Examples of Professional Photos with Your iPhone for LinkedIn

Examples of Professional Photos with Your iPhone for LinkedIn

In this guide, I cover the 5 key elements to taking professional photos with your iPhone with a focus on updating your LinkedIn profile. With over 930 Million users on LinkedIn, it is the top professional platform in over 200 countries and regions worldwide. What should you look for in your photos when taking your own profile picture?

Why Should I Care About My LinkedIn Profile Picture?

You may ask, why should I care what I look like online, it’s all about my resume and experience. Well, the 41 Essential LinkedIn Statistics You Need to Know in 2023 and 10 Tips for Taking a Professional LinkedIn Profile Photo might surprise you with the following statistics.

• Research shows that just having a picture makes your profile 14 times more likely to be viewed by others.
• LinkedIn is the largest professional platform in over 200 countries and regions worldwide, with 930 Million users.
• Around 72% of recruiters use LinkedIn when hiring new talent.
• Every Minute, 8 People Are Hired on LinkedIn
• In 2022, LinkedIn Saw a 22% Increase in Engagement.

Along with numerous other statistics, it’s clear that having a good professional photo that looks like you is very important. Having a good photo shows off your personal brand to the world – it’s the real you!

5 Key Elements To Photography

When taking your iPhone photos, here are 5 key elements of photography you should keep in mind.

• Background
• Lighting
• Color
• Angle
• Attire

In the following examples, you’ll want to keep these five elements in mind and ask the following questions when deciding which is the best photo. These questions will also help guide you in determining what is the best photo for yourself.

Background – what’s going on behind or around the subject or main focal point in the photo?

Lighting – how is the photo or scene lit, and from where? Natural sunlight is best, but controlled studio lighting allows for better control.

Color – how colorful is the scene? Is it two-tone, or are there multiple color combinations in the scene between the skin tone, subject’s attire, and background?

Angle – is the subject of the photo at an appealing angle that compliments their looks using the best lighting, color, and posture?

Attire – is the subject wearing formal, semi-formal, or informal clothing, and does it fit with the purpose of the photo?

If you keep these things in mind while taking a photo, you’re guaranteed to get at least one good photo that needs minimal edits or Photoshop. Well, most of the time!

Good and Bad Examples

To show you how the five key elements of photography work here, I took 4 different photos to show you what good and bad examples look like. Try to review each of the following photos, focusing on background, lighting, color, angle, and attire. Note that I took all of these photos with my iPhone 14 Pro forward-facing camera, just like most of you will. Also, I did not edit any of these photos either to really showcase what you can do with an ‘out of the box’ photo.

Example #1

In this example, you’ll notice that the sun is the best light source (and your friend) when taking any photo. Here the lighting works great in this picture and makes my skin and colors really pop!

With that said, the busy background makes this photo unusable as a professional photo.

Example #2

Here, the lighting is good, and the background is minimal, making for a good photo.

Not having formal attire on, depending on the occupation, could be a deal breaker.

Example #3

As you can see, the formal attire is good, as it’s professional but not completely formal.

The downside here is there are two light sources, and the background washes out my skin tone.

Example #4

In the final example, you’ll notice that the lighting is good here, and the background is minimal.

The downside is that the photo is grainy with a low resolution.

Which Is the Best Professional Photo?

So, which of these photos is the best for LinkedIn out of the box? Well, Example #2 is the best of this group because it has 4 of the 5 key elements of photography done correctly and well.

The second example has great background, lighting, color, and angle. The only thing I would change about this photo would be that attire. For many job seekers, especially those leveraging a platform like LinkedIn, may need semi-formal or formal attire to land the job. While it is not a deal breaker, attire is extremely important and something that you should focus on when taking your own photos.

While the second example is a good photo out of the box, there are numerous edits I would love to make to this photo, but I’ve already spent a lot of time getting just this one photo.

The Power of a Professional – Time and Experience

Now that you have a great-looking photo, what’s next? Well, the next step after getting just the right photo is editing that photo in the best way possible, and that is an art in and of itself.

When taking portrait photos, I focus on more than just the 5 keys to photography. There is a whole range of elements I consider while I’m taking even just one photo, not to mention all the elements that go into a full photoshoot. Below are some of the top elements photographers consider when taking photos.

• Background
• Lighting
• Color
• Angle
• Attire
• Pose
• Balance
• Framing
• Exposure
• Reflections
• Easily Editable

• Contrast
• Usability
• Focal Point
• Smoothness
• Composition
• Depth of Field
• Color Balance
• White Balance
• Touch Ups