Your personal brand is what employers, clients, and co-workers will see while you’re working. It shows your distinctive value-add to your workplace and/or career. For most people, personal branding starts with visual perception. You want to set a good first impression, and a good headshot can help you do just that.

Creating a personal brand with a headshot might seem daunting, making AI headshots an invaluable tool. No more overpaying for a photographer, spending too much time choosing an outfit, driving to a shooting location, and waiting days for your photos.

An AI headshot generator app is available on your phone or computer anytime and anywhere, with your photos ready in mere hours. Let’s take a look at how this handy tool can maximize your personal brand.

Creating Your Personal Brand with an AI Headshot Generator

With a personal brand headshot, there’s a lot to consider. Most importantly, you want to be well-represented in that image, and you might worry that an AI tool won’t produce a realistic shot of you. When people look at your headshot, they should be able to tell what you stand for, who you are as a person, and why you’re valuable to the workplace.

To help you get an accurate and realistic headshot from the headshot generator of your choice, here are some of our tried and true tips for success.

Select the Right AI Headshot Generator

There are many headshot generators for you to choose from, making it feel overwhelming to select a single tool. Here’s what you want to look for:

● User-friendly platform
● Turnaround time of 1-3 hours
● Multiple photo packages
● Affordable pricing (avoid free as it lacks the quality of a paid platform)
● Great quality, realistic photos
● Good user reviews

You can do your own research to find the best platform for you, but if you need a head start, we suggest looking at Portrait Pal. It’s a popular and reliable tool offering various affordable packages ranging from $35-$75, with 20-100 headshots coming to you in 1-3 hours, depending on which package you buy. Great quality, easy to use, affordable, and fast--exactly what you should have in an AI headshot generator.

Figure Out Your Target

Because personal branding is all about first impressions, think about who you’re presenting your image to. When you figure out your audience or target, you can base your headshot preferences on what you find.

Your target audience will influence the way you dress, the background you use, how you pose, your facial expression, any props you might have, and more. Think of how you want to come across to your target audience and curate your headshot accordingly.

Choosing the Appropriate Attire

The way you dress says a lot about you and your character. You want your headshot to look professional but still convey your personality and values.

If you want your headshot to show off your fun, creative personality, consider a simple pattern or solid color shirt or tie in a vibrant color. If you want your headshot to look more business-like, consider wearing a dark suit.

Choosing the Background

It’s amazing how much a background can affect any picture, not just headshots. Have you noticed that your eyes tend to focus more on a busy background than the person in a photo?

Many professional headshots require a solid-color background without pattern or interest for this reason. However, modern headshots often feature more interesting backgrounds. It’s okay to have something behind you in the photo if it accentuates rather than takes away from the subject (you).

For example, nature backgrounds like trees and foliage can be very attractive in headshots as long as the person remains the focal point. Oftentimes, these backgrounds will be blurred slightly so you get the color and idea of nature, but your eyes are forced to focus on the person. It’s all about adding visual interest to the photo without distracting from the face.

High-Quality Looking Photos

Quality is everything in your personal branding, and that goes for your headshots as well. A simple smartphone photo doesn’t have the professional polish you need in a headshot.

But an AI headshot generator can take your simple smartphone photo and give it the polish it needs for your personal brand. After uploading a few selfies, artificial intelligence bots will analyze the photos and turn them into a polished headshot with your preferred attire, poses, facial expressions, and location.

Consistency

Curating a personal brand means putting up a consistent appearance across all platforms, from your company website to your social media profiles. Using the same or similar headshots of yourself across all avenues creates the consistency your brand craves.

Updating your headshot isn’t easy if you rely on a professional photographer, but it’s a cinch if you’re using AI. You can get a new, updated headshot as often as you like in a matter of hours for an affordable cost. It’s never been easier to stay consistent in your personal brand.

Establishing Trust and Credibility

Knowing how to convey trust and credibility in your headshot is challenging, and AI can help here. When writing the prompt into the AI headshot generator’s chatbox, you can ask it to develop a pose, setting, and clothing that will make you appear trustworthy and credible in your career.

When you get your photos back, you can ask friends, family, and coworkers which photos convey the emotions of trust and credibility. This will be a massive help to your first impression.

Update When Needed

You change over time. Profile and headshot styles are constantly changing. As such, keeping your professional photos up to date is critical for your personal brand. If that means changing your headshot every year, that’s what you should do.

AI headshots make that an accessible practice for nearly anyone. It’s affordable, fast, and super easy–why wouldn’t you update your headshot often?

Is the Outcome Representing You?

While these steps are important, you ultimately want the headshot to accurately represent you. One of the best things about AI headshot generators is they produce multiple headshots for you to choose from. So, if you don’t feel like one headshot shows your personal brand in the best light, one of the other 20 photos likely will!

You’re probably thinking that all of this takes a lot of thought and work. While you shouldn’t go into it unprepared, it’s actually a very simple process when broken down into steps. Building a personal brand takes time and effort, especially in the planning phase. But you can let AI take care of the execution, adding valuable time and money back in your life.