What should a woman wear for a professional headshot?

Start with the colors you look best in, and that instinct beats any rulebook. Keep necklines simple so they frame your face, scale jewelry down to small and structured, and skip busy patterns, logos, and high-shine fabrics that pull focus. Bring two or three options, and you're welcome to text me photos beforehand for a gut-check.

How should I do hair and makeup for my headshot?

The goal is you on a good day, not a transformation. I'd encourage doing your own makeup (bring it and touch up as we review on screen) and keeping it natural, skipping false lashes and heavy contouring, which photograph harder than they look. For anything you want flawless beyond that, Photoshop does a better job than makeup. Schedule any haircut or color about two weeks out so it's settled.

How do I look confident without looking severe?

This is the real question, and it's a fork. Lean one way, soft, open, a genuine smile, and you read warm and approachable, which is exactly right for some rooms and reads as 'not the boss' in others. Lean the other, contained, steady, less smile, and you read authoritative, which lands as competence in some rooms and as cold in others. Where your photo needs to sit on that line depends entirely on who's looking at it, and finding that spot is most of what we're doing in the session. You don't have to know how to get there. That's my job to direct.

Will you make me look like me, or airbrush me into someone else?

Like you. The retouching philosophy here is 'you on your best day,' even skin, tamed flyaways, the honest stuff, not a poreless stranger. The over-airbrushed look is its own kind of dated, and worse, it sets up a disappointment the first time someone meets you. The goal is the version of you that you recognize on a good morning.

How often should women update their headshots?

Every 18 to 24 months, or after any visible change: new hair color or length, new glasses, a career pivot. The test isn't the calendar, it's the mirror: someone meeting you off your photo shouldn't register a difference.

Do you photograph headshots in studio or on location?

Both. Individual sessions run in the West Loop studio at 212 N. Sangamon Street, parking nearby, dressing area on site. On-location sessions are available, and for a whole team that's a different setup with its own logistics, so head to our team and group headshots page.

CHICAGO
HEADSHOTS
forWOMEN

Professional headshots for women across Chicago's industries, with directed sessions that hold authority and warmth in the same frame, because careers demand both.

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Professional headshots for women in Chicago are directed studio sessions producing images for LinkedIn, company bios, speaking engagements, and press, photographed to hold authority and warmth in the same frame. The session fee is $500 and includes wardrobe guidance, direction throughout, and a private online proofing gallery; individual images are $250 each, fully retouched and licensed for unlimited promotional use. 312 Elements is led by photographer Michael Schacht, who has photographed 10,000+ people over 16 years, photographing executives, attorneys, founders, physicians, and professors across Chicago.

See pricing and book a session at session pricing and booking.

Photographed as the professional, not the stock photo

I'll be honest about something I had to learn the slow way, by listening rather than living it: the professional photo does a harder job for women than it does for me, and for a long time I didn't fully clock how much harder. There's a double standard the camera has to navigate on purpose. Read as too soft and the seniority quietly evaporates, and people start talking to you like the assistant. Read as too severe and the warmth that actually wins the client, the patient, or the jury goes cold right along with it. Most sessions just split the difference, and splitting the difference is exactly how you end up with the interchangeable corporate stock photo that could be anybody and says nothing about you. So I don't aim for the middle. We direct the session against your actual context, the courtroom, the operating room, the boardroom, the keynote stage, and we coach the lighting, the posture, and the expression to hold both registers at once: the authority and the warmth, in the same frame, on purpose. That balance is the entire skill, and it sits in a different place for every face, which is precisely why a one-size template can't find it. The retouching stays honest the whole way through, current and polished but unmistakably you, because the only job the photo has is to match the person who actually walks into the room. Anything prettier than that turns into a liability the first time you meet someone face to face.

Most of these sessions follow a moment, not a calendar

Almost nobody books a headshot because a year went by. They book because something changed, a title, a venture, a stage they're about to walk onto, and the old photo suddenly doesn't match the person anymore. Each of those moments asks the camera for something a little different, so it's worth naming the one you're in.

Newly Promoted to Leadership

The title changed and the photo didn't, and now there's a quiet gap between how senior you actually are and how senior you read. This is the most common one I see, and it matters more than people think, because the headshot is often setting expectations in a room before you ever walk into it. We shift the read up to match where you sit now, without losing the warmth that got you there in the first place.

Going Independent

You left to start the practice, the firm, the consultancy, and now you are the brand in a way you never had to be inside a big institution. The photo has to carry credibility that used to come free with a logo on the door. It's a genuinely different image than a staff directory wanted, because now it's doing the work the institution used to do for you.

Stepping Into the Public Eye

A board seat, a keynote, a press feature, a panel where there's suddenly a tight photo on the event page and a wider one a journalist asks for at the last minute. Most people have neither in the right shape and end up scrambling. If this is the moment you're in, we plan for both up front so you're never the one cropping a vertical photo at midnight.

Returning After a Break

Stepping back in after time away, whatever the reason, and wanting a photo that reads present and current instead of picking up exactly where an old one left off. There's nothing to overthink here and nothing to apologize for. We just make an honest image of who you are now, today, so the first impression matches the person and not the gap.

Rebranding After a Pivot

New industry, new positioning, a new story you're telling about yourself, and the headshot is part of how people decide whether to believe the new version. The read has to match where you're going, not where you've been. We talk through the pivot first, because the photo's job is to make the new direction feel inevitable rather than tentative.

Your First Real One

Maybe this is the first time you've had professional photos taken at all, and if so, deep breath: you don't need any experience and you don't need to know what to do with your hands. That part is genuinely my job. We'll talk first, I'll direct the whole way through, and you'll leave with something that actually looks like you on a good day, not a stiff approximation of you.

How sessions work

1
Context and wardrobe
A pre-session conversation about your industry, where the images will live, and how you want to be read. Wardrobe guidance follows: what photographs well in the colors you look best in, necklines that frame rather than distract, and jewelry that reads as polish instead of competing for the eye. Text me photos of what you're considering and I'll weigh in before you pack.
2
The session
Studio session with multiple looks and backgrounds, directed the entire time, with posing, angles, and expression coached frame by frame, with on-screen review so you see and approve the direction as it happens.
3
Delivery
Your private online gallery arrives within a week of the session. You purchase the images you want at $250 each, and every image you buy comes fully retouched, delivered in web and high-resolution print files (crops for LinkedIn, your firm's bio page, speaker kits, and press), with an unlimited promotional-use license.

What Chicago professionals say

I'd recently launched my own practice after years at a large firm and needed imagery that positioned me as independent without looking like I was still playing the big-firm role. That's a genuinely difficult balance. The images communicate exactly the right level of authority and accessibility for the clients I want to attract.

Catherine N.

Managing Attorney

My work is highly visual and I was genuinely skeptical that a headshot photographer would understand how to photograph someone in a design field without defaulting to something corporate or generic. The final images have an aesthetic sensibility that's exactly right for my studio's website and the design publications I contribute to.

Isabelle C.

Principal Architect

People searching for a therapist are often in a vulnerable state, and the photo on my profile is frequently the first thing they encounter before deciding whether to reach out. I needed something warm and trustworthy rather than clinically polished — therapist headshots that look like corporate portraits actively undermine the purpose. Michael understood that.

DNP

Dr. Nadia P.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Read more in our full collection of client reviews.

What's included

A $500 session fee covering the directed shoot: multiple looks and backgrounds, with on-screen review as we go
Pre-session wardrobe guidance, plus a steamer and dressing area at the studio
A private online proofing gallery, delivered within a week, to choose your images from
Images purchased individually at $250 each: honestly retouched (polished, current, and recognizably you), licensed for unlimited promotional use
Every purchased image delivered in web and high-resolution print files, with crops sized for LinkedIn, bio pages, speaker kits, and press

How much do professional headshots for women cost in Chicago?

It's complicated. There's a photographer at every price point, usually depending on how many final images you're buying. Honestly, it might be the wrong question. A headshot is one of the few purchases where the price tag tells you less than the booking rate, and the cheap one that doesn't get used costs more than the good one that does. Here it's simple: a $500 session fee covers the directed shoot (multiple looks, full direction) and a private online gallery, and images are $250 each, fully retouched and licensed. You pay for the session once, then buy exactly the images you need. The session is identical in structure to the executive work, because that's exactly what it is. Full details are on the pricing page.

By the numbers

16+ years: photographing Chicago professionals across every industry
10,000+ people: photographed: attorneys, founders, physicians, professors, and executives
$500: session fee, with individual images at $250 each
1 week: delivery for your private online proofing gallery

Frequently asked questions

What should a woman wear for a professional headshot?: Start with the colors you look best in, and that instinct beats any rulebook. Keep necklines simple so they frame your face, scale jewelry down to small and structured, and skip busy patterns, logos, and high-shine fabrics that pull focus. Bring two or three options, and you're welcome to text me photos beforehand for a gut-check.
How should I do hair and makeup for my headshot?: The goal is you on a good day, not a transformation. I'd encourage doing your own makeup (bring it and touch up as we review on screen) and keeping it natural, skipping false lashes and heavy contouring, which photograph harder than they look. For anything you want flawless beyond that, Photoshop does a better job than makeup. Schedule any haircut or color about two weeks out so it's settled.
How do I look confident without looking severe?: This is the real question, and it's a fork. Lean one way, soft, open, a genuine smile, and you read warm and approachable, which is exactly right for some rooms and reads as 'not the boss' in others. Lean the other, contained, steady, less smile, and you read authoritative, which lands as competence in some rooms and as cold in others. Where your photo needs to sit on that line depends entirely on who's looking at it, and finding that spot is most of what we're doing in the session. You don't have to know how to get there. That's my job to direct.
Will you make me look like me, or airbrush me into someone else?: Like you. The retouching philosophy here is 'you on your best day,' even skin, tamed flyaways, the honest stuff, not a poreless stranger. The over-airbrushed look is its own kind of dated, and worse, it sets up a disappointment the first time someone meets you. The goal is the version of you that you recognize on a good morning.
How often should women update their headshots?: Every 18 to 24 months, or after any visible change: new hair color or length, new glasses, a career pivot. The test isn't the calendar, it's the mirror: someone meeting you off your photo shouldn't register a difference.
Do you photograph headshots in studio or on location?: Both. Individual sessions run in the West Loop studio at 212 N. Sangamon Street, parking nearby, dressing area on site. On-location sessions are available, and for a whole team that's a different setup with its own logistics, so head to our team and group headshots page.