The Ontario government revealed Monday (Feb 8th, 2021) that it would begin to lift COVID-19 restrictions in some regions this week, however we are still strongly urged to maintain social distancing by staying at home when necessary.

This can obviously make searching for a job a little more challenging, especially if you’re also in the midst of doing upgrades to your cover letter and resume – specifically your headshot for your LinkedIn profile.

In addition to this, some job seekers may be struggling more financially with the loss of their job due to the pandemic and can’t exactly afford to get professional headshots done.

So below you can find a few tips on how you can take a professional LinkedIn profile photo at home.

1. Have someone take the picture for you (if you can).
Try to get a family member or a roommate to help you take the picture. It’s a lot easier to get the angle you want when you have some assistance, however, if you live alone, there are a couple of tricks you can try:

- Don’t take the picture as if you were taking a selfie for your personal social media. Keep in mind this is for your professional social profile. Utilize the timer on your phone and try to place your phone on a table or chair in front of you to take the photo (you may need to stack some books for example to get the angle you want).

- Try to take the photo in front of a plain wall or a wall with minimal background. You don’t want the photo to be too cluttered with the décor you have on your wall.

- Generally, headshots are taken from the waist up. You can also angle your body to the left or right, so you aren’t directly facing the camera.

2. Use the natural light from your window.
When getting your photo professionally taken, there’s often a lot of lighting involved to get the right balance of colour. You can make the picture appear more vibrant and brighter by standing in front of a window in your home and utilizing its natural light.

3. Don’t try to manipulate your headshot too much by using a lot of filters.
LinkedIn does have some filter options to choose from when you upload your headshot but try not to use them. Again, this is for your professional social profile, so you want the headshot to remain as natural as possible. If you really want to use a filter, the black and white option has been popularly used on LinkedIn profiles before.

4. Show off your personality.
There are little ways you can show off a little bit of your personality in your headshot. For example, you can wear a shirt or a blouse that’s brighter in colour if you’re more outgoing, you could wear a dress shirt without a tie if you’re a little more laid back, etc.

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