There is so much pressure now when you run your own business to constantly show up.
You need content for your website, then Instagram wants another Reel too many times per week, you’ve got something new to launch, an ad to create and somehow you’re meant to remember to take photos and videos while you’re actually doing the work that makes you money.
For me, personal brand photography is about taking some of that pressure away.
It’s creating a collection of images that speaks to who you are, what you do and the people you want to connect with. Something that helps you show up professionally and be taken seriously, but still feels very authentic to you.
And it’s definitely not just sitting in a studio smiling at the camera.
So, what is personal brand photography?
I think the easiest way to explain it is that we’re trying to visually communicate your business without relying on words to do all the work.
If you’re a coach, what does working with you actually look like? If you’re a healer or wellness practitioner, can someone look at your imagery and begin to understand what you offer and how it might feel to experience it? If you’re a creative, can we show some of the process that happens behind what people normally only see as the finished result?
Of course, we’ll probably want some lovely portraits of you too. But a personal branding photoshoot can give us so much more than that.
We can capture you working, your environment, the things you use every day, interactions with clients, little details people wouldn’t normally see and anything else that helps tell your story.
Every brief is different because every brand is different.
Who is personal brand photography actually for?
I particularly love working with entrepreneurs, coaches, creatives and people in the wellness space, but really it comes down to whether you are part of what people are buying into.
When you’re sharing your own knowledge, passion or message with the world, people want to know who is behind it because there’s an element of trust involved.
That doesn’t mean pretending to be somebody you’re not or suddenly making yourself look incredibly corporate because you think that’s what being professional means. It’s about showing up as yourself while giving your business the credibility it deserves.
It also means you don’t have to be constantly creating everything yourself!
I can work directly with you or alongside your social media team, looking at what content you actually need and creating a library they can use too. It becomes much more of a collaboration than simply booking a photographer for a couple of nice pictures.
The images throughout this article are from a personal branding shoot with Katie from Kokoro Wellness, created to visually communicate the different ways she works with her clients.
“But I hate having my photo taken…”
Honestly, most people seem to and most of my clients are worried about this.
One of the things clients regularly feed back to me is how organised the shoot feels and I think that makes a huge difference when you’re already nervous about being in front of the camera.
I don’t expect you to arrive knowing what to do. Beforehand, I’ll look through your website and social media, see what imagery you already have and identify the gaps. We’ll talk about where your business is now and where you want it to go and from there I’ll build out a moodboard and shot list.
So when shoot day arrives, we already have ideas to work from and we can use inspiration images to help with poses and setups, rather than you standing there wondering what on earth to do with your hands.
We ease into it, take a breath, relax and warm up together. I’m quite a relaxed person anyway, so I think that naturally comes through when I’m shooting. We have a laugh. If we try something and it looks weird, we laugh at it and move on. If something unexpected starts working, we run with it.
It doesn’t need to be that serious, we want a fun day!
What would we actually photograph?
This completely depends on you and your brand!
For some people, their hands and the tools they work with can tell a huge part of the story. For someone else it might be showing a service in action, working with a client, speaking to a room of people or simply being in the space where their work happens.
We can bring in props if they make sense. We can show your products if they're part of your world. We can photograph the little details that help somebody understand what spending time with you might actually feel like.
I also think about the less exciting but very necessary stuff…
Do you have an image that will actually work across the top of your website?
What are you using on your About page?
Can someone visually understand each of your services?
Do you have enough variety for social content without posting the same five pictures of yourself for the next year?
If you’re planning a launch or running ads, do we need to capture something specifically for that?
This is why I don’t really work from a generic list of personal branding photoshoot ideas. We work out what your business needs and create from there.
The planning is a big part of what I do
I think this is one of the parts of brand photography people don’t necessarily see. You’re not just paying me for the time I’m holding the camera…
I’ll look at your existing branding and where you want to take it. You might already know exactly what is missing, or you might just know that everything feels a bit disjointed and you need help working it out.
Usually it’s a bit of both and you bring your knowledge of your business and I bring another perspective. I can look through your website and socials with fresh eyes, spot gaps you may not have noticed and think about how we could communicate something visually rather than just writing another paragraph about it.
Then all of that gets translated into the creative direction and eventually the shot list, which means the branding photos we create have a job to do once you actually receive them.
I don't want every brand I shoot to look like mine
This is something that I feel very strongly about.
I don’t think I’m a photographer or stylist with one generic aesthetic that gets placed over every client. I’m more of a chameleon.
If your brand is colourful and energetic, I’ll be stepping into that. If your work is quiet, spiritual and grounded, that needs a completely different feeling. Sometimes we need something raw and full of movement and sometimes it needs to feel much more polished.
The consistency you get from me isn't that everything looks the same. It’s in the quality and the thought behind it. There should be depth to the imagery and it should communicate something about what you do, but also what kind of soul you are.
Because with a personal brand, that really matters.
And now we're moving beyond just the photographs
I’m increasingly capturing B roll and video alongside my personal branding photography, because sometimes movement communicates something a photograph simply can't.
Watching somebody actually perform their service can immediately make it easier to understand. Seeing the way someone speaks or interacts with people can help you connect with them before you've ever met.
And obviously, video is everywhere now, so having a library of clips means you’re not starting from zero every time you need to make a Reel. You can use them yourself, pass them over to whoever manages your social media, build them into launches or use them within your website and advertising.
For some shoots we might just capture useful B roll alongside the photography. For others, we can go further and create more considered video content or a full brand film.
I deliver everything in clearly organised folders too, because there is absolutely no point in creating loads of content if you can't find any of it when you need it.
It should make showing up feel easier
I think this is one of the biggest benefits.
There is so much pressure to constantly feed social media now, particularly when you are the face of your business and creating content is a job in itself. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.
A well planned personal branding shoot means you can spend a day or a few hours intentionally creating what you need and then go back to doing the thing you're actually brilliant at.
The images can work much harder than just filling your Instagram grid too. They can live across your website, email marketing, press features, course materials and presentations. They can be used for Meta or Google advertising, launches and all the other places your business needs to show up.
Some images really can serve you for years.
If your business moves more quickly and you need fresh content more often, we can work together regularly instead. I offer ongoing partnerships and retainers where we can shoot monthly, bi monthly or quarterly and plan the content around what's actually happening in your business.
So, is personal brand photography right for you?
If you're the face of your business and people are buying into your knowledge, personality or the way you do what you do, there's a good chance it will be useful.
But I don't think everybody needs to rush out and book a shoot just because they have started a business.
If you have absolutely no idea what you're offering yet or where the brand is going, there might be some work to do first. Good photography can communicate your business beautifully, but we need to know what we're trying to communicate.
There are also times when personal branding photography simply isn't the right service.
If we're photographing a larger business and need to tell the story of the whole company, its team, premises and customer experience, that starts moving into my Business Brand Photography work.
If the real star of the show is what you sell rather than the person behind it, we may be looking at Product Photography instead.
And sometimes a project sits somewhere between them, which is completely fine. Businesses aren't built to fit neatly into photography packages.
Your personal brand should still feel like you
Ultimately, I don't think personal branding is about creating a shinier, more polished version of yourself for the internet. It's about making it easier for the right people to see you.
To understand what you do and get a sense of the person behind it before they've even spoken to you.
That's what I want the imagery to do.
Not turn you into a brand, but show the person who was already there.
