1. Know What You Want Your Portrait to Communicate

Before your executive portrait session, think about how you want to be perceived.

Do you want to communicate authority? Approachability? Innovation? Confidence? Expertise? Creativity?

Your portrait should reflect both your position and your personality. A CEO leading a technology company may want something very different from a physician, attorney, financial executive, or founder.

I work with clients to determine what the image needs to say before we begin photographing.

2. Choose Your Wardrobe With Intention

Bring two or three wardrobe options whenever possible. A well-tailored suit, jacket, dress, blouse, or polished business-casual look can give you variety without making the session complicated.

Choose clothing that fits well and makes you feel confident.

Avoid anything that you constantly need to adjust. If you're uncomfortable in what you're wearing, it will show in the photograph.

Solid colors and subtle patterns generally photograph beautifully. If you wear glasses every day, bring them. Your portrait should look like you—not a version of you that doesn't exist in real life.

3. Don't Make a Dramatic Change Right Before Your Session

Your executive portrait should look current and authentic.

If you're getting a haircut, schedule it several days before your session rather than the morning of. The same applies to facial hair, color, or any significant change to your appearance.

The goal isn't to look like someone else.

It's to look like the best, most confident version of yourself.

4. Bring Your Personality

This may be the most important recommendation I can give you.

You don't have to become a different person when you step in front of my camera.

Your personality is part of your leadership brand.

Maybe you're serious. Maybe you're warm. Maybe you're energetic. Maybe you're quietly confident.

I want to see that.

The strongest executive portraits don't feel like someone is "trying to look professional." They feel like a real person who happens to be very good at what they do.

5. You Don't Need to Know How to Pose

This is where an experienced photographer makes a difference.

You don't need to arrive knowing where to put your hands, how to position your shoulders, what expression to make, or how to look natural.

That's my job.

I coach every subject through posture, expression, eye direction, body positioning, and subtle changes that can completely transform an image.

I've photographed people who are extremely comfortable in front of a camera and people who tell me they absolutely hate having their photograph taken.

Both can create extraordinary portraits.

6. Give Yourself Time to Relax

Don't schedule your executive portrait in the middle of a frantic day if you can avoid it.

Give yourself a few minutes to arrive, settle in, and transition out of whatever meeting you were just in.

You don't need to "turn on" a perfect expression the moment you walk through the door.

We talk. We photograph. We make adjustments. We look at what is working. Then we refine it.

Some of my favorite photographs happen after someone stops thinking about being photographed.

7. Consider More Than One Type of Portrait

Don't limit yourself to one traditional headshot.

Depending on how you'll use your images, you may want:

• A classic head-and-shoulders portrait
• A three-quarter portrait
• A full-length portrait
• An environmental portrait
• A horizontal image for your website
• A vertical image for social media and publications
• Images with negative space for graphic design
• A more relaxed portrait that shows personality

One well-planned session can create an entire library of images you can use for years.

8. Think About Where You'll Use the Images

Before your session, make a list of everywhere your photographs may appear.

Your images could be used for:

• LinkedIn
• Your company website
• Executive biographies
• Press releases
• Media appearances
• Conference programs
• Speaking engagements
• Annual reports
• Investor communications
• Editorial features
• Social media
• Podcasts and video appearances
• Marketing and advertising

Knowing how the images will be used helps determine the way we photograph you.

9. Consider an Environmental Portrait

Sometimes the most powerful executive portrait isn't a traditional headshot.

Your office, laboratory, headquarters, restaurant, studio, manufacturing facility, or city can become part of the story.

Environmental portraits give people a glimpse into your world and can communicate far more about you than a neutral backdrop.

For CEOs and executives who are regularly featured in the media, these images can become incredibly valuable visual assets.

10. Photograph Your Leadership Team Consistently

If you're updating your company's executive team portraits, don't photograph everyone individually with a completely different approach.

A cohesive leadership gallery creates a stronger corporate identity.

Consistent lighting, backgrounds, composition, cropping, and visual direction allow every individual personality to come through while making the team feel like one organization.

This is particularly important for company websites, investor materials, annual reports, recruiting, and corporate communications.

11. Schedule Your Portrait Before You Actually Need It

Don't wait until a journalist asks for a headshot tomorrow.

If you're a CEO or senior executive, your portrait is an ongoing business asset.

Update it when your appearance changes significantly, when you take on a new leadership role, when your company rebrands, or simply when your existing portrait no longer represents where you are professionally.

Having current, high-resolution images ready to go means you're prepared when an opportunity appears.

12. Choose an Experienced Photographer

Equipment matters. Lighting matters. But knowing how to photograph people matters most.

After more than 30 years behind the camera, I've learned that every person requires something different.

I've photographed executives, physicians, musicians, entertainers, public figures, fashion talent, entrepreneurs, families, and people who insist they are "not photogenic."

My job isn't simply to take your picture.

It's to create the photograph that makes you think:

"That's me."

And then makes everyone else see exactly why you're the person leading the organization.

Your Executive Portrait Is a Business Asset

Your photograph may be the first thing a potential client, investor, employee, journalist, conference organizer, or business partner sees.

Don't treat it as an afterthought.

A great executive portrait should feel confident without being forced, polished without being generic, and professional without losing your personality.

Your image should look like the leader you are—and the leader you're becoming.

Ready for an Executive Portrait?

I photograph CEOs, executives, physicians, entrepreneurs, attorneys, leadership teams, public figures, and brands throughout Chicago, Wheaton, the Western suburbs, Dallas, and nationwide.

I also offer the Executive Portrait Lounge, bringing an elevated portrait experience directly to conferences, leadership summits, corporate events, and professional associations.

Let's create an executive portrait that actually looks like you.