How to edit your LinkedIn profile photo with AI
LinkedIn profiles with photos get 14 times more views than those without. The photo does not need to be a studio headshot. It needs to look like a professional who thought about what they were doing. A phone photo with a cleaned-up background often clears that bar better than an over-filtered corporate portrait.
What actually makes a LinkedIn photo work
The bar for a LinkedIn photo is lower than most people set for themselves. Recruiters and hiring managers are not looking for studio lighting. They are looking for a person they can put a face to, presented without obvious signals of carelessness. A photo shot against a clean wall with good daylight and some background cleanup beats most professional headshots for the purpose.
The problems worth fixing are specific: something distracting in the background, another person visible at the edge of the frame, a very messy bookshelf behind you, or clothing that reads poorly in the photo. Everything else is noise. The goal is not perfection. It is removing the things that distract from your face.
What to edit (and what to leave alone)
Be selective. Most LinkedIn photo edits should be invisible. If someone looks at your photo and thinks "nice edit," you have gone too far.
Edit these
A distracting object in the background. Another person at the edge of the frame. A bright logo or sign visible behind you. A piece of clothing with a visible collar crease.
Leave these alone
Your face shape. Your glasses. Your skin tone. Your body proportions. Your actual hair color. These define you as a person, and your photo must match the person who shows up to meetings.
This is not a legality issue. It is a practical one. If your edited photo looks different enough that someone pauses when they meet you, you have created a trust problem before the conversation starts. Keep the editing to things that are genuinely about the photo, not about you.
How to clean up a LinkedIn photo with BOARD
Take 10 or 15 shots in good light before you start editing. Your face toward a window, neutral wall behind you, camera at eye level. Pick the one where you look most like yourself. Editing starts from a good source, not a bad one.
No account required, no app to install. Use Safari, Chrome, or any browser on your phone or laptop. Upload the original file, not a screenshot or a copy you already sent somewhere.
BOARD detects objects in the photo automatically. Tap the bookshelf behind you, the other person visible at the edge, the bright sign on the wall. BOARD removes it and fills in the background. Review before moving on.
Tap the clothing item (your collar, your jacket). Instead of Remove, choose Edit and type a prompt like "smooth the wrinkles" or "make the collar lie flat." Results vary by how much fabric is involved, but minor collar creases often clean up well.
LinkedIn recommends a square photo at 400x400 pixels minimum. Download the edited photo, crop to square if needed, and upload directly through your LinkedIn profile settings.
Removing another person from a cropped photo
A common situation: you have a good photo of yourself that was actually a group shot. Someone else is partially visible at the edge of the frame. Even if you crop tightly, a shoulder or a hand can still show. BOARD handles this well because it detects people as objects and removes them as a unit.
Tap the partial person, run removal, and the background fills in. If the person is very close to your own face or there is significant overlap, the result may need a second pass. For photos where another person's head or body is within inches of yours, the detection can be harder. See the guide on removing a person from a photo for the edge cases.
What not to do: a short list of over-edits that hurt more than help
These come up often enough to mention specifically:
- Do not change your face shape or slim your face. Recruiters and colleagues notice this. It reads as insecurity, not polish.
- Do not remove your glasses. If you wear them every day, take the photo with them on.
- Do not change your skin tone or apply smoothing filters. Heavy skin smoothing makes a photo look like a video game character, not a professional.
- Do not replace the entire background with a studio gradient or blur. It looks like a school portrait from 1998, and people can tell.
- Do not use a heavily filtered version of a photo that looked natural before. The filter becomes the thing people notice.
One useful frame: Your LinkedIn photo should match the person who walks into the interview room. If there is a gap, you created a problem before you opened your mouth.
BOARD vs AI headshot generators for LinkedIn
This is worth addressing directly. There are tools like HeadshotPro and BetterPics that take your selfies and generate a new studio-style photo using trained models. They produce impressive results and cost $30-60 per pack. They are also generating a new face that looks like you but may not be quite you, trained on your photos.
BOARD does not do that. BOARD is an object-removal and editing tool. It cleans up the photo you took. Your face is still your face. For LinkedIn, that distinction matters. See the sibling guide on how to get a headshot with AI for an honest comparison of where generative tools make sense and where they do not.
Related guides
- How to get a headshot with AI (LinkedIn, resume, profile)
- How to remove a person from a photo
- Best photo editors for removing objects from photos
- Magic Eraser for iPhone: what works instead
Frequently asked
Can AI edit a LinkedIn profile photo without making it look fake?
Yes, if you use it for cleanup rather than generation. Removing a distracting background element or a photobomber behind you keeps the photo honest. Tools that generate a new face from your selfies are a different category and carry different risks for professional use.
Should I remove the background from my LinkedIn photo?
A full background removal and replacement usually looks artificial in a profile context. Removing a specific distracting element behind you (a cluttered shelf, another person, a bright sign) while keeping a real-looking background tends to read better than a flat white or blurred studio substitute.
Can BOARD remove wrinkles from clothing in a photo?
BOARD can use its Edit command to alter the appearance of clothing with a text prompt. Results vary depending on the fabric, the lighting, and how visible the wrinkle is. For a slight collar crease, it often works well. For heavily creased fabric covering most of the shirt, you will get variable results.
What editing will get my LinkedIn photo rejected or flagged?
LinkedIn does not algorithmically flag edited photos. The professional concern is reputational: if your photo does not match the person who shows up to a meeting or interview, you create a mismatch that erodes trust. Stick to background cleanup and do not alter your face, skin tone, or body shape.
How many edits does it take to clean up a LinkedIn photo?
Usually one to three. One for a distracting background element, one if there is a second person partially visible, and one if there is a visible clothing issue. Your first 5 edits are free at brd.ing, so a typical LinkedIn photo cleanup costs nothing.
Clean up your LinkedIn photo in under a minute
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