Headshots vs. Full Body Shots | Eau Claire Headshot Photographer

Headshots vs. Full Body Shots: Which One Should You Choose?

By Andrew Samplawski Photography — Eau Claire & Chippewa Falls, WI

In today’s visual-first world, your photograph is often your first introduction — whether you’re connecting on LinkedIn, promoting your business, or refreshing your personal brand. A professional image does more than show what you look like; it tells your story, communicates confidence, and invites trust.

At Andrew Samplawski Photography, we specialize in headshots in Eau Claire, WI, and Chippewa Falls, guiding you through a stress-free, enjoyable process that helps reveal your best and most authentic self.

Why Professional Headshots Matter

A professional headshot is more than a nice portrait. It’s an investment in your personal or business brand — and it can make all the difference. Whether you’re a corporate professional, an entrepreneur, an actor, or a real estate agent, your headshot sets the tone for how others perceive you.

From LinkedIn headshots and executive portraits to team photography and realtor headshots, we create images that feel natural, confident, and polished. Each detail — from lighting to composition — is carefully curated to ensure your image communicates professionalism and approachability.

Headshots vs. Full Body Shots: What’s Right for You?

Choosing between a headshot and a full-body portrait depends on your goals:

• Headshots are perfect when your face tells the story… ideal for corporate profiles, acting portfolios, and social media.

• Full-body shots highlight your personal style, posture, and energy… great for branding, fitness, and lifestyle imagery.

Many of our clients in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls blend both styles during a session, giving them versatility for marketing materials, websites, and press features.

Where Should You Use a Professional Headshot?

A professional headshot is one of the most versatile photographs you can have for your business or career. It gives people a clear, approachable view of who you are and helps create consistency anywhere your face represents your professional identity.

For most professionals, I recommend having at least one traditional headshot that can be used across multiple platforms. Ideally, you should also have a few variations so you aren’t forced to use the exact same photograph everywhere.

Professional headshots work especially well for LinkedIn profiles, company websites, About pages, staff directories, email signatures, business cards, speaking engagements, conference materials, press releases, professional organizations, social media profiles and marketing materials.

Your headshot may be one of the first interactions someone has with you before they ever meet you in person.

That’s why I don’t think a professional headshot should simply be a photograph that proves what you look like. It should feel like you and make sense for the way you want to present yourself professionally.

Someone working in finance may need something completely different from a realtor, physician, attorney, small business owner, creative professional or construction executive.

When I’m photographing professional headshots in the Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls area, that’s part of the conversation. Where will these photographs be used? Who needs to connect with you? What do you want someone to think or feel when they see your photograph?

Those answers help determine everything from the background and lighting to clothing, expression and how tightly the final image should be cropped.

Where Should You Use a Full Body Professional Photo?

A full body professional portrait serves a different purpose.

While a headshot is primarily about your face and expression, a full body photograph provides considerably more room to communicate personality, environment and brand.

These images are especially valuable for business owners, entrepreneurs, realtors, executives and professionals building a personal brand.

Full body branding photos can work beautifully on website homepages, About pages, landing pages, social media, advertisements, brochures, printed marketing materials, speaking materials, magazine features and other places where you need more than a small profile image.

They also give designers significantly more flexibility.

For example, if your website designer needs a horizontal photograph with open space for a headline, button or other text, a traditional tightly cropped headshot may not work. A wider environmental or full body portrait gives your designer room to actually build around the photograph.

This is one reason I encourage business owners to think beyond what they need today.

If you’re already investing the time into planning outfits, getting ready and having professional photographs created, it makes sense to create a variety of images that can continue working for your business long after the session is finished.

Headshot or Full Body Photo for LinkedIn?

For your primary LinkedIn profile photograph, choose the headshot.

LinkedIn displays profile photographs relatively small, which means your face needs to remain recognizable even when the image is reduced in size. A full body photograph usually puts too much distance between your face and the viewer.

That doesn’t mean full body images aren’t useful on LinkedIn.

They can be great for posts, articles, announcements, speaking engagements and other content you share on the platform. Your profile image, however, should generally be a clean professional headshot where your face is easy to see.

Consistency is also valuable. If someone visits your company website after finding you on LinkedIn, seeing the same headshot or photographs from the same professional session can help reinforce that they’re looking at the right person.

What Professional Photos Should You Have for a Business Website?

If you’re updating your website, I wouldn’t stop at a single headshot.

Your website has much more visual real estate than LinkedIn or a company directory, which creates opportunities to show more of your personality and tell people what working with you actually feels like.

Depending on your business, a professional branding session might include:

• A traditional headshot for your About page and professional profiles.

• A three-quarter portrait that shows more of your clothing and body language.

• A full-body portrait that gives your website designer more flexibility.

• Horizontal photographs with intentional negative space for website text.

• Environmental portraits showing you inside your office, studio or workplace.

• Photographs of you actually doing your job.

• Details of your workspace, products or tools.

• Candid photographs that feel a little less posed and more approachable.

• Vertical images for social media, marketing materials and mobile website layouts.

• The exact combination depends on your profession and how you market yourself.

A realtor may benefit from photographs outside a home, walking through a property, or working with a client. A physician or healthcare professional may need photographs within a clinical environment. A small business owner might benefit from photographs that show the space, products, and people behind the company.

That’s the difference between simply getting a new headshot and intentionally creating a library of professional images for your business.

Do You Need Both Headshots and Full Body Photos?

For many professionals and business owners, yes.

A headshot and a full-body professional portrait aren’t really competing with each other. They’re tools designed for different purposes.

Your headshot is typically the workhorse. It can follow you across LinkedIn, email, company directories, professional organizations, and other places where your photograph needs to be recognizable at a small size.

Your wider portraits and full-body photographs give you more creative flexibility for your website, social media, advertisements, and marketing.

If you’re investing in professional photography specifically for your business, my goal is to create photographs you can actually use rather than simply handing you twenty slightly different versions of the same pose.

Before your session, think about everywhere you currently need a photograph and everywhere you might need one over the next year.

Your website.

LinkedIn.

Google Business Profile.

Email signature.

Social media.

Business cards.

Print advertising.

Speaking engagements.

Press releases.

Company directories.

Marketing campaigns.

Once we know where the photographs need to go, we can intentionally photograph for those spaces.

What Is the Difference Between a Headshot and a Personal Branding Session?

A professional headshot session focuses on creating strong photographs of you.

A personal branding session goes further.

Branding photography is designed to create a collection of photographs that help visually communicate who you are, what you do and what your business feels like.

That can include headshots, full-body portraits, environmental photographs, working images, details, multiple outfits, different expressions, and images intentionally composed for websites and social media.

If you simply need an updated LinkedIn photograph or company headshot, you probably don’t need an entire branding session.

If you’re redesigning your website, launching a business, building a social media presence, creating advertising or becoming the recognizable face of your company, having a larger collection of branding photographs can be incredibly valuable.

How Often Should You Update Your Professional Headshot?

There isn’t a strict expiration date for a professional headshot, but it should still look like you.

If someone meets you after seeing your LinkedIn profile or company website, they should recognize you immediately.

Consider updating your headshot if your appearance has noticeably changed, you’ve changed careers or professional roles, your company’s branding has changed, your current photograph feels dated, or the image simply no longer represents how you want to present yourself.

For many professionals, updating headshots every few years is reasonable. For business owners and people who are highly visible in their marketing, creating new images more frequently can also keep website and social media content from becoming repetitive.

What Should You Wear for Professional Headshots?

Start with clothing you would actually wear professionally.

You don’t necessarily need a suit simply because you’re having a professional headshot taken.

Think about your industry, your audience, and how you normally present yourself. An attorney, realtor, healthcare professional, contractor, and creative business owner may all approach professional clothing differently.

Solid colors and simple layers tend to photograph well because they keep attention on your face. Jackets, blazers, sweaters, and other layers can also make it easy to create several different looks without changing your whole outfit.

Most importantly, your clothing should fit well and make you feel comfortable.

If you’re unsure what to wear, that’s something we can discuss before your session. Planning is part of creating a professional headshot that actually feels like you.

Should You Smile in a Professional Headshot?

You don’t have to choose between a huge smile and an extremely serious expression.

During a professional headshot session, I like creating several variations.

You might have a traditional smile, a softer expression, and something slightly more confident or serious. Different photographs can work better for different purposes.

A realtor trying to appear approachable to prospective home buyers may choose something different than an executive submitting a portrait for a national publication.

Expression is another reason having several strong options is valuable.

Can You Take Headshots and Branding Photos During the Same Session?

Absolutely, and for many business owners, this approach makes the most sense.

Once we have the professional headshots you need, we can create additional portraits with different crops, compositions, expressions and poses.

Depending on the session, that may include three-quarter portraits, full-body images, horizontal compositions, environmental photographs, and images designed specifically for websites or social media.

Instead of thinking about a photography session as getting “a headshot,” think about what photographs your business actually needs.

That’s where planning beforehand makes a significant difference.

Professional Headshots in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

If you’re looking for professional headshots in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls or the surrounding Chippewa Valley, my studio offers headshot and professional portrait photography for individuals, business owners, executives and teams.

My studio is located in downtown Chippewa Falls, and I also work with businesses throughout the Eau Claire area for corporate and team headshots.

Before we photograph, I want to know where you plan to use your images.

If you need one polished professional headshot, we can keep things simple. If you’re updating your website, building your personal brand or need photographs for several different marketing platforms, we can plan a session that gives you considerably more variety.

The goal isn’t simply to create a photograph that looks professional.

It’s to create photographs that look like you, fit your brand and actually have a purpose once they leave my studio.

Whether that’s a LinkedIn profile, company website, email signature, marketing campaign or a full library of personal branding images, we’ll start by figuring out what you need the photographs to do.

Headshot vs. Full Body Photo: Which One Should You Choose?

If you only need one photograph for LinkedIn, a company directory, or another professional profile, start with a headshot.

If you’re building a website, marketing a business, or developing a personal brand, you’ll probably benefit from having both headshots and wider professional portraits.

And if you’re not sure what you need, that’s completely normal.

Rather than choosing between a headshot and full-body photograph before your session, start by thinking about where you want to use your photographs. Once we know that, we can create the right combination of images for those spaces.

Your professional photographs should do more than show people what you look like.

They should give you a collection of images you can confidently use to represent yourself and your business.

The Experience: Stress-Free and Confident

Having your photo taken shouldn’t feel uncomfortable. My role is to guide you through the process with calm direction and expert lighting so you can relax, trust the moment, and enjoy the experience.

Whether you need corporate headshots near Eau Claire, acting headshots in Chippewa Falls, or a full personal branding session, we’ll design the shoot around your goals. You’ll leave with images that look professional, feel natural, and align perfectly with your brand.

What to Wear for Your Headshot Session

Your outfit plays a powerful role in how you come across. Here are a few timeless tips I share with clients before their session:

• Choose solid, neutral tones that complement your complexion.

• Avoid busy patterns or logos that draw attention away from your face.

• Bring a few options — a classic suit jacket, business casual blouse, or elevated layers often photograph beautifully.

• For men’s business headshots, a tailored jacket or collared shirt works best. For women’s professional portraits, soft textures and clean lines elevate your look.

If you’re unsure where to start, I’ve also put together a complete guide on what to wear for professional photos, including clothing, colors, and preparation tips to help you feel confident before your session.

A Professional Image That Works for You

Your photograph should work as hard as you do. It should tell your story before you say a word… showing confidence, credibility, and connection. Whether you’re joining a new company, updating your social media presence, or expanding your brand, professional photography is an investment in your success.

At Andrew Samplawski Photography, we make the process simple, calm, and customized just for you — providing premium headshots near Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls that you’ll be proud to share.

Ready to update your professional image?
Schedule your headshot photography session in Eau Claire or Chippewa Falls today and experience a comfortable, guided photoshoot that captures you at your best.