Personal brand photography

If you’re thinking of taking some personal brand photos for your business then one thing you need to be considering is what props you could include in your photos.

Don’t panic though, when I say props I just mean things you can hold and interact with, or have near you in the photos to tell a bit more of your story.

So think about including things that you use most days as part of your work, like a yoga mat or blocks if you’re a yoga teacher, and things that reflect a bit about who you are as a person, like a green juice if you’re a health nut or a copy of your favourite book.

The kind of props I would use in my own brand photos include my camera, my laptop, my favourite coffee mugs, and brightly coloured notebooks.

If you’re still not sure on the benefit of including props in your brand photos then here are 3 reasons that might convince you:

1. They give you something to do with your hands

It’s completely normal to feel a bit awkward and stiff in front of the camera, especially for the first few photos.

So having a prop like a coffee cup, your laptop, or your phone to hold is brilliant for giving you something to do with your hands.

And holding something familiar has a strange way of helping you feel more relaxed, so your posing relaxes too and you can get some really lovely, natural photos.

2. They give you more variety in your photos

Adding a few different props to your photo session means you can get a bigger variety of images that you can then use across your website and on your social media pages.

When they’re meaningful to you and what you do, you don’t even really need to be in all the photos with the props! You can crop closely to your hands holding them, use them in flatlays, and take close-up lifestyle images of them.

These kinds of photos can be great for social media in particular, overlaid with text to share something about your business.

3. They can help tell your story.

Adding tools that you use in your work, products you sell, and things you love, in your brand photos can really help to tell the story of who you are and what you do.

If you’re a florist, for example, and your brand photos include lots of gorgeous bouquets, pretty ribbons, and stunning single blooms, then it’s immediately clear to anyone who sees them that you’re someone who knows a lot about what they do!

The more personal items like mugs and books can tell more of the story of who you are a person, which helps potential clients and customers build that know, like, trust factor that you need to grow your business.

So before you get in front of the camera spend some time thinking about what it is you want your photos to say about you and your small business, and pick out some props that will help with that.

And consider having a few different types of props to change up the types of photos you get. So you could include your laptop and notebooks in some pictures for a more businessy feel, and then swap them out for a drink, a cupcake, or a fun scarf or hat that you can just have some fun with.

Just make sure whatever you chose feels authentic to who you are and what your business is.

Like this? Pin it for later!

How many hats do you wear as a small business owner or entrepreneur?

Not literal hats of course, unless you’ve managed to forge a career as a professional freelance hat wearer (in which case I need details, please).

I’m talking about the metaphorical hats that you need to wear when you work for yourself.  Take blogging for example.  You might think that would just be about writing great blog posts.  But there are so many other elements involved if you want to make it your job.  You have to be a photographer, a writer, a social media expert, a graphic designer, a PR expert, and so many other things.

Whatever your business is, there will most likely come a point when you need some help to get everything done.  Or a fresh pair of eyes to look over everything and help you figure out how to move your business forward.

That’s where Oasis business support comes in.

They’re a Swansea based business who offer a huge range of services to help entrepreneurs and small business owners save time, make changes, and grow.  The brains behind all this is Heidi, a good friend of mine who, lucky for me, wanted some personal brand photos to use on her website and social media pages.

Heidi mainly wanted lifestyle portraits of her at work, and some relaxed headshots, and had the brilliant idea of heading to The Hive co-working space to take them.

The Hive is tucked away in the Uplands, Swansea and is a bit of a hidden gem for anyone looking for a place to work that’s not their living room or a coffee shop.  The atmosphere there was really welcoming and the decor was just perfect for what Heidi wanted from her personal brand photos.

We took some photos of Heidi working on her phone and her laptop in the open-plan area downstairs at The Hive, and some at the tables outside too.

Now, I’m well aware that you might feel a bit silly pretending to work or talk on the phone for photos, but my advice is to sort of lean into the silliness of it.

Those laughs and smiles that come when you acknowledge that it is quite silly to act as if you’re on the phone produce some really lovely, natural looking photos.

And I tend to keep chatting away anyway, asking questions, generally nattering nonsense while I shoot, which makes the whole process more relaxed and much easier for the person in front of the camera.

To go with these ‘at work’ photos we also took some relaxed portraits and head shots for Heidi to use on her website and on social media.

There was a lovely leather sofa in the window at The Hive that was perfect for these informal shots of Heidi relaxing with a cup of tea.  I love how Heidi chose to keep things quite simple for her session, and decided to just have a couple of props to use.  I think all we used was her phone, laptop and this cream mug.

This simplicity is spot on for her business, which is all about making life more simple for other business owners.

If you’re thinking of having a personal branding photography session with me in Swansea, then one of the things we’ll talk about is what props you might like to use and include in your photos.  For some businesses having lots of bright and funky props and accessories to play around with would work perfectly.

Other times, like with Oasis business support, it’s better to keep things clean and simple.

These are the kinds of things I’ll ask you about when we first start planning a session, to really make sure that your personal branding photos capture you, your personality and your brand.

If you’d like to find out more about Oasis business support and what they can do for you and your business then you can find them at www.oasis-support.co.uk.

Interested in getting some personal brand photographs for your business?  I’d love to hear from you, so please do get in touch and tell me a bit about yourself and the sort of photos you’re interested in.

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you’re reading this because you’re trying to decide whether to have personal brand photos taken for your business or not.

You might be a small business owner, an entrepreneur, a creative, a blogger.  Whatever it is that you do though, you’re getting more and more aware of the fact that you need to be more visible on your website and on social media.

The question is, do you really need to go all out and book a personal branding session?  Keep reading for all the reasons I think the answer to that question is absolutely yes.

To connect with people faster

Humans are visual creatures.

In fact 90% of the information that’s sent to our brains is visual.  And we process images 60,000 times faster than text.

Sixty. Thousand. Times. Faster.

Just let that sink in for a second.

Your clients can see a photo of you on your Facebook page and gather so much more information about you, so much more quickly, than if they were to sit and read a post from you about who you are and why you do what you do.

To build the ‘know, like, trust’ factor

If you’ve done any research at all into marketing your business then chances are you’ve heard of this before.

For people to buy from you or use your services you need to find ways for them to get to know, like, and trust you first.

Sharing photographs of yourself, include behind the scenes photos, is a great way to let people get to feel like they know you relatively quickly.  And if you also share photos that let these people into your life and show your personality, then you’re on to a winner.

To be more relatable

Part of building this ‘know, like, trust’ factor is showing yourself as someone that your dream customers can relate to.

Using personal photos gets people to relate to you and your content on a more emotional level.  And when this happens they start to form a bond with your brand, and increases your likeability factor.

When you can get people to feel something with your content you’ll start to increase the chances that they’ll buy from you.

Studies have shown that emotions play a big role in our buying decisions.  We tend to go on our emotions more than cold hard facts when we evaluate brands.  Research has shown that it’s our emotional response to an advert that makes us more or less likely to buy a product, not the content of the advert itself.

To save you time and reduce stress

How much time do you spend searching on stock photo websites for the perfect photo to use on your social media pages?

I’m guessing it’s quite a bit.

Then there’s the stress of knowing that you should be posting consistently on Facebook and Instagram but you just don’t know what to share each day.

Having a bank of professional, personalised pictures from your personal branding session will cut so much of this stress out of your working week.  You’ll have all these images on hand, ready to go when you need them.

To be prepared

You never know when you’ll need a decent photo of yourself.

Maybe an amazing PR or media opportunity comes up.  Think how great it would be to have a professional headshot ready to hand over, instead of desperately searching through your phone for a semi-decent selfie!

With a bank of photos from a personal branding session you’ll also always be prepared with something to share on social media.  Being consistent with social media is so important, but in a recent study 34.8% of marketers said that producing engaging visuals consistently was their biggest struggle.

Creating this kind of visual content is so much easier when you have a set of on-brand photos ready and waiting to choose from.

To stand out from the crowd

A report from 2018 found that only 30% of marketers were creating their own visuals.  So that means a whole lot of other businesses are using generic stock images in their marketing and social media posts.

Using photos that are uniquely yours from a personal branding photography session will really help you and your business show up and stand out.

To help your clients and customers more

Using images in your content gives so much more value to the people who read it.

Studies have shown that when we hear information we only remember about 10% of it 3 days later.  But when that information is presented with a relevant image then we retain 65% of that information.

It’s also been found that people following instructions with both text and illustrations do 323% better at the task than people who are just given written instructions.

So if you write blog posts or post anything on social media with the aim of educating and helping your customers, then including photos will benefit you and them.

To reach more people

Social media is pretty much all about visuals.

And using personalised photos in your social media posts can help you massively increase your reach and your engagement levels.

Here are some quick facts on this:

• Tweets with images get 150% more retweets than those without images
• Facebook posts with images tend to get 2.3 times the engagement of those without images
• Blog posts and articles that have an image every 75-100 words are shared twice as much on social media than those with fewer images

So, are you convinced yet?

If you’re ready to get more visible in your business and want to save yourself the time and stress of trying to do it all by yourself, then booking a personal branding photo session should be top of your to-do list.

And if you’d like to have a chat about a personal branding photography session in Swansea then please do get in touch – I’d love to get to know you and your business!