Who says first impressions matter? Science.
Did you know that it only takes 7 seconds for someone to form an opinion about someone else, whether looking at a photo or meeting them in person? This goes for everything from first dates to meeting your significant other’s family.
In a professional setting, headshots are often your first attempt to make an impactful impression. Your clothing, hairdo, pose, and even your smile can say a lot about you at first glance.
That means when you’re creating your headshot, you have seconds to make a lasting impression. It follows that you’d want to put a little forethought and planning into making a great headshot.
What the ease and convenience of AI headshot generators, you have a chance to create a positive first impression. You get to curate a unique headshot that features your face and can convey a lot more than just an attractive smile. Let’s look at how you can make this amazing technology work in your favor.
6 Ways to Make a Great First Impression with an AI Headshot
Getting a good headshot used to be more of a chore, but with the magic of AI headshot generators, it’s never been easier to present your best self in a simple photo. In determining the best ways to use AI to master that first impression, we used the headshot generator, Portrait Pal. It’s user-friendly, affordable, and delivers realistic photos that look professionally done.
In our search for the six factors that improved the overall look of an AI-generated headshot, we found that giving explicit written instructions into the Portrait Pal’s prompt box helped improve the overall impression of the headshot delivered.
As you work on building that excellent first impression with your AI headshot, here’s what we believe will be most important.
1. Eye Contact
While you’re not truly face-to-face with someone in your headshot, you want to look like you’re maintaining eye contact. Having direct eye contact conveys to the person that you’re confident, attentive, and serious about your work. You probably didn’t realize that your eyes could say so much about you!
Instruct the headshot generator that you should be facing forward in the shot, giving the impression that you’re looking directly into the viewer’s eyes. It helps if you upload at least one photo from your camera roll that features you looking directly forward so the AI can better replicate this pose in your finished headshot.
2. Power Pose
You can instruct the headshot generator how you want it to pose your body in the shot. Direct it to develop your signature “power pose.” This doesn’t mean you have to have an intimidating, over-confident presence (unless you want it to, of course). Rather, your power pose will be the position that conveys the message you want viewers to receive.
For example, if you want to say, “I’ll pay attention to you. I’m fun and approachable, and you’re going to love working with me,” you’d want an open-stance pose that’s warm and inviting. You might have your head slightly tilted or put one hand on your hip.
If you’re looking for a no-nonsense, business professional look, you’ll want something a little different. Perhaps you’ll instruct the AI generator to show you facing fully forward with your body slightly turned to the side. Your hands will be resting by your side or positioned in your lap. You can smile or use a facial expression that feels most natural to you.
Overall, you get to direct the artificial intelligence to convey the message you want, so think of how you want it to pose your body to give off the best impression.
3. The Way You Dress Matters
AI headshots can produce pretty much any clothing style, so you can ask it to dress you however you want. Again, you want your style of clothes to embody who you are while still remaining professional.
It’s okay if you want to show a little of your personality through the way that you dress. Just remember that your clothing shouldn’t distract from your face. It should be neat, appropriate for the occasion, and bring you confidence about how your headshot looks. Neutral colors and subtle patterns are often best for this purpose.
We recommend searching online for headshots you like and describing the clothing style in your written prompt. That way, the generator can deliver exactly the clothing style you want.
4. A Genuine Smile
Imagine walking into a coffee shop and running into a close friend by chance. You’ll smile, they’ll smile with genuine gladness to see you, and you’ll feel a sense of warmth and approachability that only comes from a real smile. You feel safe and like you can trust that person.
Now imagine that you walk into the coffee shop and your friend gives an obviously forced smile. Suddenly, you wonder what you’ve done wrong to make them less excited to see you. You feel self-concious and wonder if you can trust that person in that moment.
The latter scenario is what you absolutely don’t want in your headshot while the former should be the target. You want to make sure your headshot has a genuine smile so others will feel comfortable approaching you.
To help the headshot generator do its job, we found that it’s best to upload a couple of photos of yourself with your best, most genuine smile. Instruct the generator to use your real smile in the headshot, noting that you don’t want to look like you’re laughing or smiling too much. The technology will know what to do.
5. An Appropriate Background
Your background should help attract the viewer’s focus onto you. Therefore, you want complementary colors and patterns that sort of fade into the background, allowing the photo’s subject to shine. This is why you see so many headshots with plain, neutral-colored backgrounds. And if you’re going for a highly professional headshot, that’s probably exactly what you want in your background.
But there may be times when it’s appropriate to have items or designs in the background. Many modern headshots feature outdoor nature scenes, rustic coffee shops, cool brick buildings, and city skylines in the background of their headshots. These options can add personality and distinction to a more casual headshot that you can use in personal branding as you see fit.
Above all, ask the AI generator to stay away from loud patterns, neon colors, or other vibrant backgrounds that will be distracting.
6. The Right Lighting
A headshot that’s too dark will be hard to see and give a somewhat mysterious vibe that you definitely don’t want in your professional photo. On the other hand, bright, fluorescent light in your headshot will wash you out and give you a “deer in the headlights” look that you also want to avoid.
The lighting should be warm and inviting. Think about the way a room looks when natural light is filtering into the room. This lighting shows your facial features in their best light. It feels warm, yet neutral.
Consider asking the AI headshot generator to show your face in natural light. However, if you want a warmer, more cozy vibe, write that in your prompt instead.
You have a great deal of power to master your first impression when it comes to using AI headshot generators. These tips were extremely helpful to us in generating a realistic headshot for our purposes. Hopefully, they’ll help you too!
