Should I wear a tie for my business headshot

I get asked this question less frequently than I used to but people do still ask, ‘should I wear a tie for my business headshot?’. The simple answer is to dress honestly.

If you wear a tie to work and your colleagues and clients expect you to wear a tie then the answer is yes but for most people it’s not quite as simple as that. They don’t wear a tie to the office, they don’t necessarily wear a tie in a meeting but they still feel like they should conform to the convention of traditional business attire.

If you want to wear a tie then go for it but there are very few professions left where it is important to wear a necktie. In reality it might actually do more harm than good. A tie probably isn’t ideal if you work for an agile startup that is supposed to be pioneering in its approach, less rigid than the stuffy institutions that went before it. If you are pedalling some groundbreaking tech, why on earth would wearing fashion from the fifteenth century help you to make an impression.

In reality you don’t even have to be a tech bro, there are so many professions that have already ditched the tie. Just look around the office or check out the other guys on a zoom call to see what people wear for their everyday and wear that.

Some industries still wear ties and if you don’t cast it aside in an attempt to present yourself as something you’re not. 

The image above is a great example of how to use traditional business wear without the tie. Simple but smart. It also leaves the viewer of the image to use their imagination because you don’t know if this guy is wearing jeans and trainers or a full suit. They will simply identify with him to suit their own expectations of how he should be dressed. It’s a slightly different vibe without the shirt, making it more relaxed overall but it’s a still a smart look.

A good rule of thumb is to wear whatever you would wear to meet a client. My top tip is to make sure that it’s both clean and ironed.

Written by Paul Tschornow

If you want to find out more about creating some commercial photography content for your business then you know what to do – get in touch and we’ll have a chat about what you need and how we can make that happen for you.

Photo Heads can mostly be found photographing in London, sometimes in Bristol and occasionally elsewhere but we do travel throughout the UK and Europe. Don’t forget to follow @thephotoheads on Instagram.