HEADSHOT COACHING · EXPRESSION · CONFIDENCE
Expression Coaching for Headshots: Why It Changes Everything
Expression coaching for headshots is the difference between simply putting someone in good light and actually helping them create a photograph that feels confident, approachable, and alive.
If you’ve ever thought, “I’m not photogenic,” “I don’t know how to smile for pictures,” or “I hate having my picture taken,” you’re exactly why I coach expression throughout a headshot session.
You aren’t supposed to arrive knowing what to do with your face. That’s my job.
MORE THAN “1, 2, 3… SMILE”
Expression Coaching for Headshots Is More Than Telling You to Smile
Most people have a camera face.
A camera comes up, somebody says “smile,” and suddenly you create the expression you think you’re supposed to make. The smile gets held a little too long. Your eyes stop participating. You start wondering whether your face normally behaves this way.
That’s not a character flaw. It’s a completely normal response to being photographed.
My goal is not to ask you for the same smile fifty times. It’s to move through expressions, watch what happens, and coach small changes until we find photographs that actually feel like you.
A technically perfect headshot with an uncomfortable expression is still an uncomfortable headshot.
Lighting matters. Camera position matters. Wardrobe matters. Retouching matters. But expression is what gives someone viewing the photograph a sense of who they’re looking at.
SMALL CHANGES · BIG DIFFERENCE
The Details I Watch While I’m Coaching You
Expression coaching happens alongside posing. I’m watching a collection of tiny details that work together rather than asking you to memorize one perfect position.
Your Eyes
Your eyes can make an expression feel connected, uncertain, confident, intense, relaxed, or completely checked out. A subtle adjustment can change the entire feeling of the photograph.
Your Mouth
There are dozens of useful expressions between a giant smile and a completely serious face. We can work through those variations instead of deciding you have one “correct” camera smile.
Your Jawline & Head Position
Head position changes the way the face photographs. Small adjustments to the neck, chin, and jawline can create cleaner shape and stronger presence without making you feel like you’re holding an unnatural pose.
Your Shoulders & Posture
Expression doesn’t stop at the face. Posture and shoulder position influence whether a portrait feels confident, closed off, relaxed, or uncertain. I coach those pieces at the same time.
CONFIDENT DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN SERIOUS
Different Expressions Tell Different Stories
An executive, attorney, realtor, healthcare professional, entrepreneur, and actor may all want something slightly different from a headshot.
Confidence doesn’t always mean a serious face. Approachability doesn’t require a giant smile. Professionalism doesn’t mean removing every trace of personality.
During the session we can create multiple expressions and compare them. One image may feel warmer. Another may have more authority. Another may simply feel unmistakably like you.
That ability to create and evaluate variations is one reason I don’t believe in giving everyone the same pose and expression.
If this is something you struggle with, read how to look natural in professional headshots and whether you should smile in a professional headshot.
WHERE MY APPROACH CAME FROM
Peter Hurley’s Influence on How I Photograph People
Peter Hurley has had a major influence on the way I approach headshot photography.
Through Peter’s teaching, the Headshot Crew community, critiques, training, and mentorship, I learned to think of myself not only as a photographer, but as an expression coach.
Peter’s work taught me that creating a great headshot goes far beyond getting the lighting and camera settings right. You have to understand how the human face responds to the camera and learn how to direct the person standing in front of you.
That includes paying close attention to things like the jawline, eyes, mouth, eyebrows, head position, posture, body position, and the tiny shifts in expression that can change the entire photograph.
More importantly, it changed the way I think about my responsibility as a photographer. My job isn’t simply to put you in flattering light and press the shutter. My job is to communicate with you, guide you, recognize what’s working, make adjustments when it isn’t, and help create expressions that feel believable.
I’ve continued developing my own approach through years of photographing professionals throughout St. Louis and St. Charles County, but Peter’s coaching and mentorship are a major part of the foundation I built on.
If you’re a photographer interested in learning more about the philosophy behind this style of headshot direction, Peter discusses the human face and coaching extensively in The Art Behind the Headshot, and his Headshot Crew workshops continue to emphasize directing and coaching the person in front of the lens.
“I’M NOT PHOTOGENIC”
You Don’t Need to Be Good at Having Your Picture Taken
This is probably the most important point in the entire article.
Most of the professionals I photograph are not models. They’re executives, engineers, healthcare professionals, attorneys, realtors, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, actors, and people who simply need a photograph they actually feel good about using.
Being naturally comfortable in front of a camera isn’t a prerequisite.
When you tell me, “I hate having my picture taken,” that doesn’t make the session harder in some unusual way. It’s one of the most common things I hear.
Good coaching gives you something to respond to instead of leaving you alone with your own thoughts about what your face is doing.
I’ll give you one adjustment at a time. We’ll talk. We’ll reset. I’ll probably make a bad joke. We’ll move through different expressions. And somewhere along the way, you usually stop thinking quite so much about the fact that there’s a camera in front of you.
You don’t have to know how to be photogenic. You need a photographer who knows how to coach you.
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE IN THE STUDIO
Expression Coaching Happens Throughout the Session
This isn’t a five-minute posing lesson before we start photographing.
I’m coaching throughout the session while watching the results in real time. As we create different images, we can see what works and keep refining from there.
We may change your shoulder angle, adjust your head position, refine the jawline, soften an expression, create more confidence in the eyes, move toward a smile, pull away from one, or simply reset completely.
The point isn’t to make you perform a sequence of photography tricks. It’s to use direction to get past the generic camera expression and create something more believable.
THE FINISHED HEADSHOT
Why Expression Coaching Matters After the Session Ends
Your professional headshot may introduce you before you ever meet someone.
It can appear on LinkedIn, your company website, an executive biography, speaking profile, conference program, press release, realtor marketing, healthcare directory, law-firm website, or personal brand.
The viewer doesn’t know what the studio felt like. They don’t know what lighting setup we used or what camera was involved.
They respond to the photograph.
And a huge part of that response comes from your expression.
That’s why I want to create more than something technically correct. I want a photograph that communicates confidence, capability, approachability, personality—or whatever combination best fits how you need to show up professionally.
For more on the ingredients behind the final image, read what makes a good professional headshot and how to pose for professional headshots.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT YOURSELF
Ready to See What Expression Coaching Can Do for Your Headshot?
Christian Berens Photography provides professional headshots throughout St. Louis and St. Charles County with guided posing and expression coaching for headshots built into the session from start to finish.
You bring yourself. I’ll handle the lighting, posture, jawline, angles, expression, and all those tiny details you shouldn’t have to think about.