Your personal brand is your own start-up translated into something visual.
It’s easier to step out in the spotlight if your brand visuals are polished and make you feel confident about who you are and what your business represents.
There are many visual assets that goes into this part, for example your logo and colors, the fonts you use, layout but the most powerful visual branding element you can have are photos of yourself. You can’t build a personal brand without fully “showing up.” Your customers or clients need to know who’s talking to them, they need to know the face of the brand.
Photography is a very powerful tool for telling your story. In addition to using photos of yourself, you can also occasionally include photos of your kids or dogs as long as it helps you tell your story and relates to your brand.
Personal branding photo shoot includes a planning session where we discuss all aspects of your personal brand. After the shoot, you need to be able to see yourself as your brand reflected back to you through your photos.
Part of my job as a brand photographer is to figure out what look and feel my clients are going for, and help them create imagery to go alone with that.
This includes headshots, website listing images, and a number of lifestyle images that are perfect for social media. Be sure to have styled abstract images taken as well, use them on your website, your pricing guide, brand marketing, and of course throughout your social media! Find something that makes it unique to you. If you like tea and books or maybe vintage stamps, include them and make that a part of your shoot. You want to make sure we don’t only capture your brand style but also who you are.
Same as actors are having headshots to sell and market themselves as a brand, it’s the same thing with personal branding where you as a business owner are the face of your own brand and people want to connect with people, not companies. Your branding photos should be a representation of the experience that your clients gonna have when working with you.
NO IDEA HOW YOU WANT YOUR BRAND TO LOOK?
Well that’s my job too! I believe everyone knows how they want their brand to look, once they’ve been asked the right questions in order to help them visualize it. Those are easy questions to clarify and streamline your personal branding look, style and visual message you want to convey to your audience and potential clients.
HOW LONG DOES A PERSONAL BRANDING PHOTO SHOOT LAST?
I would say it normally lasts 3-4 hours, but I want you to know that it can last as much as needed until we get exactly what you want.
HOW DO I PLAN FOR MY PERSONAL BRANDING PHOTO SHOOT?
Think about how you would want the best version of yourself as a business person and a brand to be perceived from your desired audience and plan your shoot around that!
Make sure you have a clear vision of what your brand is, and be able to use specific adjectives to describe it. The more descriptive, the easier it’ll be for me to capture it!
Again, make sure you add your flavors to any inspiration photos because we want to capture that amazing vibe of yours.
I don’t think anyone is comfortable when they first start being photographed! It can feel weird and vulnerable, especially these solo branding photo shoots. Being solo feels more “awkward” because you’re kinda being a model. And if you don’t feel like you know how to be a model, it’s gonna feel awkward.
SOME TIPS:
Incorporate your branding colors, but don’t feel the need to use ALL of them. Less is more
Don’t wear clothes that you need to tug at and worry about. Also consider the shapes that your clothes make on your body Wear something that makes you feel confident and YOU.
Pick locations where you’ll feel “at home”
Try to be as natural as possible
You want to get images that feel like you were caught in a moment!.
Care about your brand images as much as you care about your logo, brand voice, website, social media content, etc. I can guarantee if someone is attracted to a beautiful and consistent images on your Instagram or a website that person will be pulled in to learn more, and much more likely to remember you and come back!
It is really exciting for me to see my clients growing a successful businesses using photos we made together...