Get Glasses Right in Headshots First Time: LemonSharkStudio Checklist

If you wear glasses every day, keep them on for your headshot. Glare is a lighting problem, not a reason to take them off, and any competent photographer can fix it with a few small adjustments. Clean lenses, a spare pair for transitions or heavily tinted frames, and straightened frames from your optician cover most of what could go wrong. The one exception is mirrored or very dark lenses, which hide your eyes no matter how good the lighting is.

Should you wear glasses in your headshot?

Wear them. If glasses are part of your everyday look, leaving them out of a headshot for LinkedIn, a company directory, or an actor’s profile makes you harder to recognise in person, which defeats the point of the photo. Professional guides agree on this: removing your glasses for a headshot usually hurts recognisability rather than helping the image.

There are exceptions. Mirrored or heavily tinted lenses hide your eyes entirely, so they’re rarely worth keeping on for a formal headshot. Photochromic (transition) lenses can darken unpredictably under studio lighting. And frames that swallow your eyebrows or slide constantly can distract from your expression rather than support it.

If you’re genuinely unsure, ask your photographer to shoot both versions, glasses on and off, in the same session. It costs a few extra minutes and gives you a real choice at the editing stage rather than a guess made beforehand.

Quick pre-shoot checklist for glasses wearers

A handful of small habits, done properly, prevent nearly every problem that shows up in the edit later.

• Clean both lens surfaces with a proper microfibre cloth right before the shoot, and bring a spare cloth and cleaning spray.
• Get wobbly or crooked frames adjusted at your optician in the days before, not the morning of.
• Pack a backup: a second pair, clear demo lenses, or empty frames if your usual pair has strong tint or a heavy transition coating.
• Tell your photographer in advance if your lenses have an anti-reflective coating, are photochromic, or have a mirrored finish, so they can plan lighting around it.

These are the same preparation habits professional studios recommend precisely because they solve the most avoidable problems before the camera comes out.

How photographers remove glare from glasses

Glare exists because light behaves predictably: it bounces off a lens surface at the same angle it arrives, straight into the camera when a light sits directly in front of you. Move the light, the camera, or your head, and that reflection moves too. This is the entire logic behind fixing glare, and it’s why a competent photographer barely mentions it as a problem.

In the studio, that usually means:

1. Raising the main light higher above eye level and angling it down, so the reflection bounces below the lens rather than into the lens.
2. Switching to a larger, closer softbox, which softens the specular hotspot into something the eye barely notices.
3. Checking the room for stray reflections, windows, laptop screens, white walls, and adjusting position so none of them land in your lenses.
4. Testing with tiny changes and reviewing the shot on screen before committing to a full sequence.

You can help from your side, too, especially by following expert photography direction, brand-aesthetic-aligned techniques that combine posing and composition to keep eyes visible. A slight chin tilt, a 10 to 20 degree head turn, or a small push on the temple arms often shifts a hotspot off your eyes in seconds. One useful variant photographers call the “turtle”: keep your shoulders still, ease your head slightly toward the camera, then dip your chin a notch. It keeps your jawline sharp while nudging the reflection angle away from the lens.

Polarising filters (CPLs) have their place, but mostly outdoors or under continuous lighting rather than with studio flash, since a CPL manages reflection more reliably when the light source doesn’t change between exposures.

Pro Tip: Ask your photographer to take one shot with your glasses pushed a millimetre higher up your nose. That tiny angle change alone clears glare in a surprising number of cases, no lighting adjustment needed.

Which frames and lenses work best on camera

Fit matters more than style. Frames should sit straight across your face and let your eyebrows and eyes show clearly. If your glasses constantly slide down your nose or sit crooked, that shows up in every single frame of the shoot, so get them adjusted before you arrive.

• Thin to mid-weight frames tend to keep attention on your eyes and expression rather than the frame itself.
• Very bold or thick frames can work, but they compete for attention in a small headshot crop, so expect the photographer to shoot slightly wider to balance them.
• Anti-reflective coating genuinely helps: AR-coated lenses cut down the surface reflections that cause most glare in the first place, according to optical guidance from The College of Optometrists.
• Photochromic lenses are the one wildcard. They can darken under bright studio light and effectively hide your eyes, so bring a clear pair as backup if that’s your everyday prescription.
• Empty frames, glasses with the lenses popped out, are a guaranteed no-reflection option that keeps your familiar silhouette without any risk of glare. Many studios keep a spare pair of demo lenses for exactly this reason.

What actually happens during the shoot

Expect the photographer to start with a few test shots, glasses on, and possibly one or two with them off, purely to see how the light behaves against your specific lenses and frame shape. From there, most of the work is rapid and small: nudging a light a few inches, asking you to tilt your chin, checking the screen, adjusting again.

A good photographer is checking one thing above all: can they see your eyes clearly through the lens? If a coating or angle keeps causing a hotspot, they’ll often ask you to try the empty-frame or no-glasses variant as insurance, even if you plan to use the glasses shot. That’s normal practice, not a sign anything’s gone wrong.

Budget a few extra minutes for this. It’s the difference between one flat pose and a session where you leave with an image that actually looks like you, not a compromise.

What retouching can and can’t fix

Small highlights and faint reflections are easy to soften in editing. A hard patch of glare sitting directly over your pupil is a different matter. Removing it convincingly without leaving a flat, waxy patch over your eye is genuinely difficult, and heavy retouching there tends to look unnatural fast.

That’s why getting the exposure and angle right in-camera matters more than most people expect. A well-lit original file needs almost no retouching around the eyes at all, which is the outcome every photographer is actually working toward during those small test adjustments.

Photographer’s view: how LemonSharkStudio handles glasses

At LemonSharkStudio, sessions for glasses wearers start the same way every technical fix does: with light placement, not editing. We raise the main light above eye level, angle it down, and run a couple of test frames before asking for a single pose. If a hotspot shows up, we adjust the light or ask for a small chin tilt rather than reaching for retouching later.

Studio sessions give us the most control here, since the environment is fixed and every reflection is predictable. On-location shoots can work too, but they need a bit more scouting for windows, glass, and reflective surfaces nearby. Either way, the goal is the same: an image that looks like the version of you people actually recognise, glasses included, with editing kept light and honest rather than papering over problems that lighting should have solved.

How to talk to your photographer about your glasses

Say something before the camera comes out, not halfway through the shoot. Mention that you wear glasses daily, name the type of lens if you know it (anti-reflective, photochromic, tinted), and say plainly whether you want them in the final image, want both options tried, or aren’t sure yet.

If your frames wobble, slide, or have a coating that catches light unusually, flag it early. That single sentence, “these lenses have a strong AR coating” or “these go dark in bright light”, saves several minutes of trial and error once the lights are set up. Photographers who shoot headshots regularly will already have a plan for most lens types, but they can only use it if they know what they’re working with.

It also helps to say what you actually want the photo for. A headshot for a corporate directory calls for a cleaner, more neutral look than one for an actor’s casting profile, and that shapes how much the photographer leans into personality versus polish. If you’ve had a bad experience with glare in a previous headshot, mention that too. It gives the photographer a specific problem to solve rather than a vague worry to guess at.

Don’t be shy about asking to see a test shot on the screen partway through. A five second look tells you whether the glare is gone and whether you like the angle, and it’s far easier to adjust then than to discover it later during the edit.

Hair and makeup adjustments that work with glasses

Glasses change how light and shadow fall across your face, so a few small adjustments make a real difference. Matte finishes photograph better than heavy shimmer or dewy highlighter, since anything shiny near your temples or cheekbones can pick up stray reflections that echo the ones you’re trying to avoid on your lenses. A light matte powder around the nose bridge and temples, where frames rest, stops shine building up under studio lights over a longer session.

Eye makeup benefits from slightly more definition than you might use normally, because lenses, even clean ones, soften contrast a touch. A little extra definition on brows and lash line helps your eyes hold their own against the frame rather than fading behind it. Keep it natural rather than dramatic; the goal is recognisable, not styled for a stage.

For hair, avoid styles that push forward onto the temple area where your frames sit, since hair overlapping the arms of your glasses reads as messy in a tightly cropped headshot. If you usually wear a fringe, ask the photographer for a couple of options with it pushed slightly further back so your eyes stay fully visible. None of this needs to be dramatic. Small, deliberate choices around where frames sit on your face are what actually show up in the final crop.

What the checklist misses: an editorial take

Most advice on glasses and glare treats the lens as the problem to be solved. It isn’t. The frame is doing most of the damage in the photos people don’t like, sliding down noses, sitting crooked, catching stray light at the temple, while lens glare gets blamed because it’s the more obvious symptom.

The overlooked fix is boring: get your frames properly adjusted at an optician before the shoot, not after you’ve seen the proofs. That single step resolves more bad headshots than any lighting trick, because a crooked frame throws off symmetry in a way no amount of chin tilting corrects.

The second thing conventional advice underplays is time. A few extra minutes testing glasses on, glasses off, and empty-frame variants isn’t indecision, it’s the actual process that produces a usable image on the first attempt rather than a reshoot request. If there’s one thing to prioritise before anything else, it’s arriving with clean lenses and properly fitted frames. Everything else is fixable on the day. That isn’t.

— Emmet

Book a session that gets your glasses right the first time

This studio offers sessions that are directed, with lighting and pose adjustments for glasses happening live, in real time, rather than being left to chance or fixed later in editing. Whether you need a straightforward individual headshot, an actor’s casting-ready portfolio, or a fuller personal branding session, we run test shots with your glasses on, check the screen with you, and adjust the light rather than the software.

Studio sessions give tight control over reflections, and on-location work is available too if that suits your needs. Bring your everyday frames, your cleaning cloth, and a backup pair if your lenses are tinted or photochromic. Book through the headshots page to arrange a session and talk through your glasses before the day arrives.

Sources

• Headshots With Glasses: How to Avoid Glare and Look Your Best | Photography Shark Studios
• How to Pose People With Glasses: A Photographer’s Guide — Shotkit
• The College of Optometrists

FAQ

Should you wear glasses in your headshot?

Yes, if you wear them daily. Removing them makes you less recognisable, and glare is a lighting issue that a photographer can usually solve without asking you to take them off.

What should you avoid wearing in a headshot?

Avoid mirrored or very dark tinted lenses, since they hide your eyes completely, and avoid crooked or ill-fitting frames, which throw off facial symmetry more than any lens reflection does.

How do you look good in photos while wearing glasses?

Keep lenses spotlessly clean, have frames properly fitted so they sit straight, and use a slight chin tilt or head turn if a hotspot appears, since small pose adjustments shift reflections off the lens almost instantly.

What are the most common headshot mistakes for glasses wearers?

The biggest ones are turning up with dirty or crooked lenses, wearing photochromic lenses that darken under studio light with no backup pair, and assuming glare can only be fixed by removing the glasses entirely.

What does a headshot session with glasses cost at Lemonsharkstudio?

Current prices are listed on the headshots page, where individual sessions and packages are shown alongside what each one includes.

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