Many would argue that preparation is just one key to success. This definitely applies when it comes time to prepare for your upcoming branding photo shoot. When following through with such an important step for your brand and business, you want to be as prepared as possible.

Why? To maximize the time you have with your photographer, so you can get the images you want. With professional images, you can make a lasting impression and set yourself above the competition, as long as the photos are on brand and memorable.

Today, I will offer some of my best tips on how to prepare for your branding photo session as well as offer a downloadable checklist at the end so you don’t miss a thing.

Start by Reconnecting With Your Brand

Remember, you have to walk before you run. So, the first thing you need to do is reconnect with your brand. What is your brand message, and who is your target audience? Once you can answer these questions, you will be well on your way to finding the perfect photo opportunities with your photographer during your branding photo session.

Review your mission statement, revisit your vision, and don’t forget to interject some personality when connecting with your brand. All of this will work together to help you find the right audience and make your photos as relevant to them as possible. The best part? It also helps you stand apart from your competition.

Your brand identity makes up your values and inspires what you want others to feel and think when interacting with your business. Your brand identity is essentially the personality of your business.

These elements—values, logo, colors, visuals, brand voice, and your ideal client—should come together to create something deeper. This leads you to marketing material that will resonate with your audience as you tell a compelling brand story with professional photography.

Find a Clear Direction and Put Together an Inspiring Shot List

Now that you understand your unique brand identity, it’s time to decide where you will use your professional branding photos. Unlike traditional photography and personal portraits, your branding photos are meant for marketing purposes. The design should be intentional to grow your audience.

For example, what do you need these photos for? Perhaps you are about to launch a new product or just starting out and need general photos to tell your story and introduce yourself to your audience.

You can use your branding photos on your website, social media platforms, and email newsletters. You also aren’t limited to just digital applications. You can use your photos as décor in a brick-and-mortar location, or they can be used for various print materials like business cards and pamphlets.

Once you know the direction you want your photos to take, you can speak with your photographer to decide on other important details like image sizes and resolution. You will need smaller files for web files, while print will call for a higher resolution. All of this will also prepare you to make your shot list, which we will get into below.

Your shot list might include headshots, portraits, action shots, lifestyle shots, behind the scene shots, flat lays, landscape and portraits, website headers, and images with negative space or room to add text.

Remember all the elements that best communicate your brand, and work with your photographer to create the perfect shot list that will successfully convey your brand message and reach your intended audience.

Create a Mood or Inspiration Board to Bring Everything Together

Need an extra kick of creativity? You can gather all the inspiration you need and put together a mood or inspiration board. It’s a good way to map out what you want your photos to be.

Include different color palettes that flow well with your brand identity. A board like this also helps you develop the direction you want your branding photo shoot to go, which can help your photographer understand your vision.

To create your mood board, you can take advantage of several online tools like Canva, where they offer a Moodboard Maker.

Pinterest is another great place to gather inspiration and create a visual for your photographer ahead of your photo shoot.

When putting together visuals for your mood or inspiration board, the items you use should represent the qualities of your brand and the desired aesthetic you want to achieve. Collect pictures, color palettes, and other elements to convey your brand’s vision. You can use different elements to convey patterns, themes, and textures.

You can also write out notes or keywords to establish the mood you want to represent your brand and the overall tone of your professional branding photographs.

What to Wear to Your Branding Photo Shoot

Now we come to what to wear for your branding photo shoot. Again, it really comes back around to what you are using the photos for. For example, if you want a personal branding photo session to introduce yourself or your team, you want to stay in line with the purpose and theme of your branding shoot while always keeping your target audience in mind.

If it’s a personal branding photo shoot, wear classic styles that work well all year. Neutral colors are also great as they can easily match almost any location you pick. You can dress your look up or down depending on your brand identity.

Have some fun and wear your brand colors against a background that allows them to pop. Solid colors always make for more versatile photographs, and bold prints over smaller details work best.

Hair & Makeup Tips for Your Session

Not sure what to do about your hair and makeup before your photo shoot? Don’t worry! At Taylored Photo Memories, we go beyond the headshot. Remember, “a picture tells a thousand words.” We can help paint that picture for you regarding your hair and makeup.

Whether you choose to do hair and makeup yourself or work with one of our favorite vendors, you can achieve a flawless on-camera look that can be adjusted easily in the studio as needed.

With professional hair and makeup services, you can punch up your look while staying on brand and seeing yourself in the best light.

Work Closely With Your Photographer and Maintain Open Communication

Once you have your brand identity nailed down along with your shot list, it’s time to communicate all this with your photographer. It’s a good idea to work with them closely to ensure what you have been planning is realistic and everyone stays on the same page. This will make for an easier photo shoot and more time to get those perfect shots.

Choose Props and a Location That Meshes With Your Brand

Are you going to need shots to help you get the photographs you need that are more on brand with your vision? Now is the time to get everything together. It can be as simple as being photographed with your favorite coffee mug or having the right backdrop when snapping some behind-the-scenes photos for your website.

Take a Break and a Deep Breath

Whew! Whoever says that wasn’t a lot of work failed to go through each step we mentioned above. A little hard work ahead of time can mean a great deal for your brand and business in the future. Once you are done planning and confident you have everything you need, it’s time to relax and rest. Go ahead, take a deep breath, hold, and release. You did it!

Also, remember to have fun! All work and no play will make for a stressful, frustrating, and chore-inducing photo session, which can scramble your otherwise upbeat brand identity.

Things to Avoid When Preparing for Your Branding Photo Shoot

We don’t want to focus too much on the negative, but let’s take a quick look at things to avoid as you prepare for your branding photo shoot.

Avoid Being Too Trendy

This is a common mistake made with branding photography. You should consider your photos’ longevity so they don’t become outdated. Trends come and go, but bad photos will be remembered, so make sure each shot counts.

Avoid Wardrobe Mistakes

Consider the goal of your photos and the audience they need to reach. You want to look as relatable as possible, so avoid wearing something that goes against your brand identity. You should also avoid wearing overly large or noticeable logos, as this detracts from the photographs.

Avoid Under Planning

Brand photos need careful planning and consideration, don’t wait until the last minute to start planning and putting together your shot list. Be intentional about the shoot and the photos you want, and communicate all of this to your photographer.

What to Do After Your Photography Session

If you plan your session beforehand, you already know how you will use your photos. So, after your session, make sure to follow up with your branding photographer. Never be afraid to communicate what you want or need. Ultimately, you want to be happy with the shots you get, and the photographer will appreciate the guidance to ensure that happens.

Finally, don’t forget to leave a rave review! Make sure to mention the kind of photography you had done in the review, why you picked them, and your experience.

Have you set up your branding photo session yet?

16 Steps to Sharpen Your Marketing’s Effectiveness by Focusing on Your Multi-channel Consistency

The importance of having and maintaining a collection of proper brand assets to use promoting your photography business as a part of your overall marketing strategy cannot be overstated.

Whether you want to position your photography business to be as innovative as the all-time great photographer Ansel Adams or as by-the-book as a police officer in charge of taking mugshots, you still need to be businesslike with your branding. At the end of the day you want (no, you NEED!) to be seen as a professional photographer and a small business owner who has their act together.

Your customers may not know the difference between the rule of thirds and the depth of field, but if you can show them a compelling set of seamless brand assets across your marketing pieces, then you’ll capture more leads, book more photo sessions and make more money.

Whether you’re in the early stages of creating your photography based brand or have had one for a while that could maybe use a refresh, it’s always a good time to work through the checklist. Getting off to a good start is as important as a good restart. You may even find it helpful to do on a regular basis. No matter what, defining your photography brand is an important step on the journey to success.

Why Might You Need a Checklist?

For each statement below, answer “Yes” or “No.” If the answer is even one “Yes,” then it’s a good time to revisit the brand checklist.

Inconsistent Branding

Is your brand’s image fragmented due to inconsistent use of logos, colors, messaging or other elements?

Customer Confusion

Do your customers struggle to understand what your business stands for, its values or even what it sells?

Market Competition

Has increased competition made it harder for you to capture the attention of your ideal prospects, prompting the need for differentiation?

Business Growth

Are you trying to attract larger clients or bigger bookings as part of your growth strategy?

Launch of New Products/Services

Are you planning to launch a new product or service but haven’t considered how it will integrate with your existing brand?

Digital Presence

Has a push to enhance your online presence revealed gaps in your branding strategy?

Rebranding Effort

Is your business undergoing a rebranding effort, requiring systematic updates to all brand elements?

Employee Onboarding

Do new employees lack a clear understanding of your brand, leading to inconsistencies in customer interactions and marketing efforts?

How Often Should You Revisit Your Brand Checklist?

Certainly you want to work through the branding checklist when you first create your company.

Going forward you should do it about once a year as it coincides with a business need.

If ever it feels like something is dragging your marketing efforts down, it’s time to circle back to the checklist and see if you can pinpoint what’s causing it.

The solution might be as simple as a fresh set of brand photos that can better tell your brand story.

Maybe the recent service you added isn’t coming off quite right and a little more industry research could turn it around.

If you notice a drop-off in new business that’s more than just a seasonal dip, give the checklist another chance to work its magic.

Some fresh messaging can draw some attention and jump-start your sales department.

You can do a complete overhaul or you can give it a once over and make small course adjustments.

With a thoughtful brand identity you’ll get recognized and be remembered.

The Brand Checklist

I’ve placed these brand standards in more or less a chronological order. Start at the top and work your way down; decisions you make in one step will inform the next. You can work on a handful of them at a time and by the time you get to the bottom you’ll be way in front of a majority of business owners.

Brand Mission Statement

Writing your brand’s mission statement gives your company a reason to exist and states what its purpose is. Anyone who reads it will know what your brand is all about. There’s a good reason answering the “why” is job number one.

Vision Statement

This is an aspirational statement. It’s the place to put your long term goal in writing. With your vision statement, you’ll be going boldly where no brand has gone before.

Values

Stating what’s important to your brand attracts like-minded individuals. This goes for employees and customers. Defining your values and sticking to them will give you loyal followers.

Industry Research

Now’s the time to do a deep dive. The industry already has best practices and standard procedures in place, so you’ll want to study the field and figure out where you fit in. Discover where to follow the leaders and where to break the mold to differentiate yourself.

Core Offering

Figure out what you’ll provide to your customers and what they’ll get out of it. When what you’re offering matches a need, you’ve nailed it.

Competitors

When your offering matches a need better than the competition’s, you’re on your way to the moon. Figure out what you’re up against, where you fit in and how you can beat them. As a bonus, you’ll see their branding and can use it for inspiration when completing the creative parts of the brand checklist.

Target Audience

Knowing who your customers are is as important as pinpointing your product. Use your imagination to create a detailed profile of your ideal customers. Who are they? Where are they from? What do they do on weekends? What makes them tick? Come up with a handful of fictional characters that are representations of your target audience. Knowing who they are will help you market to them in real life.

Brand Mood Board

Now come the really creative bits. Put together a collection of ideas, pictures, color swatches and other things that embody your brand. Answer this question: What is the vibe? What does it look like and feel like? If you’re artistically challenged, try ripping pages from magazines, printing images off your computer or make photo copies from books. Bring it all to the table and then start piecing together the puzzle in your mind. This will most likely stay as an internal document, but like the next step, it’s where you start to flesh out the skeleton you’ve built up until now.

Brand Voice

What sort of language will your brand have? Is it calm and soothing or is it aggressive and bold? Pick out the words you will use. Are they youthful, classic, luxury or spicy words? Shoot to develop a bank of words and concepts you will always be able to pull from that defines your brand through thick and thin.

Brand Messaging

You’ll need a set of core messages that will be repeated throughout the brand’s life. Repetition breeds familiarity, which is what you’re after. Tell people about your brand in a way that resonates with them and meets their needs, wants and beliefs.

Brand Story

This will weave together the history of your brand. Tell the narrative of who built it, how they built it and why they built it. This includes how the brand’s history drives the brand’s present and future.

Color Palette

When picking the brand colors, consider the emotions those colors evoke. Colors go a long way to giving your brand a personality. Make sure it matches the brand voice, the story and is true to your mood board.

Fonts

Don’t let fonts become an afterthought. This design element can be a secret weapon. Pick a good one and it will look like it was meant to be; pick a bad one and you’ll be hating it for the rest of the brand’s life. The font should reflect the brand’s personality. Make it count.

Logo

And we’ve finally arrived at the logo. The first thing that people think of comes at the end of the brand checklist. Because if it’s what customers see and think of first when encountering your brand, then you want it to be the most informed piece of your branding arsenal.

Lay the groundwork and then dazzle them with a professionally designed logo. A good graphic designer will need to have the MVV, the story, the voice and all the other pieces to do their job well for you, so don’t skip any of the prior steps. Do it right and you’ll be rewarded.

Brand Photos

Single-owner businesses, small businesses, medium businesses and everyone in between will benefit from a gallery of useful brand photography because it increases your conversion rate. 

A picture tells a thousand words, and when the images you use to tell your story are unique to your company, you’re able to tell a story that no one else can: YOURS! More and more these days, consumers want to connect with businesses and companies that they can relate to. There’s no better way to do this than with brand photography created specifically for your business.

Introducing yourself to people via brand photos, taken by a professional photographer who understands the powerful ways to use them, is a sure fire way to supercharge your brand and your marketing efforts. 

Get The Brand That Makes Them Say “YES”

I start each day fired up to help small businesses tell their stories through timeless photography that bucks the trends and stays true to the moment.

With years of experience and a passion for storytelling, my team and I specialize in capturing the essence of your unique brand through trustworthy and marketable imagery. Get in touch so that we can start creating a reflection of you that you’ll be proud to share with the world.

Plan and schedule a shoot and you’ll soon have a complete set of personal brand photographs along with a personalized plan for how to successfully use it.