How to Prepare for Your Business Branding Photography Session ~ Vancouver, WA
/Preparing for ANY photography session can feel overwhelming. You want to make sure that you look good and likely worry about what to wear or how to pose. You want to make sure to get at least one good image to hang in your home. But when it comes to a business branding photography session, you may feel a little EXTRA nervous as these photos are not intended for personal use, but rather to be in front of the public with as many eyes as possible viewing them!
Here are a four tips to help you be (and more importantly, FEEL) better prepared for your business branding photography session.
Define Your Brand Identity
During our consultation call I will ask you a LOT of question to help me (and you!) get some information on your “brand identity”. This can be something as simple as your brand colors, or more detailed like your brand style or vibe (i.e. do you want your audience to get a comfy, cozy, casual feeling about your brand, or do you want potential clients to see your brand as sleek, professional, and structured?) Your brand photography session will help you get your “message” across in a visual way, so we need to define what that message is!
Plan Your Outfits & Props
Your outfit selection should jive with your brand identity. You may choose to wear your brand colors, or maybe colors that compliment your brand colors (these images are for marketing, so will likely be in close proximity to your official brand colors at some point, so you’ll want to make sure they don’t clash!) Your outfits should also reflect the style/vibe that you’re looking to communicate for your brand. If you want to be see as cozy and comfy, you probably don’t want to wear a suit and tie for your photos. However, if you’re going for a sleek, professional look, yoga pants and a hoodie are probably not the way to go, either!
You’ll also want to think about relevant “props” for your session. If you do a lot of work on your laptop or via a mobile device, those would be great things to include. Maybe you/your brand identifies closely with a certain personal hobby or collection, like house plants. In that case, greenery could be a great prop to include! We want to use props to enhance the “storytelling” aspect of your session and let your prospective clients see a little more about who you (and your brand!) are.
Select the Right Location
I will ALWAYS recommend doing your brand photography session in your workspace… whether that’s your home office, commercial building, or outdoor location. Your prospective clients want to see the environment that they can expect when they choose to work with you. If, for whatever reason, you are not able to use your workspace and need to find an alternative, then we need to consider locations that will best communicate who you/your brand are, and what it’s like to work with you…. whether that’s in a studio session, or at an outdoor location. We’ll look at environment, colors, vibe… all of those things discussed above with your “brand identify”.
Prepare a Shot List
My brand photography sessions normal include a combination of all/some of these things (depending on your specific needs): headshots, behind the scenes images of you at work, detail shots of your workspace, and product images. During our consultation call, we’ll talk about your goals for the photos, and what you really want/need out of your session… and we can adjust the shot list as needed!
