Dedicating to making and/or hiring great personal brand photography services is key to leveraging all your social media, as well as your personal image and professionalism.
Personal brand photography is the set of imagery that defines your brand and makes you stand out from your competition.
These are the pictures that belong to you and your brand and represent the energy you want to communicate.
Remember that a personal brand is about the efforts you make to create a reputation for yourself.
Understanding the implications of personal brand photography requires attention: it is much more than just the clicks of a camera.
In this article, you will learn the benefits of personal brand photography, why you should have your own, and what elements you should consider before making this work.
Contents
Why Personal Brand Photography Helps Your Business
Did you know that according to research you only have about 27 seconds to make a first impression?
First impressions are relevant because those perceptions last longer in our minds and strongly define what we think about a certain person.
Making a good first impression will be a good impulse to reach your goals with your audience, and not succeeding can be a relevant impediment.
In the online world, everything moves faster than in real life, and you must have a great strategy in order to make a difference.
Professional personal brand photography helps you look more professional, put together, and an expert in your area. Therefore, your chances of making a good first impression increase when you have imagery that supports your brand.
Photography will make it easier for you to attract and connect with your target. It is the perfect opportunity to show the attributes that are the most relevant to your brand.
By having your personalized imagery, you will also humanize your brand, products, and/or services, since you will be putting a face to everything you post and say.
If you are not sure yet about the importance of photography in digital strategy, keep in mind that 60% of consumers give more consideration to local results that have images.
Your personal brand can become part of that statistic through personal brand photography!
Benefits of Personal Brand Photography
Some other benefits of having personal brand photography are:
- Appearing more confident: using your image for your different platforms makes you seem like a person that knows who they are and what they are good at.
- Cultivate brand consistency: personal brand photography across your platforms gives a sense of stability and coherence to your message.
- Differentiate yourself from your competition: your audience will have it easier to recognize you if you have photos of yourself.
- Build trust and reliability: we all like to be sure that there is an actual person behind a website or a social media profile, and photography makes that possible.
- Increases engagement: social media stats tend to be higher and more positive when there is a human being in the post.
How To Use Your Personal Brand Images
Once you have your personal branding pictures, you will have plenty of opportunities to use them.
Website
Your website is one of the main pillars of your digital marketing strategy.
It is where you have all the information about your brand and your expertise, and the channel in which you will be able to turn your followers into clients.
A website composed of personal images looks more professional and trustworthy.
You will be able to make a gallery and have more dynamic pages.
Social Media
The essence of any social media platform is imagery and pictures.
When you have your own set of personal brand photography, you automatically leverage your social media and make you closer to your audience.
In fact, social media campaigns with images have a 42% higher click-to-rate.
By posting a professional photoshoot instead of just selfies and regular pictures, you show your followers how compromised you are.
Other products
Besides all the digital uses you may give your pictures, you could also get creative and bring them to the next level.
Depending on your deliverables, your niche, and industry, you will be able to put your photographs into:
- Book covers.
- Physical ads.
- Brochures.
- Business cards.
- And many more!
Photoshoot Dynamics
What happens before, during, and after your photoshoot will depend a lot on the photographer you’re hiring.
Some will include more services in their packages, some less.
However, generally speaking, these are the elements that should be present when booking a personal brand photoshoot:
Discovery Calls
These are calls, in-person meetings, and other discussions about your expectations and desires for your photoshoot.
This is the place to draw your limits and set deliverables.
Advice
Your photographer should have experience making personal brand photoshoots, so they will be trained to answer your questions and give the best recommendations to make sure your project matches your expectations!
Concept Creation
Every photoshoot should have an artistic concept behind it.
It doesn’t have to be complicated, but having one assures consistency and aesthetic pleasure.
A concept will also allow you to include your values, attributes, and purposes in your visual products.
Actual Photoshoot
The conditions of the photoshoot itself will also vary depending on the photographer.
This includes the location, your wardrobe, the duration of the shoot, and other particular conditions.
An experienced personal brand photographer will also give you advice on how to pose, what to wear, and other elements you might not know that much about.
Edited Photographs
Any photoshoot of any type includes edited photographs.
The number of photos you will receive will be discussed before the photo shoot and will reflect on the price.
How edited and post-produced they are, depend on the photographer and your preferences.
Maybe you rather have clear and light-edited pictures, but you could also want heavily edited photos, with complex backgrounds and different features.
Extras
Some extra elements, products, or services you might find in different personal brand photographers are:
- Hair and makeup.
- Special clothing.
- Behind-the-scenes material.
- Video.
- Printed photos.
- Various locations + transport.
DIY Personal Brand Photography
We 100% recommend hiring a professional photographer to take your personal brand pictures, but we also understand that this is a service that can sometimes be out of budget.
This section is all about the basic resources you must have in order to make a DIYed photoshoot that still looks professional and put together.
Lightning
Having good lighting is one of the most relevant elements when taking any kind of picture.
If you have a comfortable exterior place to take photos or a good window in your house, natural lighting is a good starting point and it will most of the time look good.
However, you can also purchase ring or studio lights. These will expand your options of places to take your pictures and will make it easier to manage the type of light you need.
Camera
The ideal scenario is to use a professional or semi-professional camera.
Nikon and Canon are two of the most famous brands, but there are many more.
You could also use your phone, but if that’s the case, take even more care of your lighting and make sure you use your back camera for higher resolution.
It’s great if you have someone to take the pictures for you, but you can also use Bluetooth controls that link to your camera and phone and allow you to take the pictures without having to actually push the button.
Tripod
No matter what kind of device you use, you will need some kind of tripod in order to have the freedom to build a set and place your camera where you need it.
Some ring lights come with an in-built tripod for your phone, but you can also find better ones on Amazon or any technology store.
Editing software
The last resource you will need is your editing software.
There, you will correct imperfections, enhance the colors, improve your lighting and make the overall final product better.
Depending on your skills and budget, there are paid and free options:
- Paid: we strongly recommend using the Adobe software. This is a professional platform to edit audiovisual material. For photographs, Photoshop and Lightroom are the basic products to use.
- Free: there are several free apps and websites to edit your pictures and get the basic tools to have great products, such as Canva and Picsart.
Get Prepared To Smile To The Camera!
In this article, you learned about why you should look for personal branding photography services, their benefits, and uses, and even how to make your own pictures at home.
Having your pictures taken in order to use them on your website, social media, and other deliverables is part of the marketing phase of personal branding.
This is where you produce content that showcases your skills and knowledge and helps you position yourself in your industry as a thought leader.
Are you in the US? We have some of the best personal brand photographers recommendations, check them out!
Get ready to go to the next level!
