Navy suit
The One Formal Photo Every Profile Needs
The one formal shot every profile needs.
A profile of nothing but casual photos leaves a gap, and one suit photo fills it. It shows a version of you that turns up properly to things, and it lifts the perceived quality of every other photo in the set by establishing that you own something that fits.
Navy over black in almost every case. Black suits photograph as an outline with no detail unless the lighting is professional. Navy holds its shape and its texture in ordinary light.
What to wear
- A jacket that fits at the shoulder. Nothing else about a suit matters as much, and a photo shows it more clearly than anything else
- A plain shirt, with either no tie or a plain one. Fine patterns moiré badly on phone screens
- About a centimetre of cuff showing, which is the detail separating a suit from wearing a suit
When to shoot it, and the light
Indoors beside a large window, side-on. A suit needs directional light to show any texture. Flat frontal light turns it into a navy rectangle.
The mistake that ruins this shot
The full-length, hands-clasped, wedding-guest stance. Do something instead: adjust a cuff, turn, walk. And keep it to one photo, or the profile starts reading like a LinkedIn page.
Where it goes in your profile
Second or third. Early enough to be seen, but never first, since leading with a suit sets a formal tone the rest of the set then has to fight.