How to prepare for your personal branding shoot – 5 Top Tips

So if you have booked a personal branding session (or are thinking of booking one) then you may be wondering what is involved and how to prepare for it.

It’s certainly worth putting some thought into the session beforehand as this will help you get the most out of our time on the day.

Your shoot includes a pre-session phone consultation with me, when we can take time to discuss your business and your brand, the key shots that you are after, what location might work best and what you might wear.

These tips should also help you prepare and ensure that all goes smoothly on the day!

1. Brand analysis

It’s really worth doing some research beforehand and thinking about your brand, what it means and what messages you would like to convey.

Have a think about…

• Who your ideal client is, can you describe them?
• What makes your business unique?
• Your personality and how you want to come across to your clients
• Your brand colours and the overall look and feel that you would like to create for your website and marketing

We can use all this information to help create a portfolio of images to showcase your brand.

2. Create a Pinterest board

If you’re familiar with Pinterest then this is a great way to create a visual ‘mood board’ of the sorts of images you would like to take away from your branding session.

Search Pinterest for images that appeal to you and align well with your brand. You can then create a board which can be shared with others. This should also help prompt ideas for location and what to wear.

3. Choose a suitable location

Your personal branding session is bespoke to you so we can choose the most suitable location, depending on you and your business. I can travel to you if you work from home or have a studio that you would like to incorporate for example.

Otherwise we can choose another setting that will help to reflect your brand. It could be somewhere rural or more urban. There are lots of options for a great backdrop in Sevenoaks or Tunbridge Wells for example. We may even be able to use a local café if we call ahead for permission.

Again, we can discuss location options during your phone consultation and I’m more than happy to suggest places that may be suitable.

4. Create a shot list

So by this stage you should be ready to create a shot list which is really useful for keeping everyone on track during the day (the time can go very quickly!).

Have a think about where and how you will be using the images. Do you need any wide banner-style images for your website for example? Or perhaps you need a new profile image for LinkedIn or some new images for sharing on Instagram.

Make sure you prioritise the list so that we start with the most important shots.  An example shot list might include:

• head and shoulders image
• medium headshot, waist upwards
• sitting at desk, working on laptop
• relaxed shot on the sofa
• working in the studio
• close up of hands while working
• lifestyle shots of your workplace.

5. Plan what to wear, and your hair and make-up

It’s really worth having a think about what you will wear as this can make a big difference to the overall look and feel of your images.

Everyone has their own style so wear what you feel suits you. It’s also really important to feel comfortable with what you are wearing on the day.

I usually suggest bringing a couple of options for your upper half so that you can change your look during the session. This will give you more variety in your images overall.

Here are a few top tips:

• It’s best to avoid very bold stripes and patterns (subtle patterns are fine)
• Avoid wearing all white or all black if you can, as these colours are tricky to photograph well.
• Off-white/cream, neutral or other seasonal colours are all fine.
• Bring along a few accessories such as a scarf, necklace or earrings.
• Try to bring one piece of clothing (or even a scarf) with some colour in as that can really add to the images and helps contrast with a plain background.
• If you have a particular ‘brand’ colour then think about incorporating this into your clothing as well.

It’s worth thinking about the season too whether spring/summer or autumn/winter as different colour palettes work well in different seasons.

In terms of hair and make up, some clients are happy doing their own hair and make up which is absolutely fine. I would recommend wearing your usual make up on the day.

If you would like your hair and make up done professionally then I can recommend a local make up artist, Deborah from Hall of Fame Styling who has done make up for many of my previous clients. You can find out more about having your hair and make up done professionally in this recent article.

Many thanks to Hattons of Tunbridge Wells for permission to use their cafe for some of the photos above.

Any questions?

I hope this article was useful but if you have any more questions or are thinking about booking a branding shoot then do get in touch, I would love to hear from you! You’ll find all my contact details here.