Tutorials · 2026-10-10 · 3 min read

How to Turn a Phone Selfie Into a Professional Headshot

No photographer booked and a profile that needs a proper photo. Here is how to take the right selfie and turn it into a clean headshot with AI.

You need a headshot for LinkedIn, a company page, or a speaker bio, and the only photos you have are selfies. The AI Headshot Generator on AirGallery takes a clear photo of your face and produces a head and shoulders portrait with studio-style lighting and a clean background. The quality of the result depends mostly on the quality of the selfie, so this guide starts there.

What you need

  • A clear, sharp photo of your face. The tool itself advises good lighting, facing the camera, and no hats or sunglasses.
  • A JPG, PNG, or WebP file up to 25 MB.
  • An AirGallery account, signed in. The credit cost is shown on the page before you run anything.

Steps

  • Take the selfie in daylight, facing a window, with the phone at eye level and a plain wall behind you. Keep your head and shoulders in the frame and look straight at the lens.
  • Open AI Headshot Generator and pick a style. LinkedIn Professional gives a neutral background and a polished look. Corporate uses a dark gray or navy background and formal attire. Creative Professional adds a soft, blurred background and a friendlier feel. Actor Headshot uses a white or light gray background with more dramatic lighting. Casual Professional places you against a blurred outdoor scene.
  • Upload the selfie. Your photo appears on the left with the result panel on the right.
  • Click Generate Headshot, or press Ctrl+Enter. The tool keeps your likeness and reworks the lighting, background, framing, and the appearance of your clothing.
  • Check the result with the Before and After slider. Look at the eyes, the shape of the face, and anything distinctive about you.
  • Click Download or Save to Gallery. Use Create Another to try a different style with the same photo.

Tips

  • If the result does not look like you, do not download it. Run it again, or go back and take a better selfie. Results vary between runs, and a sharper source photo helps more than any setting.
  • Harsh overhead light and phone flash cause shadows under the eyes that carry through to the output. Window light is the fix.
  • If you would rather keep your real photo and only tidy it, use Portrait Retouch instead. The Natural and Subtle styles make small changes to skin, eyes, and lighting without regenerating the image.
  • For print or a large display, run the headshot through Upscale with Face Enhancement turned on.
  • Pick one style for a whole team so the set looks consistent on a company page.

Choosing a style

Match the style to where the photo will live. LinkedIn Professional and Corporate suit profiles, company directories, and bios in formal fields. Creative Professional and Casual Professional work for personal sites, speaker pages, and social profiles where a stiff portrait would look out of place. Actor Headshot is for casting and modeling, where the face needs to carry the frame. If you are unsure, generate LinkedIn Professional and one other, then compare them side by side.

A generated headshot is a reasonable stand-in for a studio session, but it is still a reconstruction of your face. Be honest about it where it matters, keep the source selfie, and update the headshot when your appearance changes. Most AirGallery runs cost one to three credits and credits never expire, so trying two or three styles before you settle is cheap.