, the lens itself matters as much as the height. Nikon points out that wide-angle lenses are very unflattering for headshots, making ears and noses look enormous. Their advice is a focal length of 85mm or more on a full-frame camera. That’s why a phone held at arm’s length never looks quite like a studio portrait: it’s too close and too wide.

Light angle: where the shadows land

You can have the perfect pose and still look flat if the light is wrong. Two numbers are worth knowing. A widely used starting point is to place the key light at around 40 to 45 degrees to the subject, which gives soft transitions and fewer harsh shadows. The same guide suggests catchlights, the little reflections in the eyes, should sit near the 12 o’clock position.

That’s the studio version. If you have no studio, there’s a simpler route. Canon UK’s photographer Natalie Denton describes soft, frontal light through a window as often the most flattering light there is, and the aim of a good headshot is to show your character, not the lighting set-up. We’ve got a whole piece on natural light headshots, including how far from the window to stand. For a deeper look at studio set-ups for business, see our headshot lighting styles guide.

A simple self-check: turn your face slowly towards a window and watch the shadow under your cheekbone and along your jaw. When the shadow is soft and sits where the jaw meets the neck, stop. That’s your angle for that light.

Finding your own best side

Nobody has a perfectly symmetrical face. One eyebrow sits higher, one side of the smile is bigger, and the nose leans a bit. So your two sides really do photograph differently. Here’s how to find the better one without a photographer.

1. Put your phone on a tripod or a stack of books at eye level. Nikon’s advice is that a tripod or stable flat surface stops camera shake, which is the main thing you need.
2. Stand by a window, facing it, with the window slightly to one side.
3. Take ten photos with your left shoulder forward, ten with your right.
4. Do the same with chin slightly forward and down.
5. Look at them next day, not straight away. Pick the one that looks most like you on a good day.

Then ask someone who knows you well which one they’d pick. They tend to choose the photo that looks like you, rather than the one that’s technically neat, and that’s the right one.

Angles for different jobs

The right angle also depends on what the photo is for.

Corporate and LinkedIn

Go for friendly and consistent: shoulders at a mild angle, face nearly straight on, camera at or just above eye level. If a whole team is being shot, matching the angle across people is what makes the company page look tidy. We cover the specifics in our LinkedIn headshot guide for London and how to prepare for a corporate headshot session.

Actors

Actors have slightly different rules. Casting professional Carl Proctor advises including a variety of shots, with full-length options that can be cropped, and says casting directors like to see your size and shape rather than a tightly cropped face that hides it. He also says every photo should look real and organic, not posed or deliberate.

In practice that means a straight-on, relaxed angle for your main shot, a slight three-quarter angle for variety, and at least one image that shows more of your build. If you’re thinking about the bigger picture of how your images and public profile work together, this piece on why actors benefit from a strong online presence is a decent read. Our own take on what goes into a portfolio is in headshots in your actor portfolio: what really matters.

Creatives and personal brands

This is where you can play. Stronger three-quarter angles, a lower or higher camera, more of the environment in the frame. Casting professional Carl Proctor also notes that softly blurred, natural backgrounds give more context than a flat wall and make the photo feel like a film still. For this kind of work, see what personal branding photography is.

Common angle mistakes

• Phone too close and too low. You get big nose, small forehead and a jaw that disappears.
• Chin tucked in. Creates the double chin you were hoping to avoid.
• Head tilted too much. A small tilt is warm. A big one looks unsure.
• Squared shoulders. Wide, stiff, passport-like.
• Hunched or raised shoulders. Drop them, then shake your arms out between shots.
• Eyes rolled to the lens. Too much white on show.
• Different angle in every photo on a team page. Looks careless, even if each photo is nice on its own.

Our view: the angle is a conversation

We’ll be honest about something. We don’t think there’s a single “best angle” for headshots, and anyone who says there is has never photographed enough different faces. After more than 500 sessions, what we’ve seen is that people lose the angle the moment they start worrying about it. They stiffen up, the jaw clenches and the shoulders creep up.

So we direct. In a session we move you a few degrees at a time, from the feet up, and tell you what we see: “a touch more chin forward”, “turn your shoulder a bit”, “now breathe out”. Then we show you the back of the camera, so you can see what the change does. Most people find their angle within ten minutes, and it’s usually not the one they came in expecting.

We also keep retouching honest. The aim is a photo that looks like you on a really good day, not a different person, because you’re going to meet people who’ve seen the picture.

If you take one thing from this guide, make it this: shoulders turned, face to the camera, chin forward and a bit down, and then trust the person behind the lens to fine tune it.

— Emmet

Want us to find your angle for you?

If you’d rather not spend an evening photographing yourself against a window, that’s what we’re here for. Our individual headshot sessions start with the Single at £99 and the Professional at £165, and we also come to you with on-location sessions around London. Actors can look at the actor headshot packages, from £75 for Essential and £135 for Casting. Teams are £50 to £80 per person on our team headshots page. Not sure which fits? Say hello through the studio page and we’ll point you the right way.

FAQ

What is the best angle for a professional headshot?

For most people, it’s shoulders turned about 30 to 45 degrees from the camera, face brought back towards the lens, chin slightly forward and down, with the camera at or just above eye level. It’s a starting point, not a rule. Faces are asymmetric, so we always try both sides and pick whichever looks more like you.

How do I define my jawline in a headshot?

Push your chin gently forward towards the camera and then tilt it down a little. This separates the jaw from the neck and cuts down shadow under the chin. Light from the side or slightly above adds more definition, and a tiny movement works better than a big one.

Should I look straight at the camera or turn my head?

Both work. Straight on feels open and friendly, which suits LinkedIn and team pages. A slight turn adds shape and is our default for most corporate and branding work. A bigger three-quarter turn is better for creatives who want something more editorial.

Can I take a good headshot myself?

Yes, if you keep the phone steady and level with your eyes, stand near a window and avoid shooting too close with a wide lens. Nikon recommends a tripod or stable surface and a longer focal length to avoid distortion. Take plenty of frames and choose a day later.

Sources

• Studio Lighting for Headshots: A Simple Guide to Better Portraits, The Society of Photographers
• How to take the perfect head shot, Nikon UK
• Carl Proctor: Headshot Advice, The Actors’ Guild of Great Britain
• Tips for striking headshots, Canon UK
• Canon UK

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• Headshot Posing: 8 Poses Tested in Studio for Natural Photos
• Photo direction for headshots: what it really means
• Headshot outfit examples for professionals: 2026 guide
• Headshot lighting styles for business: your 2026 guide