Your Guide to Brand Photography
What you need to know about brand photography and why it’s the best option for your website.
Think of the greatest website you’ve ever seen. It’s functional, purposeful, and informative. It’s eye-catching, cohesive, and user-friendly. We’re also willing to bet that it has some branded photography on it. Great brand photography tells a story, illicits an emotional response, and entices your audience to keep scrolling. When paired with clear copy, you’re able to fully communicate what working with you looks like, how you solve people’s problems, and what the result will be.
Stock vs. Brand Photography
When it comes to photos for your website, you’ve got two options. The first, stock photography, consists of photos of common themes, places, landmarks, and people that are bought and sold by many different photographers to be used for commercial design purposes. Think about that classic image of some intense looking business people in a boardroom with a flip chart. Does that really reflect you and your business? Probably not. Who even uses a flip chart these days, right? Stock photography is a great option for new business owners or those on a tight budget because they are often free or low-cost to license. But keep in mind, you may see that same image on another website. That’s how Adobe Stock and Shutterstock keep their prices economical. Additionally, with stock photography it can be difficult to find photos with the same look and feel, which presents a challenge when you want to create consistency in your identity. The other option is brand photography. During a brand photography session, each image is carefully architected by you and your photographer to present you, your team, and your offerings, while reflecting your aesthetic and personality. The end result is a cohesive collection of images that tell your story in different ways. From team headshots to detail images that feature a unique aspect of your product or service, each image will invite your audience to get to know YOU and YOUR brand. Showing yourself to your audience is often the push they need to like and trust you, two very important things when selling yourself.
Brand Photography: https://amberticephoto.com/
Brand Photography Tips
1. Know what you want to communicate. Before you schedule a brand photography session, work with your website designer and your photographer to figure out what shots would you need to get. Create a list of specific vignettes you can create to tell your story. Bring clients and customers to your shoot and show what working with you looks like. If you don’t interact with people in that capacity, show what your team working together. Take people through your process and show the different steps. What things do you keep around you? Look at your workspace and incorporate the things that help you do your job. This is where props come in!
2. Find the right location. If you have the ability to do your photo session in your workspace, great! But if you can’t, a photo studio can be transformed into one. Bring things like furniture and desk accessories to personalize it.
3. Dress the part. When selecting your attire for a shoot, dress to your personality, brand aesthetic, and the story. Select multiple outfits to help show different side of yourself and your business.
Colors & Patterns – Incorporate the color palette from your brand identity. Avoid being matchy-matchy by incorporating patterns. Try having one person in a solid and the other in a pattern.
Tone & Formality – Decide how formal you want to dress. If you work in a more casual setting, jeans may be totally appropriate. More the board room type? Stick to a dress or slacks.
As you are planning out your website, social media, or marketing campaign, consider using brand photography to personalize it.
Need help with your brand photography? Contact us! We work with a number of talented photographers who can help you.