Brand Photography & Why it is Important

I have seen first hand the impact that great photography can have on your business.  My ability to do PR is really poor, that means I am very reactive when it comes to reaching out to press, potential clients and basically anything that requires me to say what I do for a living.  However, the one thing I have done is to create beautiful cohesive imagery for my brand which tells the story of Wattle & Daub.  Nowadays there is no excuse to not have a portfolio of great images available to use when pitching to the press, posting on socials or creating marketing materials.  There are still some great places to download stock imagery Unsplash being one of my favourites, which can be great if you are creating blog posts or other material where you do not have relevant  images for the content, however this should be used sparingly and the majority of your images should always be your own imagery whether taken by you or a photographer. 

Who people buy from has become so much more important to the consumer journey so professional images of the founder are a pretty crucial part building trust and telling people what you are about and why you do what you do. 

As an absolute minimum you would expect to have the following available. 

Founder imagery, ideally 1 - 2 shots.  

Cut-out Imagery - High-resolution (300 dpi) cut-out imagery. White or clear background. Saved as a JPEG or PNG. (depending on whether you are a product or service based business)

Behind the Scenes.  Images showing ‘behind the scenes’, which may include the maker creating their products or working at a specific location.  

Product Lifestyle Imagery. The products styled within a lifestyle format including relevant props etc.  

Moodboard

Whenever I run photography workshops we first discuss the look of the imagery we are trying to achieve.  This starts from the brand colours that have been used for your business and the general look and feel of the brand.  It can be helpful to create a mood board of the type of images you are trying to recreate from the composition to the props, location and style.  All of these images exist out there in the world, so it is case of working through images you like noting why you like them so that you can hone in on what it is you are trying to recreate or what you want the photographer to create on your behalf.  This will then allow you to have a mood board to discuss with the photographer so that there are no surprises at the end.

Making sure all of the visual elements stack up together is key to maintaining brand consistency

Portrait/Head Shots

When I am taking a portrait of a founder/freelancer or entrepreneur my goal is to make sure the final images are as natural and authentic as possible.  Yes, you can of course organise make-up, hair etc prior to your shoot, however for me it is absolutely not an essential and the majority of shots I take of founders there has been no prior prep needed.  Obvs this also impacts your overall spend.

Type of Images

As well as creating a mood board for the photographer it is worth making a note of where you will be using your images so that you have an idea as to whether they will be used on the website, socials or for print publications so that the aspect ratios and resolution are correct for the different needs.  Uses of images could include the following;

Social media profile.

All socials. Instagram. Twitter. LinkedIn. Facebook.  

Website.  About Page.

Blog Posts.

Printed Publications. / Canva

Finding a Photographer

The next step is to find yourself a Photographer.  I would suggest asking for recommendations within your network or you could as on local community boards, just be sure to check out their photography as part of the research and also to have a initial chat with them to run through how their process works, costs (your budget) etc.  

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch as I have been in your place before.  

I have included some images I have recently taken for others and myself....