A LinkedIn profile picture with a clean background

At a glance

How to do it

1. Take or pick a sharp, recent photoFace a window so the light falls evenly on your face, hold the camera at eye level, and frame from the top of the chest up. Use a recent photo that looks like you do in a video call today. Skip cropped group photos and sunglasses.
2. Remove the background and set light greyThis page starts with light grey (#f3f4f6). It keeps a visible edge against LinkedIn's white page and looks the same in any office. Check hair and the shoulders of dark jackets, where cutouts most often leave a halo. A soft brand colour works too, if it stays muted.
3. Crop square and uploadCrop to a square with your face centred and some space above your head, so the circle doesn't clip it. On LinkedIn, open your profile, select your photo, upload, then use Edit to fine-tune the crop and set who can see it.

Tips and common mistakes

• Grey, not pure whitePure white makes a light shirt or blond hair merge with the page around the circle. A light grey or soft neutral gives the photo an edge without looking like a studio backdrop.
• Fill the circle with your faceThe photo is small in comments and search results. Head and shoulders should fill most of the circle; a full-body or wide shot shrinks your face to a few pixels.
• Plan the banner around the photoYour profile photo sits over the lower left of the banner. Keep text and logos in the banner's centre and right, and keep its colours calm so the photo stays the focus.
• Check visibilityLinkedIn lets you limit who sees your photo. If recruiters outside your network see a blank silhouette, the visibility setting is the cause, not the image.
• Don't over-editLinkedIn removes photos that don't reflect your likeness. Heavy smoothing, face-changing filters and AI headshots that don't look like you are the common mistakes. A background swap keeps your face exactly as it is.