A Step by Step walk through with Star Brand Photography – What should I expect?
Welcome! It’s been a while since I have crafted a blog post here at Star Brand Photography. Why? Well much like you, I have been planning and building a business and hadn’t yet come to terms with all the ways I wanted to provide you with engaging content.
It’s a work in progress (isn’t everything?) but without further adieu, now that Star Brand is one year in, I want to make sure you can understand 100% what I can do for you and your business.
What is the purpose of personal brand photography, why do you need it?
Personal brand photography is the art of crafting and capturing the essence of who you are and what you do, so that you can convincingly and genuinely attract your ideal clients to your business.
Why do you need this? Because it is so noisy, cut throat and fast paced out there, that you need to show up every day and wave your arms around a little to say ‘look over here’ this is me the owner of this incredible business, owner of this amazing service I can offer you.
You need people to find you.
If you are not on social media, you are not taking advantage of an amazing free tool that can help potential buyers find your business. Is social media the only way? No, absolutely not, but having one more tool in your pocket to reach out to people should be forefront in your mind.
What if I don’t have a brand….do I still need a personal brand?
Everyone has a personal brand, whether they are aware of it or not. EVERYTHING you put out on the internet can in some way reflect back on you. Whether you own a business or not, the simple act of liking a post, voicing an opinion or posting a photo sheds light on the type of person you are. Why do you think advertising companies, google, facebook etc collect this info? So they can tailor your user experience and hopefully show you things you might like.
Why? Because eventually you will click on something that leads you down the path to purchase.
If you DO own a business then what you could be doing to increase awareness to your potential clients, is getting yourself known. If people don’t know you, they may be less inclined to buy from you. That’s the way it works these days. If you sell anything on-line, then you need to be on-line and be present.
Where do you start to build your brand?
If you are in business without any solid branding, chances are you may have not yet established a good foundation for your business. Before you get a logo, a website, personal branding photos, business cards and any of the other ‘shiny things’, make sure you know who you are serving.
Who do you help and why?
Have you determined your niche or are you a jack of all trades? Do you have goals and financial plans laid out for your biz (do you know your numbers)? If you said no to any of these things, my advice to you is to work on that stuff first before you start officially branding yourself in your business.
Your personal brand is not set in stone, it will be fluid and change over time as your business grows, but your core values will likely remain the same. Your core values are part of your brand, so know what they are.
OK! So now that you better understand what a personal brand is, let me walk you through a typical experience with Star Brand Photography.
If you have your biz somewhat established, maybe by this point you are ready to upgrade your website, you are posting on social media a lot, but want to have a more polished persona, you have a certain esthetic you portray or want to portray, but just can’t seem to achieve it on your own, it’s time to call someone like me!
What happens first?
After our initial discussion either over the phone, zoom call or coffee, we get your contract signed (which includes your commercial license) and retainer fee paid, then we start to put the wheels in motion.
If you think I am just going to show up to any location and start shooting you in a cute or suave outfit, think again. Prep needs to happen. This is the most important part of your shoot!
We have a brain storming session. I get to know you, your biz, what looks and feelings you want to express so your clients can have those feelings when they get to know you through photo and content.
A questionnaire goes out to answer these basic things. Please answer it, you may surprise yourself with the answers and it will help me ask more of the right questions going forward.
After that, we talk about the answers in your questionnaire and we will start planning out the stories you want to tell. If you choose the mini session, less planning will be involved as there will only be one location for us to shoot, but we still need ideas none the less.
Half day and membership sessions require us to:
Figure out the stories we will tell. Personal and business. What is a story? A story is a series of images we will create out of one activity related to your personal life or your business life.
For Example:
Say you are a life coach; What kind of life coach are you? Maybe you are one that is into Reiki healing and crystals.
A story could be about you working on a patient with these methods. This story will require a particular wardrobe, perhaps a model (who can be an actual client, friend, family member etc), it will require props such as crystals, maybe a massage table, essential oils. It may require a serene location or your home if you work out of your home, books about healing or anything meaningful you would like to incorporate to the images to get your point across to tell that story.
After we brainstorm about the stories we will tell, we have the task of figuring out locations to shoot at.
We will most likely be changing locations a few times, depending on the stories that need to get told. Many times, my clients do not want to use their own home or space because they feel it doesn’t really reflect their brand. Others may want to use their home because they feel it does.
There is no right or wrong here, this is why we plan!
If you are at a loss of ideas for location, don’t worry, I always have a few suggestions. It might mean a bit of research for both of us, but there are always options. I want you to know also, that location options are not always free and many times we require permission to photograph there.
Another reason we need a bit of time to plan is so that we can get these permissions, come up with a contingency plan if we can’t photograph in your chosen spot and find an alternative. Sometimes we have to book a space in advance.
What should you wear?
After we plan where, we need to think about wardrobe. We don’t want to photograph you in the same outfit over and over in different locations. Nope. We need to think about your stories and how you want to appear in them.
For Example:
If one of our stories is what you do in your down time, such as curling up on the sofa with a cuppa tea and a good book, you are not going to wear your business attire or night on the town outfit. You are most likely going to want to get into you comfy clothes, messy bun and throw on your reading glasses.
If we depict you working with a client, you will want to look polished and professional.
We will change outfits or add/take away layers and utilize accessories several times throughout your shoot depending on the stories we are telling.
General wardrobe guide lines:
Choose clothes you are comfortable in and outfits you would wear in different situations. Be sure they fit you well. Too tight and ill fitting may show undergarment lines and show lumps and bumps you may not desire to have in your photos. Alternatively baggy clothes look sloppy and can often make you look larger than you are.
If we are walking around at all, bring comfy shoes, then change into your heels as needed.
Solid colours, accessories such as hats, scarves, jewellery and manicured nails are never a bad idea. If you are a bold colour pattern woman or man, there are no rules against it. If it is you and part of your brand then go for it!
Do however think about the overall look you want seen on your website, and in your social media feeds. Do the colours you’re wearing jive with the backgrounds we are shooting in? This is why we plan.
What happens on Shoot day?
Yay! It’s shoot day. After we have made all the appropriate preparations, it’s time for us to meet at your first location. Before we do that, however, you would have likely spent the two hours prior to our meeting, having your hair and make-up done.
Yup. I suggest to all my female clients to have their hair and make-up professionally done. Why? Well, you want to look and feel your best and for most of us, that requires a little extra prep.
If you never wear make-up and never want to wear make-up, well that’s ok too. Just remember that my camera has a lot of pixels. It is sensitive and has the ability to pick up a lot of detail. If you have large pores, acne, redness etc, the camera can pick up on that quite easily. If that doesn’t bother you at all….then no problem, au natural it is, but it has been my experience that people usually like a little prep even it’s a no make-up, make-up look.
If you book a half day experience or a membership experience, I’ve got you covered.
Both hair and make-up services are included in the price! For the guys, you can have a make-up touch up too if you like and I include a barber service if you want to get a trim before stepping in front of the camera.
Now that you are ready to go we start shooting!
Each story and location we choose may or may not require you have brought your props with you. What do I mean by props?
For Example:
If your first story is you working remotely at your favourite co-working space or Café, you may need to bring a laptop, favourite travel mug, notebook, pen, chalk board or anything that represents what you might be doing in the photo or how you choose to represent your brand. Those items may or may not be colour co-ordinated to your brand.
We may also decide to do a flat lay – A flat lay is a picture taken from a birds eye view of a collection of items laid out on a flat surface. Usually there will be one item that is the main focus of the shot known as the hero, all the other items in the flat lay are there to complement the hero piece.
Why would we do this? Not all of your photos will just be of you. Adding details to your Instagram feed, website and promo pieces adds visual flare and esthetic and if you are brand heavy visually, these little vignettes can really get the point across.
Phew! So we’ve been shooting for a couple hours now, it takes about an hour to thoughtfully photograph all scenarios and angles of each story. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Modelling is hard work, and we’re both likely getting a bit hungry. Let’s stop and have a lunch break. My treat!
If you book a half day package or a membership package, each session can be 4-6 hours in length, you’re going to need some food and drink. Let’s find a place to stop, eat, have a coffee, beer or glass of wine (and obviously some water) refuel and then carry on. As part of your package, I supply lunch for one person (you) at wherever we decide to grab a bite.
Wow! We’ve finished a successful day of brand shooting, now what?
I will get to work sorting through and culling your images. I am going to get rid of the obvious bad ones, you know those pics where you are half blinking, mid speech and look like you’ve only half recovered from a punch to the chops? Nobody wants to see that.
I will also get rid of the blurry, out of focus or technically incorrect shots too. Once that process is complete, I will then go through those photos and give them a very light edit, straightening horizons, possible crop here and there and slight colour correction.
At this stage, I will not fully edit your photos. I will then load them up onto an on-line gallery, so that you are easily able to view them and choose your favourite poses from the session.
I suggest you pour yourself a glass of wine or grab a coffee and a friend or someone you trust for a second opinion, then comb through your photos to choose your final images for me to edit. If you are having trouble choosing, please hit me up for a second look, I am happy to give it.
When you have decided on your final images, let me know and I will go ahead and start the editing process. After you have chosen, it will take me approximately 7 business days to have your full gallery back to you.
After Care:
So now you have a glorious bank of images free for you to use and alter to suit all your business and social media needs. Hooray! No more struggling to find a good image to post or use when someone asks you for a good photo for ____ fill in the blank.
You are half way there. What is the other half?
If you planned on using these photos for social media like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn etc, you now have a fantastic image to stop those scrollers in their tracks. Now that you have their attention visually, you also need to know how to formulate a post, how to write content that will keep them on your page, and hopefully click on through to the call of action you have provided.
If you only have great photos, it won’t be enough to hold your potential clients interest. You need engaging content as well, content that does either one of these four things:
- Educates
- Entertains
- Has Controversy
- Provides Value To Your Reader
Simply stating something like “ugh you got the Monday blues too? I hate Monday’s” offers very little to your reader. If you are providing something of value, with a personal twist, it allows your potential clients to relate to you and get to know you and ultimately trust you are the person you say you are.
You have to show up honestly and consistently, and have value. That’s how social media works. Remove any part of the equation and it is far less effective.
While Star Brand doesn’t write your posts for you, only you can do that, I do offer a mini guide for helping you create engaging content. It is included with my half day and membership packages. I hope you will find it useful.
There you have it! You have just completed a branding photography session with Star Brand. It’s a tool you can use to increase engagement on social media and take your business to that next level of professionalism.
If our time together is something that worked well for you and you find yourself wanting to do it again in the future, half the battle is over! All of the planning and getting to know each other and finding your comfort level of has already been established. Think of me as part of your marketing team now.
Getting the photos you want has finally become a reality. The best part…if you loved your half day session and decide to upgrade to quarterly sessions, we just roll that first session right on in, it’s paid for and you reap the discount on the 3 remaining sessions!
You’ll save over $2000 by enrolling in the membership package instead of paying for 4 separate shoots AND you can keep ALL the photos from each session. No more deciding between one photo or the other, they are all yours to keep!
If all of this sounds like something you need to get your business to the next level, go ahead press the button and get in touch. I’m here to answer all of your questions. Let’s chat!
