5 Essential Things To Know About Your Brand Before Scheduling a Brand Photography Session

Preparing for your Photoshoot

samanthas-brand-photo

Brand photography is more than a generic headshot – photos are crafted to tell your story, allow your personality to shine through the images, and ensure that the pictures resonate with your brand. To do that, we need to have a good understanding of your brand! 

Here are five essential things to know about your brand before your photography session:

Colour Palette

Knowing your brand colours before getting your photos taken is crucial. Why? Because you don’t want to choose outfit colours, props, accessories, backgrounds and locations that will clash with your brand colours!

We’ll also want to add your brand colours into some of the images to provide a cohesive look on your website, social media and your marketing materials.

Your Brand Words

What words would you love your ideal clients to use when describing your brand? Here are a few examples:

  • Fun
  • Quirky
  • Inspirational
  • Ecological
  • Holistic
  • Magical
  • Creative
  • Elegant
  • Classy
  • Down-to-earth
  • Approachable

Note that many of these words evoke a different feeling in your viewer and could attract completely different clients. For example, classy and elegant are a completely different vibe than fun and quirky. 

We can communicate these words in your photos with select poses, facial expressions, outfits, shoot locations/backgrounds, props and accessories. So it helps immensely knowing your brand words BEFORE we plan your session.

When deciding on your words:

  1. Ask your favourite clients what words they would use to describe your brand.
  2. Ask your friends and family what words they would use to describe you and your business.
  3. Think about which words you want your ideal customers to think of when they interact with your brand.

Photo Aesthetic 

You’ll want to consider which photo aesthetic matches your brand best. Do you have an edgy brand that uses a lot of black or dark colours? Or is it light and elegant? Or colourful and fun?

Photographers have their own style when it comes to creating and editing photos. Some things that can influence a photographer’s style can include:

  • Exposure and lighting (e.g. dark & moody vs. bright and airy, use of off-camera flash and natural light)
  • Contrast (e.g. edgy vs. soft & dreamy)
  • Tone (e.g. warm vs. cool tones)
  • Creative eye (e.g. image composition)
  • Photoshop effects (e.g. adding magic to a photo)
  • Use of colour (e.g. use of gels to add vibrant colours)

When you choose a photographer, you’ll want to check out their portfolio to ensure that their style will fit your business. 

Also, you’ll want to stay consistent with that style. For example, don’t mix dark and moody images with bright and airy ones!

Your Story

Your stories are so important to building your brand! Why do you do what you do? When did you decide to turn it into a business, and why? Did you go through any transformations or realizations that your dream client can relate to and which shaped your own business?

Stories are what allow your dream clients to connect with you and get to know you. They add authenticity and help your clients understand your values and what drives you.

Once you know which brand stories you’d like to tell, we can design photos that tell those stories through imagery!

What is Unique about You and Your Services?

Another way to look at this is to ask yourself: what is your superpower? What is that you do differently from other people in your field?

These questions help us plan photos to help you stand out from your competition. They are things we can integrate into your images. 

For example, one of my clients is a vibrant, creative and quirky hairstylist whose superpower is helping people express their true selves through their hairstyles. For her session,  we combined coloured gels and LED lights with various fun poses to help communicate her creativity and vibrant style and show her authenticity. Her competitors often stick with classic bright and airy photos with traditional poses, so my client’s photos really stand out! Plus, they help her clients get to know who she is and why she’s unique.

It takes courage to show who you really are in your photos! But authentic images that show your personality and tell your story will resonate with your dream clients and help them truly get to know, like, and trust you.

Want to Learn More About Brand Photography?

Click the link HERE to learn more about it and how you can work with The Small Business Photographer.

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