Very recently, and much to the chagrin of many, the headshot became democratized. No longer a just requirement for C-level executives, recruiters now expect every jobseeker to maintain a robust online profile that includes a photo. I have a side hustle writing resumes, and part of my work is to coach people on creating a good online profile. Most people dislike being photographed, and some panic when I tell them they must upload a photo to LinkedIn if they don’t want to be passed over. Many worry they aren’t attractive or youthful enough to post a photo. They don’t want to be judged based on looks. And no one is quite sure what is meant by “professional headshot”.

The good news is that a LinkedIn photo doesn’t need to look like it came out of a modeling agency. And unless you are an actor or in another profession where appearance is critical to the role, your headshot doesn’t need to be taken by a professional photographer. Like the rest of your LinkedIn profile, your headshot can be user generated content.

Apr 01, 2019  Daltoosh TRIPLE TAKE is Best Sniper - Apex Legends Predator Moments - Duration: 11:49. Apex Legends Clips 12,453 views. Meanwhile, the Triple Take was also given a boost when paired with the Precision Choke attachment, as the choke time has now been decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1.1. Read More: How to see your.

This past weekend I took my own “professional” headshot for LinkedIn, cobbled together and tested with easy-to-follow, practical resources I found online. The process required a smart phone, a few hours, and pounds of makeup. And it was cost free. In an effort to help others painlessly meet the headshot requirement, I’d like to share my experience.

How to Take Your Own Headshot

If you aren’t familiar with Photofeeler, I recommend you stop reading this article and check them out right this minute. Besides being a super cool app that helps you select the best photos of yourself by removing self-bias, they have a fantastic blog full of tips on how to look better in pictures. I followed their suggestions in the post, How to Take Your Own Professional Headshots at Home, and it worked like a freakin’ charm.

You may be thinking, “I’m not a professional photographer. How can this possibly work?” The reason it works has to do with context. Unless you’re an actor or model and the photo is going to be reviewed by an art director, a good enough amateur photo can make a great LinkedIn photo. It does not have to be perfect. You do not have to look like a model. On LinkedIn, your audience consists of recruiters and hiring managers, not art directors. Recruiters aren’t looking for a runway-worthy headshot. (If you meet one who is, run.) Recruiters are looking for two things: first, the presence of a photo, which completes your online footprint, and second, the good judgement to know a professional photo from an inappropriate photo. Presence, and good judgement: that’s what your photo needs to communicate, and you can certainly achieve those goals without hiring a professional photographer.

The Setup

Find a blank wall in your home, preferably with diffused, natural light. Avoid direct sunlight, which will make you look washed out, but also avoid overhead lights, which can create shadows on your face. You can always add more brightness with photo editing software, so go for an even diffusion of light. In my case, I took the photo in a sunlit room starting around 2pm, but closed the shade directly in front of the blank wall because it was causing uneven shadows on the wall. The key to a good background is consistency. It can be a white wall, a blue wall, or a brick wall, or a wall of ivy. But it must be consistent, because the focus of the photo is your face, and a distracting background will shift attention away from you.

I chose my dining room table, and placed a step ladder on top of the table. I then placed a couple of books on top of the step ladder to prop up the phone. (If you have an actual camera, go crazy, but I assume most people will use a phone.) Now, turn on the rear facing camera and decide what timer setting you want to use. I found 3 seconds to be perfect. Ten seconds gave me that frozen, is-it-over-yet look. Now, take a couple of test shots to make sure the phone is at the right height.

1. Your face should be level with the camera. Make sure the phone is not shooting up your nose, or looking down at you from above, which will make you look subservient.

2. The phone should be far enough away so that you can see your shoulders and upper torso in the frame. You don’t want your face filling the whole frame.

3. The phone should be close enough so you can easily reach out and take another photo, with enough time to back up into camera-ready position. This is important; you’re going to be taking at least 50 photos.

Now, go and take a shower.

You Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

The hardest, and most time-consuming part of the process for me was putting on makeup. Makeup skills are an area where I am sadly deficient, so I took myself to the internet to study up on what people competent in the beauty arena advise. I found an article by Janie Young, a blogger much more adept than I, who describes blow-by-blow how to do your own makeup for a photo shoot. (I swear, the white under-the-eye liner trick takes 5 years off your face.) After getting out of the shower and doing my hair, I pulled every bit of makeup I owned out of the bathroom cabinet and assiduously followed Janie’s easy, paint-by-numbers makeup application technique. The finished results were not perfect, but I was going for good enough. One thing I learned is to use a heavy hand with makeup, because, while the camera adds 10 lbs. to your body, it also magically removes the appearance of makeup from your face. The camera must be Satan.

Wardrobe

If you don’t wear makeup, be sure to choose clothing in the right color. Most people know what colors look good on them. Go for a shirt or blouse in those colors. “Your” color will make you look good, and you’ll feel more comfortable, which will help you stay relaxed during your professional selfie. In my situation, there is no pastel pink shade in existence that would make me look professional in a photo, so I went with a black and white blazer, which is technically out of my blonde, freckled wheelhouse, but I was able to overcome it with a pound of makeup.

Speaking of blazers, wear a blazer. I’m sorry. Just wear a blazer. Like you would wear glasses if you were trying to look smart. When I was very young and waited tables for a living, I would wear glasses if I needed to earn a lot of tips that night. True story. Stereotypes are maddening, but if you can’t change them, you may as well use them to your advantage. A blazer confers instant professionalism, like glasses confer instant intelligence.

As far as jewelry or other accessories, I would advise against anything but the most understated. Humans are hardwired to home in on faces, which, for a professional photo, is a good thing. The goal is for the recruiter or hiring manager to read likability and competency in your be-blazered, smiling countenance. The last thing you want when you’re trying to convey professionalism is for the viewer to get distracted and start judging you by your fashion choices. Besides, as soon as those of-the-moment earrings or tie start downtrending you’ll have to go through this process all over again.

Below the waist, it doesn’t matter what you wear. I chose ripped jeans and flip-flops, but do whatever makes you feel relaxed: MC Hammer pants, pajama bottoms, clown shoes, your skivvies, a tutu, nothing. Wear whatever makes you smile in a relaxed and non-fake way.

The Shoot

In my experience, there is no way to get ready for this moment except to stand in front of the camera, push the button and smile. Then repeat, about 50-100 times. It's highly probable you’ll feel like a complete dork for the first few shots. (By the way, it helps if there is no one else at home when you do the shoot.) During my shoot there was no one home except my two dogs, who, inexplicably, love me the way I am and didn’t care that I was shooting selfies in too much makeup in a blazer I never wear. After about 10 shots, it got really easy. In fact, it was much easier than getting my picture taken by someone else because there was no one present to witness my dorkiness.

Posing

1. Smile. You’re going for likability. The data show that, in professional settings, likability is as important, if not more important, than competence. Read more about this counterintuitive factoid here.

2. Hands: Hands are the worst. There are times when you wish they would just recede into your body, and getting your picture taken is one of those times. Try putting your hands on your hips, in your back pockets, or even resting them on a chair. Even though your whole arm won’t show in the final picture, giving your arms a job while the camera is clicking away will help you relax and appear at ease.

3. Smile.

4. Body angle: the angle of your torso with respect to the camera can make the difference between a photo that says “I’m getting my photo taken right now and I hate it” and one that says “I’m standing here looking pretty cool”. Facing the camera dead on can be hard to pull off, and can make you look stiff. Experiment with angling your body slightly to the right, then slightly to the left, then review the results to see if you like one side better.

5. Did I say, “smile”?

6. Eye contact: make eye contact with imaginary photographer behind the camera. Looking away from the camera for a LinkedIn photo can give viewers the impression that you have something to hide. Even if you are in an artsy profession, it’s advisable to look at your audience; otherwise you may look like an artsy jerk. The trick is to look at the camera, not as an inanimate piece of equipment, but as if you’re looking through the picture at the viewer. Not in a creepy way, but as if you’re having a conversation with the viewer. Take a few shots and then review them to see how you’re tracking on eye contact.

7. Head angle: your head should be plumb, meaning, don’t cock your head. A tilted head is a subservient pose and can make you look too flirtatious. On the other hand, it’s OK, and even flattering if one side of your face shows more than the other. Just keep your head straight.

8. Keep smiling!

9. Think happy, wholesome thoughts when you smile. During my shoot, I thought about taking my dogs up to the Eastern Sierra and watching them run trails. I thought about how proud I was of my niece who just started at Berkeley this fall. I thought about rock climbing. I thought about chocolate chip cookies. Happy thoughts will bring an authentic smile to your eyes and mouth.

Selecting and Testing

After you’ve taken at least 50 photos, you’ll have a camera roll that looks something like this.

Once you identify 3-5 potential winners, it’s time to get an objective opinion. Objective as in, people you don’t know. Don’t ask your friends, and certainly don’t ask your family. Your friends and family already know what a likable, competent person you are and are thus disqualified to give you objective feedback on how you appear to recruiters and hiring managers.

To get objective feedback on my runners-up, I used Photofeeler, the app I mentioned earlier. In the Photofeeler app, users evaluate the head shots of random strangers based on three dimensions: perceived competence, likability, and influence. I had thought my photos looked basically the same, but they received a surprising range of ratings. I am glad I did not make the final decision myself, because the photo I planned to use, the left most photo, got the lowest likability rating! Even though it rated high for competence and influence, I used likability as the litmus test because a LinkedIn photo exists to lure the viewer, not for me. Kind of like how a wedding ends up being all about everyone except the people getting married.

Photo Editing

Once Photofeeler selected the winner, I did about 10 minutes of editing. I used Photoshop to increase the overall brightness, and color corrected the skin tone with the built-in automagical setting. I then cropped the photo into a square. Be sure to center your head from right to left because LinkedIn will auto-crop the photo depending on the page and screen size. Sometimes they put you in a circle, and other times in a square. You don’t want to lose an ear.

For the vertical orientation, your head should be above the center point of the frame. Placing your head toward the top of the frame will give you more presence. It sounds silly, but placing your head too low can make you look, short, or like a little kid, or plebeian. If you don’t have Photoshop, ask a designer friend to help you out. Barring that, the photo editing software on your phone is likely to be pretty good.

Hurrah! You’re ready to upload your photo, sit back, and receive compliments from your network. Good work!

Do you find that opponents are killing you immediately, even though you both are carrying the same weapon into the fray? This might be because of hop-up attachments. These small items might seem innocuous, but when they come together with the right gun at the right time, it could be the deciding factor between another loss or a coveted win in Apex Legends.

Hop-up attachments alter a specific gun’s mechanics and effectiveness. There are four types of hop-up attachments that each work with two different guns, as of now. When equipped, these attachments do various things, like alter a gun’s rate of fire or how much damage a headshot does.

This nifty add-on is one of the sought after hop-up attachments in the game for shotgun and sniper lovers alike. The name of it tells you what it does: It chokes the bullets, reducing the spray and making each shot pack more of a punch.

With the Peacekeeper shotgun, the attachment allows the player to charge up how focused the shot will be. The longer they’re aimed down sights, the more concentrated the shot will be. This makes sneaking up on an enemy and getting the first shot a great method to start out a gun fight. The downside is that it does take some time to charge up the focus and the player’s movement is drastically slowed down while aiming down sights.

The other gun that the Precision Choke works with is the Triple Take energy sniper rifle. The Triple Take lives up to its name, shooting out three bullets with each shot. This makes it ideal for sniping running targets.

The Choke works in a very similar fashion with the Triple Take as it does with the Peacekeeper. The longer you’re aimed down sights, the closer together the three bullets are, making each shot count much more.

The negative to using the Choke on either of these weapons is that while the spray of both these guns becomes less, the accuracy of the player has to become better. If the player misses a shot with either of these guns, then they’ll have to wait for them to rev up again to get their next potent shot off. This is arguably the only hop-up with a downside, but if the player has good accuracy, it could make them unstoppable.

Unlike the Precision Choke, the Skullpiercer hop-up doesn’t really have a downside and isn’t too complicated to understand. This attachment works with both the Wingman heavy pistol and the Longbow heavy sniper rifle—and it does pretty much the exact same thing for both. This attachment boosts the headshot damage when equipped. Without it, headshot damage is usually 200 percent damage.

For the Wingman, the Skullpiercer increases the headshot damage by 25 percent, while it improves the Longbow’s headshot damage by 50 percent. Since there really is no downside to equipping it, if you’re using one of the two compatible weapons, make sure to pick it up quick and start blasting some heads.

Triple Take Precision Choke Headshot Dmg 3

This nifty little hop-up is used to allow a gun to fire differently than it could before—but it works shockingly different depending on which gun it’s put on. The Selectfire Receiver works with the Prowler heavy submachine gun and the Havoc energy assault rifle.

When used with the Prowler, this attachment allows the weapon to be switched from burst fire, only shooting five shots at a time, to fully automatic. While this might not seem like a big change, by equipping this, a player can make the Prowler drastically more effective in close to mid-range firefights.

This hop-up also changes the way the Havoc fires. When equipped, this attachment changes the Havoc from a decent assault rifle to a high-power chargable laser beam. Similar to a sniper rifle, the Havoc, when used with the Selectfire Receiver, fires one concentrated beam dealing a single hit of decent damage. If the player wants versatility in their loadout, the Havoc could be a good choice for them.

It also allows the player to switch back to the regular fire setting on both guns if they so choose, so there isn’t too much of a disincentive to use it with these weapons.

Turbocharger is the only Legendary hop-up, making it hard to find on the battlefield. But what it provides might be worth the search.

This hop-up takes away the rev up time for both the Havoc and the Devotion. The Havoc’s usual warm up time before it fires is nonexistent, making sure the player is ready to get in the fray at a moments notice. For the Devotion, the Turbocharger makes it so the fire rate is 100 percent ready from the moment that the trigger is pulled. This makes this particular hop-up a must have for users of these weapons.

Triple Take Precision Choke Headshot Dmg 5

For more information about the best guns to use in Apex, check out this weapon tier list.