What is personal branding and who is it for?
A personal branding session is a process of capturing photographs that represent your brand. It depends on your business, but it can be portraiture, product shots, lifestyle photographs of a location, service or product, candid images of a service or a space or a mixture of those.
It can be for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, startups, or even bigger companies. It's for anyone who are providing a service, or selling physical or digital products. The photographs will not only represent the actual products and services, but will also show what is your brand philosopy, message and overall feel. It helps potential customers align more with you, your brand and with anything you're selling.
Preparations for a personal branding shoot
Any good personal branding shoot should start with the photographer getting to know your product/service. It doesn't necessarily mean that I'll visit you for a blowdry for example, if you are a hair stylist. But I should know what is that you do, what kind of services/products you offer, how clients use your services or how do they first encounter your products. This part can be done by checking your website (if you have all the info there), or visiting your online or real life store, or by a quick online or in-person consultation. This gives me a good base to understand the basics of your business.
The next part of the pre-shoot process is to get together (online or in-person works too) and talk about not just the actual things you offer, but your brand and vision. Those sound like pretty big words, but it's not complicated. We just have a consultation where you can talk about how would you like to make your customers think about you, view your business/brand. What adjectives would you use to describe your business/brand? Is it fun? Serious? Luxury? Down-to-earth? Trustworthy? And anything you can think of. This could be hard, but I'll help you during this phase too.
We also talk a bit about your current clients (what kind of people are they). And the next step is to look for the future. We are not only create imagery to serve the current state of your business, but also to level up. Where would you like to go? What is the next step? What are your intentions - obviously I don't need any actual business info, it's more something like this: "Currently I think the general view of my business is that it's too serious. My customers are usually men in their 40s. I'd like to reach a younger audience (or women, or some different section) and for this I want my image to be more 'hip', young, fresh, fun while also keeping the trustworthiness and professional pictures".
This part is a bit like visual/brand marketing strategizing, business coaching and friendly talk about your passion, your career, your business. I'm not a marketing expert or business coach, but learned some basics to further be able to help you. If you need some serious work in these fields, I recommend hiring an expert. But if it's only for the visuals, I can help you figuring out the bases for our work together.
During this consultation, we'll also talk about the use of the photographs. Where, when and how you'd like to use them. Photos for a website, or social media, or advertising might need different compositions, aspects, visual characteristics.
The next step will depend on if you have concrete ideas for the shoot, or topics to cover, or not really. If you have, we can go over them and even create a mood board (a collection of images that you like and similar to your conception) later. If you are not sure visually how could we present the future of your brand, I'll need a couple of days to gather ideas which I can present to you to see how you like them, or if any covers your vision too. I can also create a mood board so it's easier for you to have an idea what it could look like.
If we have ideas about how, what and where to shoot, we can find a date for the actual photoshoot to happen. We can also talk about wardrobe, make-up and the usual things related to portraiture. We also need to think about anything that might need for that photo session (Are we using props? Do we have those props? Do we need models for the shoot? Will the location be ready for the photoshoot?) and if anything is missing, we need to cover those before the session.
The personal branding photo session
It's finally the big day! Before the session, I'll send you a follow-up e-mail if you need to remember anything (like bringing some props, or products, and so on).
If it's a portraiture studio session, I'll help you with the posing, will use light to show the best version of you while also portraiting the vision for your brand. I'll help directing you with your expressions, hand placement and everything that is needed for a good portrait/branding portrait.
If it's an on-location shoot I might need to visit the place before the actual photo session and decide if we need artificial light or we can use the natural/available light. If the images involve some staff we talk a bit about so everyone can get to know each other and be a bit more comfortable (remember that you need to have them sign a declaration of consent that they're OK being in the photographs that are used for marketing/commercial purposes).
If it's a product shot then you can give me sample products and I can photograph them in a studio setting or if the direction is more lifestyle, I can find urban/natural environments for them to be portrayed in. I'll return the products to you after finished with the shoot.
If it's a mixture of those, we'll decide if we can fit all in one day or it needs to be done in separate days.
It's really hard to write about the session in general, because personal branding is anything but general. It's tailor-made for you and your brand and always a unique experience. What I can tell you about every type of photoshoot is that I'll answer all your questions, and help in everything I can along the way.
After the photo session
I'll show you the images, we go through them and select the ones that you like. After you made your selection, I'll began the editing of the selected photos and the retouching if needed. I'll base my editing on what we talked about and the vision for your brand. Once I finished with a couple of pictures, I'll show them to you and ask for feedback if you like the style or would like to make changes to them. After you are happy with how the images look after the edits done, I'll finish with all the selected pictures and send them to you. If you have additional editing request we can make those changes. If you'd like physical prints or wall arts to show in your space from our branding session, I can send the order for the printing company and you can brighten up your location with your amazing photographs that show your clients who you are!
How long the whole process will take?
I know that time is of the essence and would never want to take up too much of your time.
If we need to talk about your offerings, service, products, the way your business works it can be done around 30 minutes (if you have that information available somewhere, a consultation is not necessary for this). Talking about your vision, your brand, your strategy is not something I wanna rush. I would like to understand your needs so I can serve you the best. If you have strong ideas, conceptions, 1-1,5 hour might be enough. But if you need help with them, it might take 2-3 hours and maybe not even one but two consultation if we get tired of all the brainstorming :-) (I'm available 4 hours total maximum).
The duration of the actual photo session is based on the type of photography that needs to be done. If it's a portraiture session, it can take 2-3 or maybe 4 hours at max (with some wardrobe changes, and a wide variety of images). On-location shoot depends on your needs, but it'd be really hard to be less than 1 hour and no reason to be more than 4 hours. For product photography you just need to either send me or hand me the products and I'll do the rest!
As for time period this whole thing can take? I don't like to strech out too much, but we cannot push together everything to have a great result either. The consultations can be done in a day or two (during the same week). If we need to think about ideas and the visual aspects of the images it could take an additional 4-7 days after the consultation. If we need to provide props, models, location it might take some additional time too. An easier photoshoot can take 1 day, if different kinds of imagery is required it can take a couple more. For studio product photos or lifestyle product shots it can take 2-5 days. After we meet for about an hour to show you the images, talk about them and select the ones you like. Editing and retouching depends on how many photographs are we talking about. But usually anything between 2-10 days sounds reasonable for that part. So to summarize, an easier personal branding from the first consultation to giving you the finished images will take around 5-6 days. A more complex (with some props that we need to acquire or if we need models, and if you don't have clear ideas/vision, multiple genres and a lot of pictures to edit) personal branding process can take approximately 20-30 days.
But don't be discouraged, good work sometimes takes time, and most likely it'll fall between those two time periods. I'll try to make it happen that fastest possible WHILE also providing quality service and amazing photos.
Why it is good to have a personal branding photoshoot?
A personal branding photo session is a customized process that involves collaboration with a professional photographer to create a series of photos that capture your personal brand. The images produced can be used in a variety of ways to promote your brand and establish yourself as an expert in your industry. Whether you're an entrepreneur, influencer, or professional, a personal branding photoshoot is a worthwhile investment in your personal and professional growth. A tool that let's you show what your brand is all about, let's your voice heard by your potential customers and allows you to communicate with them in a more direct manner. An instrument that can be used as a visual manifesto on your website, to create an atmosphere in your business place with physical artwork (wall art, prints, etc), to elevate your social media marketing, and to radiate your energies in your advertisement.