When I used to introduce myself as a wedding photographer, I never should explain what is involved. People got it right away.
Succeed.
But since turning around, when I meet someone new and tell them “I’m a brand photographer,” there’s an inevitable tilt of the head as they struggle to work out what that means.
Because “brand photography” as practiced today is still a new concept! It only really picked up pace a few years ago, as the social and online landscape has shifted to demand more visual content.
When the pandemic hit and wrecked everyone’s wedding & portrait schedule, there was a huge influx of photographers rushing into the “brand” category.
Most of the brand photographers I met come from a background of some other type of photography (i.e. wedding, family, senior portrait), and they want to 1) diversify their income, or 2) seek an offramp from their current offering.
And they all found that branding required a SIGNIFICANT change in approach.
The good news is have a background in marriage/family/portrait/etc? This translates REALLY well for branding work!
But you have to do it know there’s a difference, instead of approaching the branding like it’s the same as all your other work!
It’s not as simple as “I’m a good wedding photographer, so I’m going to take what I know about this business model and apply it to brand photography.” You have to understand how branding is different from other photography paths before you can master the niche.
So… what is brand photography?
>> Brand photography is a branch of commercial photography focused on providing entrepreneurs and small business owners with a professional and cohesive image, visually telling the story of their offering to connect with their target market. <
In short, brand photography helps bridge the gap between a owned by the business owner meaning for their brand and their audience perception from brand.
We do this through a combination of portraits, process imagery and photos that depict the client’s product or offering.
Brand photography goals are kind of meta, when you think about it:
You’re not really shooting for the pleasure of your clients-
You shoot to pull their audience.
At the risk of sounding crunchy, brand photography is a holistic approach- we told you whole body story business, from the product to the brand personality itself.
Here’s what brand photography is NOT:
Head shot- brand shooting involves more than praising the camera. We want to give our client audience a holistic picture of what the business is and who owns the brand, not just a photo of their face. Are we planning headshots on brand sessions? Yes! But that even more from it too!
Lifestyle portrait of a smiling business owner in front of their laptop. Shall we take some of it? Of course! But if you stop at “grinning clients on their MacBook Pros,” perhaps holding a cute Anthropology cup for effect, you’re stopping too soon. Laptop photos only tell me what type of computer a client is using-tell me nothing about their unique market position, who they serve, and what they do!
Look, I’ll be honest with you- my first few brand shoots? I approached them all like a glorified lifestyle shoot.
So. many. laptop photo.
Not until I understand that destination from these photos is to help my clients stand out so they can CLEARLY market to their target audience so the tide starts turning.
And once that clicked, well… things went in a BIG way.
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