How-to
How long does a headshot take?
The photo takes ten minutes. Everything around it — booking, travelling, waiting for the edit, choosing — is where the time goes.
The realistic timings
A studio session is typically booked as a slot and takes an hour including setup, shooting and reviewing — plus travel and the wait for the retouched files, which is usually days.
At home, the setup is a few minutes and the shooting is ten, but the choosing takes longer than people expect. An AI set removes the setup and the choosing is reduced to picking from a batch.
- Studio: an hour on site, plus travel, plus days for the edited files.
- Home: ten minutes of shooting, once the light and camera are set.
- AI set: minutes to generate, then choosing from the results.
- Choosing: expect ten minutes for a single photo, longer for a team.
What makes it take longer
The two time sinks are lighting setup and the search for a background. Both disappear if you accept the standard arrangement — a window at 45 degrees, a plain wall, the camera at eye level — and neither is worth optimising.
The third is the retake loop: shooting, reviewing, deciding the photo is not right, changing the setup, and shooting again. Setting the light once and shooting twenty frames breaks the loop.
- Set the light once; do not adjust between frames.
- Accept a plain wall rather than hunting for a better background.
- Shoot more frames rather than more sessions.
- Decide later, on a bigger screen.
Why the timing matters for teams
For a single person, an hour is nothing. For a team of twenty, a studio session is a scheduling project: a room, a rota and everyone's calendar, which is why team pages are usually out of date.
Generating each portrait from photos people already have removes the scheduling entirely, which is the difference between a team page that gets updated and one that does not.
How it works
Three steps from a phone photo to a finished image
Upload your photos
Six to ten selfies with different angles and expressions.
Pick a style
Business, editorial, black and white, cinematic — or a profession set.
Download the set
A consistent batch of portraits, ready for your profile.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long does a professional headshot take?
A studio session is usually booked as an hour including setup and review, plus travel and several days for the edited files. A self-taken photo takes about ten minutes once the light and camera position are set.
How long does an AI headshot take?
The generation itself takes minutes, and the time you spend is on supplying photos and choosing from the results. That is the practical advantage: no session to schedule and no waiting for a retoucher.
How long does it take to photograph a whole team?
A studio session for a team of twenty is a scheduling project — a room, a rota and everyone's calendar — which is why team pages go years without an update. Generating each portrait from existing photos removes the scheduling entirely.
How long should I spend choosing the photo?
Ten minutes for a single portrait, and it is worth doing on a large screen rather than a phone. Look at it at the size it will be displayed — usually small — because that is how it will be seen.
Try it on your next photo
Free to download on the App Store. iPhone and iPad only.