LinkedIn displays your photo as a small circle — roughly 60 pixels in feed and search results. Almost every photographic decision that matters follows from that single constraint, and most tools ignore it.
The comparison
| Tool | Square/circle crop | Identity retention | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pixshop | Built into the pack framing | High — single selfie reference | A profile photo today |
| Aragon AI | Available | High after training | Many options to choose from |
| HeadshotPro | Available | High after training | Consistent team rollouts |
| Canva | Manual crop | n/a — edits existing photos | Retouching a photo you have |
| Remini | Manual crop | Enhancement only | Rescuing an old photo |
What the circle crop demands
- Tight framing. Head and shoulders. A waist-up shot renders your face at maybe 25 pixels.
- High contrast between you and the background. Low-contrast backgrounds turn the thumbnail into a blur.
- No busy patterns. They alias badly at small sizes.
- Centred face. LinkedIn's circular mask crops the corners of your square upload.
The thing worth testing
Before committing to any photo, shrink it to 60 pixels and look at it. If you cannot tell it is you, the photo fails — regardless of how good it looks at full size. This single test eliminates most candidate photos.
Beyond the profile photo
LinkedIn also shows a background banner, which most people leave as the default. It is free real estate, and a banner matching your headshot's colour palette makes the whole profile read as deliberate.
For role-specific framing guidance, see headshots by profession. The broader field is covered in best AI headshot generators, and the definitions in what is an AI headshot.