Recommendations for turning a selfie into a professional headshot?

[LLissues]

I need a professional looking head shot - nothing too corporate but needs to look professional, so a selfie won’t cut it. I wondered if AI could help turn a reasonable selfie/passport photo into a headshot. I just tried a free app and I looked like I’d stepped out of Days of Our Lives (and crucially nothing like me ).
Any recommendations?

AI will always make you look a bit, well, artificial. Here’s a blend of what our official photographers at work do for corp headshots vs what our lovely office admins do for staff passes :)

• Ensure a natural shade of light on your face, check for shadows (usually this means a few desk lamps as well as a window).
• Ideally a neutral (off white) background from a plain wall or at the very least not a busy clutter background of shelves etc.
• keep make up and hair polished but not overdone.
• single block colour top (rather than a pattern) and avoid statement jewelry, scarves etc.
• in terms of angle stand at a very slight angle then turn your face back to camera
• slight smile should be warm and authentic with soft eyes

I think this is very difficult to do as a selfie. You might be able to do with a timer function but far better to enlist a friend. Take loads of photos and the review them rather than reviewing after each one as you’ll get fatigued

I wouldn't even try to edit an angled selfie (like those that are taken with one hand from the diagonally placed position) and suggest taking a picture using the timer instead. Try placing the phone somewhere so that it would be at the eye level, definitely use a tripod if you have one (if you don't try putting the phone next to the books or on the laptop so that it would stand vertically), and you can change the background later. Here are some tips for taking a passport photo, obviously the rules for passports are strict and you will be fine not following them to a dot since you need the picture for other purposes, but it might be helpful still.