How often should you update your brand photos?
Brand photos should be updated at least twice a year to keep imagery fresh, increase your marketing efforts, and highlight seasonal changes, like product lines, newly added team members, client updates, and offerings. Your brand image reflects your business's evolution, values, and personality.
It might affect your business credibility if you don’t update brand visuals and fail to represent your current identity. However, you can plan for brand photo refresh monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, or annually, depending on business growth, trends, and audience expectations.
How to Know When It’s Time to Update Your Brand Photos?
There are different factors, including your brand photos may not align with your business goals and offerings, and others indicate it’s time to update your brand photos. Here are the key indicators and scenarios that signal you to reshoot brand photos:
Changes in business model/strategy
Has your business/brand shifted its focus, launched new products, or changed its overall strategy? If yes, your brand photos should reflect these scenarios to keep potential clients updated. The brand image communicates who you are, what you stand for, and what you offer to your customers. For example, you run a yoga studio that now offers virtual classes, which requires advertising to reach out to your clients.
Industry trends
Design and photography trends shift fast. Updating your branding helps you reinforce your position by demonstrating your commitment to innovation and relevance. A key part of this adaption is ensuring that your branding reflects the changes in the industry and fulfills target audience needs.
Current photos look outdated in quality or style
Do your current photos look outdated, pixelated, or inconsistent with your brand’s current vibe? If yes, it’s time to upgrade your brand visuals. High-quality, cohesive images are essential for a professional and trustworthy appearance.
Launching a new campaign, product, or website
You might plan to launch a new product line or service. New visuals ensure your marketing materials are aligned and impactful, helping you make a strong impression on your audience.
Adding new team members or locations
As your business grows, so do your new team members. Updated team photos and location shots highlight your brand is dynamic and current, making new staff feel included and presenting an accurate image to clients.
Changes in the target audience
Do your business or brand move from a B2B to a B2C model or target a different demographic? In this case, you must update your branding visuals to resonate with your new target audience. Here are a few reasons:
Visual identity: Your visual identity, like logo and color palette, helps you communicate your values and differentiate yourself from competitors. If your target audience has changed, it may be necessary to update your visual identity to better appeal to their preferences and resonate with their values.
Marketing channels: Updating your branding helps you better align your marketing channels with your target audience and ensure that you’re reaching them in the right places.
Messaging: Branding communicates who you are and what you stand for to target your audience. Updating brands helps you to adjust your messaging to speak directly to individual consumers rather than business customers.
How Often Should You Update Your Brand Photos?
The time frame for updating your brand photos is as follows:
Monthly Shoot
Monthly mini-shoots keep your business content fresh and relevant across social media, campaigns, and new seasonal product launches.
Best for:
E-commerce brands with frequent product launches
Fashion & beauty brands following trends
Social media-heavy businesses (influencers, content creators)
Food brands with seasonal menus
Quarterly Shoots
Quarterly shoots (3-4 months) are popular for businesses that want to stay relevant with marketing trends, promotions, and so on.
Best for:
SaaS companies with feature updates
Retail brands with seasonal inventory
Service businesses (agencies, consultants)
Hospitality brands (hotels, restaurants)
Bi-Annual Shoots
The bi-annual shoots (every 6 months) twice a year are suitable for brands that don’t need constant updates but still want to remain relevant and professional. For example, new team members or major product updates.
Best for:
B2B companies with longer sales cycles
Professional services (law firms, accountants)
Established product-based businesses
Brands with minimal visual evolution
Once Yearly Shoots
Annual branding shoots are ideal for businesses that don’t frequently update their products, services, or teams. These sessions are best for e-commerce services, classic brands, and so on.
Best for:
Corporations with stable branding
Manufacturers with durable goods
Universities/nonprofits
Brands with timeless products
Pro Tips for Scheduling Brand Visuals Effectively:
Batch Content: Shoot multiple variations in one session (e.g., team portraits + product flat lays).
Repurpose Smartly: Turn one photo shoot into 3+ months of content with cropping/recoloring.
Track Trends: Even annual shoot brands should monitor visual trends (e.g., a shift from stocky to authentic).
Why is professional photo editing important when updating your brand photos?
Professional photo editing is important when updating your brand photos-not just to “make them look awesome”, but to align visuals with your brand identity, enhance consistency, and elevate professionalism. After clicking awesome brand visuals, here are some key reasons for professional photo editing:
Ensures brand consistency: Editing allows businesses to maintain a consistent style - such as color grading, cropping, and focus across all images. This uniformity is essential for cohesive branding across websites, social media, and marketing materials.
Ensures professionalism and polished appearance: Photo editing, like background removal service, color correction, enhancement, blemish removal, and others, ensures every visual makes a strong first impression and builds trust with your audience.
Optimizes for multiple platforms: Retouched images offer you the flexibility to upload different marketing platforms, ensuring all look their best, regardless of where they’re displayed.
Removes distractions and focuses attention: Post-processing services like fixing exposure, correcting dull/washed out tones, skin smoothing, and others help direct the viewer’s focus to the subject.
You might notice how enthusiastic the Nike brand is. They use high-contrast, sharpened edits for dynamic energy whenever they launch a new product. The same goes with Glossier, the world’s popular beauty company that employs soft, natural retouching to align with its “skin-first” branding.
There’s no universal rule-align your photo refresh rhythm to connect with your target audience. Ask yourself when your last brand photo update was. Could those visuals use a strategic refresh and align with your brand? You get the answer to schedule your next Brand Photo Shooting Session!