Minimal Light-Room LinkedIn Portrait (Tech & Startup)

Generate a photorealistic LinkedIn professional headshot using [your selfie] as the face reference. The person should be wearing a clean, fitted slate-gray crewneck sweater with no visible logos. Place them against a pure off-white seamless studio backdrop lit with a large softbox from the upper-left, creating a gentle Rembrandt-style shadow on the right cheek. The expression should be warm, approachable, and confident, a slight natural smile with direct eye contact. Keep the framing a tight head-and-shoulders crop with the face slightly off-center to the right. Skin tones should look natural and flattering, not over-smoothed. The image should feel like it was taken by a professional photographer in a $500/hour studio, not AI-generated. Final output should be crisp, high-resolution, and optimized for a LinkedIn profile photo.

Why it goes viral

The 'real photographer, not AI' instruction consistently beats generic prompts and produces results people screenshot and share as tutorials.

How to use it

Upload your clearest selfie into a GPT-4o image chat session. Paste the full prompt text replacing [your selfie] context with 'the person shown in the uploaded photo'. Review the output, regenerate once if the background or lighting is off. Save and crop to square for LinkedIn; no further editing usually needed.

Pro tips

In GPT-4o, paste your selfie directly into the chat before the prompt, face fidelity is dramatically better with a reference image. The phrase 'not AI-generated' in the prompt genuinely shifts the model toward photorealistic output over a stylized look. If skin tones look plastic, add: 'preserve natural skin texture, visible pores, no airbrushing' to the prompt. For a darker complexion, add your skin tone description (e.g., 'warm deep brown skin') so the lighting model doesn't over-correct.

Steps and settings

1. 01Upload your clearest selfie into a GPT-4o image chat session.
2. 02Paste the full prompt text replacing [your selfie] context with 'the person shown in the uploaded photo'.
3. 03Review the output, regenerate once if the background or lighting is off.
4. 04Save and crop to square for LinkedIn; no further editing usually needed.