How to Find a Photographer for Your Branding Photography Session

Listen Up. A branding photography session is one of the best investments you can make for your business.

Having professional photos taken makes your website and content so much more elevated and builds a visually strong brand for your customers to connect with.

But how do you find a branding photographer that truly captures your business visually - and what do you need to look out for?

In this post I'm going to walk you through the steps to take to find the best brand photographer for your business and how to prepare for the BEST session with them.

Find a Brand Photographer That Matches Your Visual Aesthetic

It can be really intimidating to find a brand photographer out of the millions of amazing photographers out there. You really want to make sure that you find someone that is truly aligned with the visual aspect of what you want your business to look like.

I usually recommend that in your search, you first look at photographers that label themselves as branding photographers. These people have experienced capturing a brand (not just taking pretty photos) and making sure they understand the visual message that you want to communicate to your customers.

A regular photographer may be amazing at taking photos, but they may not understand what actually goes into building a visual brand for other people's businesses. This doesn't mean that you can't hire a regular photographer; you just want to make sure that you have lots of conversations with them to make sure they understand what you want your business to say through your photos.

When looking for a photographer, make sure you find someone whose editing style and vibe fits your brand. For example, if you are a more light and airy style brand, don't choose a photographer that tends to lean more towards moody, grungy looks in their photos. 

Even if they're a great photographer, they may not have the same editing style that you really want for your brand. Most photographers like to stick to the same style that they use for all their photos, so don't find a photographer and ask them if they'll change their editing style for you. Instead, one who truly aligned with the visual look that you want to represent your brand.

Find a Branding Photography Package That Fits Your Needs

Another thing that you can keep in mind when looking for a brand photographer is that some photographers provide different brand packages that you can purchase. 

Some of these packages may be a monthly or quarterly subscription, where you can get a discounted session price for booking multiple sessions at once. The reason this is a great offer is you can continue to get updated photos for your website and your online content, all taken by the same professional photographer, creating a solid and connected visual brand for your business.

If you find a photographer and they don't offer this option, talk to them about what this could possibly look like. Lots of photographers enjoy establishing relationships with their clients, as continued business is never a bad thing. If you aren't sure if you want this option, then definitely go ahead with just the one session with a photographer to make sure you guys are a good fit.

How to Prepare For Your Branding Photographer

Once you have found a couple prospects for your brand photography, you’ll want to chat with them about what a branding session and photo delivery actually looks like.

This is when you need to have a clear idea of the types of photos that you want the branding photographer to take. You may want just some head shots of you in space you work in, you may want to rent out a studio where you can have a clean beautiful space to take your photos, or you may want just lots of product and on-brand photos taken for your business.

Coming with a list of the photos that you want will really help your brand photographer see the vision behind what you need for your business. Then they can take this list, expand upon it, and make sure they're truly capturing your business and all of the photos that you need for now and also photos that you may need in the future that you haven't planned out yet

Also, make sure that you have your branding story and message planned out for your photographer. If you don't have a branding message or vision for business, then I have a freebie for you. It helps you build your brand, get more clarity on your brand message, and how to use your brand successfully to promote your business. This will allow your photographer to understand the why behind your brand and translate that into something visual.

It can be scary to jump in the process of finding a photographer to capture the complexity of your business, but I promised that investing in branding photography is something that will truly transform your business into a professional competitor.