Brand photography is the suite of bespoke images used to represent companies, entrepreneurs and small business owners form clear visual identities for marketing materials.
It includes all your product photos, team headshots, social media and blog images and every picture you use for digital or print media - but only if they’re unique to you.
Lots of businesses make use of stock photography instead, which is where you use licensed pictures from a library to represent your brand instead.
That can be fine for a while, but it’s hard to make a visual impact using a bank of generic photos that anyone can use.
Branding Photography varies from one photographer to the next. Mainly due to skills and experience, overhead costs, deliverables ect.
When you are considering hiring a photographer to create branding images for your business, your budget will always be a contributing factor.
However, what the most important deciding factor should be... Does their style and quality of work reflect the style and quality of client/ customer you are trying to attract?
I'll say it again - the images you share on behalf of your business will directly impact the client that you attract. Choosing the wrong photographer for the job could in fact hurt your business.
So what do I charge for personal branding photography??
My prices are all found here
A great branding photographer will first get to know your business, find out a little about your unique selling point, the pain points that you solve for your clients, and how you solve them, they will learn about your branding guidelines, the language and tone that you use when speaking to you audience, and of course, they need to know who your target audience is.
Your branding photographer needs to know all of these things about you and your business so they can create a gallery of images that truely connect you with them, on an authentic and engaging level, it's the only way to stand out from all the noise.
Circling back to my point above... using a photographer who spends time getting to know you and your business so that they can capture images in an authentic way that really connects you to your viewers is the best way to guarantee you will end up with a great gallery of images.
To re-cap, these are things your photographer should be asking you prior to your photoshoot:
Where you’re planning to use your pictures. Are they for your website, social media, blog posts, brochures, adverts - or all of the above? - This will impact the cropping and depth of field chosen at the photoshoot.
What type of photos you need. Do you need team headshots, personal brand photos, product pictures, office images?
Who is your target audience? What is your communication style? ie; fun, bubbly, professional, calming, serious...
What are you hoping to portray? Do you want to be seen as an expert in your field, or a master at your craft?
Next step is to plan your shoot, this is when you decide on locations, styling, props, hair and makeup, extras (if you need) as well as a rough shot list.
The final step is for your photographer to take the raw files and use professional editing techniques to polish your gallery making sure your final images align with all of your branding, the images should look cohesive and on brand for YOU not for them!
If you see a branding photographer consistently sharing galleries with the same colour tone and presets used on multiple various businesses, they may not be the right choice for your unique business, you want to work with someone whol uses thier skills and experience to craft a gallery that is true to your business and branding...
If you are a professional who offers a service or product, you could potentially benefit from personal branding photography. Even if you don't work for yourself, chances are, there is still room for you to build your personal profile, bringing awareness to yourself or the company you work for is only ever going to benefit all parties.
If you have a linkedIn profile, you could benefit from personal branding photography.
Your branding photoshoot should always reflect your business and your brand, including the colours, energy, and messaging. The style of clothing you wear should reflect the level of professionalism that your business upholds. If your business is a casual lifestyle business promoting wellness, and selfcare, then wearing business attire is not going to make sense, likewise, if you are a corporate lawyer who works with large corporate clients, your audience are likely not going to appreciate seeing you in beachwear.
Come along to your branding shoot with at least 3-5 outfits so you can capture a variety of looks, also think about seasonal wear, if you plan on sharing these images through winter, but you are shooting in summer, it's a good idea to try and capture a few shots that feel wintery and vice versa for summer campaigns.
We will go over more specific ideas for your shoot at our pre-shoot planning session and a personal mood board with looks and inspiration will be created for you to help you prepare.