Headshots by Scott Lawrence

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The Best Background for Your Headshot

Are you stressing over the perfect background for to use for your company’s headshot standard? Or are you driving yourself crazy trying to find the right headshot background for your personal brand overhaul?

When it comes to the headshot backgrounds, stop stressing and keep it simple. Let me explain.


Making your images on a simple background opens up a ton of flexibility after the session.

Headshot Studio Background Options

While the possibilities are endless when it comes to headshot and portrait backgrounds in the studio, less is usually more. If your headshot will be for personal branding or typical corporate use, less is more. Trust me.

In the studio, I always recommend my clients do at least some of their photos on a neutral background (or white wall). This maximizes the flexibility going forward, because we can remove the background and give you a PNG file.

What is a PNG file?

As far as your headshot is concerned, a PNG files is an image with the background removed. This makes it super easy to drop in to just about anything later on.

You’re only going to see more options in consumer software for removing backgrounds because it’s such an effective use case for AI (AI actually works consistently here).

PNG Headshot Use Cases

First, you never have to worry about not matching the company branding colors without a background. Even if they change, you’re in good shape too!

Making a pitch deck? No problem, just drop yourself right in.

Making a real estate sign? Drop your photo into the brokerage template and you’re done.

Need a group photo? Even better, we can combine multiple PNG files (even photographed at different times or locations) to make a group composite. My corporate clients love this!

PNG files can be combined to make team photos. And the best part, they can be easily updated as your team grows.

How to get PNG files from your Headshot session

I’m happy to provide them at no additional cost to you! Just ask! You can make them yourself, but sometimes, depending on the software you use, they might not be clipped out as cleanly as what I can provide.

So start thinking about your headshots as marketing tools. The ability to use your images in multiple places and formats makes them that much more valuable.


Learn more about corporate headshot options.

Got more headshot questions? Check out the headshot FAQs.