How to take selfies that produce great AI headshots

AI headshots are only as good as the selfies you feed the engine. Ten minutes of deliberate photos beats a camera roll of random ones. Here is exactly what to shoot.

The rules that matter most

• Face the light: stand facing a window. Never put the window behind you.
• Fill the frame: your face should occupy most of the photo, from mid-chest up.
• Eyes to lens: look at the camera, not the screen.
• Nothing on your face: no sunglasses, no hats, no heavy filters.
• One person only: crop friends and pets out before uploading.

Shoot this exact set

• 4 photos straight on, neutral and smiling
• 3 photos at a slight three-quarter angle, both sides
• 3 photos from slightly above eye level
• 2 photos in different rooms or lighting for variety

That is 12 photos, comfortably inside the 4 to 15 the engine accepts, with the variety it needs to learn your face from every angle.

Common mistakes that ruin results

• All photos from the same angle in the same room: the engine overfits to one look
• Old photos mixed with new: pick photos from the same era of your face
• Harsh overhead light: casts shadows the engine may faithfully reproduce
• Beauty filters: they blur the identity signal and produce a generic face

Glasses, beards and hair

Wear what you want in the final photos. If you sometimes wear glasses, either include them in every selfie or none: consistency tells the engine what belongs to your identity.