Should You Smile in Your Professional Headshot? The Answer Is More Nuanced Than You Think

There's a moment in every headshot session where the photographer says something like, "Okay, now give me a natural smile."

And suddenly, you've forgotten how to use your face.

Your mouth does something strange. Your eyes go dead. You end up looking like you're being held at polite gunpoint.

I've seen it happen thousands of times. And after helping over 50,000 professionals create headshots, I've noticed something interesting: the people who obsess most about whether to smile usually end up with the worst photos.

Not because smiling is wrong. But because they're focused on the wrong thing entirely.

The Real Question Behind "Should I Smile?"

When someone asks "can you smile in a headshot?" they're rarely asking about facial expressions.

What they're really asking is: How do I want people to perceive me?

That's a much better question. And the answer changes everything.

Here's what most advice gets wrong: they treat smiling like a binary choice. Smile = approachable and warm. No smile = serious and authoritative. Pick one.

But human perception doesn't work that way.

The research tells a more complicated story. A Princeton study on first impressions found that we form judgments about trustworthiness in just 100 milliseconds faster than conscious thought. And those snap judgments come from a combination of factors: facial expression, yes, but also eye contact, posture, lighting, and something harder to define. Call it "congruence."

Congruence is when everything in a photo tells the same story.

A forced smile in an otherwise stiff, corporate headshot? Incongruent. Your brain flags it as untrustworthy.

A genuine, slight smile with engaged eyes? Congruent. Your brain reads it as competent and approachable.

This is where it gets interesting.

The Smile Spectrum Nobody Talks About

"Smiling" isn't a single expression. It's a spectrum, and most people only consider the extremes.

The No-Smile (Neutral): This works for specific industries and contexts. Law. Finance. Executive leadership at Fortune 500 companies. In these environments, a neutral expression can signal gravitas. The message: I take this seriously. You should too.

But here's the trap - many people think they're projecting "serious executive" when they're actually projecting "uncomfortable person who doesn't want to be here."

The difference? Eyes.

A true confident neutral has relaxed eyes, slight engagement, a sense of presence. Not warmth exactly, but not coldness either. It's hard to fake.

The Slight Smile (Mona Lisa Territory): This is the Swiss Army knife of headshot expressions. A hint of a smile, corners of the mouth slightly lifted, eyes engaged but not crinkled—projects both competence and approachability.

Research on LinkedIn profile effectiveness shows that photos with slight smiles get significantly more engagement than either full smiles or neutral expressions. Recruiters trust them more. Colleagues find them more approachable.

For 80% of professionals, this is the sweet spot.

The Full Smile: Big, genuine, teeth-showing grins work brilliantly for the right contexts. Hospitality. Sales. Real estate. Coaching. Creative industries. Any role where warmth and energy are your primary professional currencies.

But a full smile requires commitment. Nothing looks worse than someone who's half-smiling with their mouth but dead behind the eyes. If you're going to grin, grin like you mean it.

What Your Industry Actually Expects

Here's where I'll be direct: context matters more than personal preference.

Not in a "conform to expectations" way. In a "understand the game before you decide whether to play it" way.

Legal and Finance: These industries still skew conservative. A slight smile works. A full grin might not. There's a reason most law firm partner pages look like mugshots rightly or wrongly; the convention signals seriousness about serious matters.

Tech and Startups: More flexibility here. Approachability often beats authority. Slight to full smiles work. Neutral expressions can read as out of touch unless you're specifically projecting "serious technical founder" energy.

Healthcare: Warm and trustworthy matters. Patients want to feel comfortable. A genuine smile works. A severe neutral might make you look clinically competent but personally unapproachable.

Creative Industries: Almost anything goes. Your headshot is part of your creative expression. Just make it intentional.

Corporate Leadership: Depends entirely on the company culture. Traditional industries still favor neutrality. Modern companies often want leaders who look human. When in doubt, slight smile.

Sales and Client-Facing Roles: If people need to trust you with their money, problems, or decisions, warmth matters. Smile.

The point isn't to blindly follow convention. It's to understand what signals you're sending—and whether those signals match your goals.

The Technical Reality of Smiling in Photos

Here's something photographers know that most people don't: smiling changes your entire face structure in photos.

A genuine smile (what researchers call a "Duchenne smile") engages the orbicularis oculi muscles around your eyes. This creates the crow's feet, the eye crinkle, the sparkle that makes a smile look real.

A fake smile only engages the mouth. And cameras are merciless at capturing the difference.

This is why "just smile" is terrible direction. It produces the uncanny valley of expressions technically a smile, but somehow unsettling.

Better direction: Think of something that genuinely makes you happy. Or think about someone you like. The micro-expressions follow naturally.

This becomes especially relevant with AI-generated headshots, where consistency and authenticity matter. Whether you're using traditional photography or exploring AI headshot options, the same principles apply: the best results come from authentic expressions, not performed ones. Platforms like Headshot Photo do stand out in generating warm, approachable, and confident headshots.

The Consistency Question

One thing that's changed in the age of LinkedIn, Zoom, and remote work: your headshot is no longer a single image. It's part of a system.

Your LinkedIn photo. Your company directory. Your Zoom background. Your email signature. Conference speaker profiles. Press mentions.

Ideally, these should all tell the same story about who you are.

This doesn't mean identical photos everywhere. It means consistent energy. If your LinkedIn shows a warm, approachable person but your company bio shows an unsmiling stranger, you're creating cognitive dissonance.

For teams and companies, this gets even more complex. When updating corporate headshots across an organization, establishing expression guidelines helps create visual cohesion without forcing everyone into identical robot-smiles.

The goal is recognizability, not uniformity.

What I Actually Recommend

After looking at more headshots than any person reasonably should, here's my honest advice:

Default to a slight smile with engaged eyes. This works for 80% of people in 80% of situations. It's the least risky, most broadly effective choice. You'll look competent and human.

Go neutral if your industry demands gravitas and you can actually pull it off. The "serious executive" look is harder than it seems. If you're not naturally intense, you'll just look uncomfortable.

Go full smile if warmth is your superpower. Some people light up a room. If that's you, show it. Suppressing your natural energy makes for boring photos.

Whatever you choose, make it genuine. The worst headshots aren't the ones with the wrong expression. They're the ones with an expression that doesn't match the person behind them.

The Question You Should Actually Ask

So, can you smile in a headshot?

Yes. You can also not smile. Both are valid.

But the better question is: What do I want someone to feel when they see my photo for the first time?

Trust? Warmth? Competence? Creativity? Authority?

Start there. Let the expression follow.

Because at the end of the day, a headshot isn't about following rules. It's about making a connection in 100 milliseconds with someone who's never met you.

And that connection starts with authenticity smile or no smile.