I need a professional headshot for my LinkedIn profile and a work directory, but I do not have the budget for a photographer right now. I tried taking my own photos, and they look uneven and not polished enough. I am looking for the best app for professional headshots that can help me create a clean, natural-looking business photo quickly.
I went down this rabbit hole a while back because I needed a cleaner photo for LinkedIn and didn’t feel like booking a photographer for one profile pic. There are more apps for AI headshots now than there used to be, and a few of them are decent if your goal is a plain, work-safe portrait.
If you want the short version, Eltima AI Headshot Generator stood out more than most of the stuff I tried. I fed it a batch of regular selfies and it turned out polished headshots with cleaner lighting, office-style backgrounds, and details that didn’t look too off on first glance. It seems aimed at resumes, LinkedIn, and company profile pages, not artsy edits, and I think that focus helps.
A couple other options I looked at:
Photoleap feels more like an editor with AI features mixed in. I’d pick it if you want to keep adjusting things yourself, test different styles, or spend time tuning the final image. For a straight professional headshot, it felt less automatic and more hands-on.
GIO is in the same general category, selfie in, portrait out. The results were fine some of the time, then weird the next round. A friend of mine used it before and said the same thing. Good enough for quick tries, not something I’d trust every single time without sorting through a bunch of outputs.
My main issue with most of these apps is consistency. One image looks clean, the next one gives you odd skin texture, strange eyes, or a background that screams fake. From what I saw, and from the same kind of comments I kept running into on Reddit, Eltima AI Headshot Generator is one of the few options people bring up when they want something usable for LinkedIn without a ton of fixing after.
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I’d take a slightly different angle from @mikeappsreviewer.
If you want an app, try Remini or Canva before you pay for a full AI headshot generator. Remini helps fix lighting, sharpness, and skin tone from a normal phone photo. Canva is good for cleanup, background swap, and cropping to LinkedIn size. Less magic, more control. For a work directory, that matters.
My best results came from this setup:
Use window light.
Stand 3 to 5 feet from a plain wall.
Have someone take 20 to 30 photos in Portrait mode.
Wear what you’d wear to work.
Then edit the best one in Remini or Canva.
AI headshot apps sometimes make teeth, eyes, and hair look off. Fine for small profile pics, less fine when HR uploads the full image. I’d fix a real photo first, tbh. It looks more like you, which is kind of the point.
I’d split this into two lanes.
If you want a fast AI option, the one @mikeappsreviewer mentioned, Eltima AI Headshot Generator, is probly worth testing first because it seems more focused on boring corporate headshots than stylized portraits. That actually matters for LinkedIn. I do disagree a bit with going all-in on AI though, because once you notice weird ears, fake fabric, or that slightly “not quite you” smile, you can’t unsee it.
So my other rec is FaceApp plus a basic background editor like Adobe Express. Not for heavy face editing, just for cleanup. FaceApp can subtly even out lighting and remove the “took this in my apartment at 7:12 PM” look. Adobe Express is decent for swapping in a neutral background and tightening crop/framing without making it look too synthetic.
I’m a little closer to @nachtdromer on this part: a real photo, lightly fixed, usually beats full AI generation for work directories. HR systems love exposing every flaw in high res lol.
One more thing people skip: use your phone’s rear camera, not the selfie cam. Massive difference. Even a cheap phone can look solid that way. If the app is doing too much, it’ll start looking like a bank employee in a stock photo from 2018.
I’d actually be a little stricter than @mikeappsreviewer here. If an AI headshot looks “pretty good,” that can still be bad for LinkedIn once someone opens the full image. Tiny face artifacts matter more than people think.
My take:
Best low-budget route: use a normal phone photo plus light editing, or test Eltima AI Headshot Generator only if your source photos are already decent.
Pros of Eltima AI Headshot Generator
- Fast compared to learning a full editor
- Usually gives business-friendly framing
- Helpful if you need several variations for LinkedIn and internal profiles
- Can save a weak photo shoot
Cons
- Sometimes looks a bit too “corporate stock image”
I mostly agree with @nachtdromer and @yozora that light cleanup on a real photo is safer. My one disagreement: Canva/FaceApp/Remini combos can turn into a lot of fiddling if you’re not comfortable editing. That’s where Eltima AI Headshot Generator has a case. It’s simpler.
One option nobody mentions enough: check local photo studios inside big-box stores, coworking spaces, or university career centers. Some do basic headshots super cheap on certain days. If not, use your phone camera with a slight downward camera angle, not straight-on. Weirdly more flattering, less passport-photo energy.