How To Choose The Right Brand Photographer For You
Branding photography is a major step in growing your business. It’s an investment that can make or break your visual identity. However, selecting the right brand photographer is about much more than just finding someone who snaps pretty pictures. Imagine scrolling through a website and instantly feeling drawn to the images, where each photo tells a story, captures emotions, and invites you to explore more. That’s what great brand photography does.
Choosing a brand photographer can feel overwhelming. Don’t worry. We’ve broken down the process into simple, clear steps to help you find a photographer who fits your brand like a glove. Let’s dive in to get you started.
How To Choose The Right Brand Photographer?
Choosing the right brand photographer is an important step in creating your brand’s visual identity and connecting with your target audience. However, the selection process may seem daunting without a proper guideline.
The following 7 steps will assist you in identifying the best brand photographer to capture your vision and help grow your business through visually appealing images.
Understand Your Brand and Visual Goals
Your first step before choosing the right photographer should be to understand your brand properly. If you have a clear vision of your brand’s goal, it becomes easier to communicate your expectations. When you and the brand photographer are on the same page, you get results exactly the way you had in mind.
So, how can you organize your thoughts and create a clear direction for your brand photoshoot? The following is a guideline to help you get started.
You can start by thinking about your products and purpose. For example, are you launching new products or rebuilding your brand image? What type of products do you sell? What message do you want to give to your customers? What image styles will best represent your brand? You need answers to these basic questions to understand what outcome you should expect from the photoshoot.
You should also research your competitors to identify what approach they are following to attract customers. You can check out the image styles they use. This will help you think about things you can do to make your brand different from others.
Describing your brand vision with words isn’t always easy, so you can use a mood board to show the kind of mood, tone and energy you want in your images. Tools like Pinterest or Canva are great options for creating digital mood boards.
Look for Relevant Experience and Specialization
There is a thin line that makes a professional photographer and a brand photographer different from one another. Similarly, a brand photographer who is an expert in one niche may not be the best choice for another. Since different industries require different image styles, you should choose someone who understands your market. Moreover, photographers who have specialized skills know more about the setting, props and mood that bring out the right emotions and connect with the audience.
Let’s say you own a fashion brand. You should look for a brand photographer with experience photographing fashion campaigns instead of one who is an expert in capturing jewelry, portraits or electronic gadgets. This is because a fashion brand photographer knows how to highlight fabric movement or make the outfits catch attention easily.
Review Their Portfolio for Style and Consistency
An ideal brand photographer specializing in your industry can be identified through their portfolios. A generalist photographer may refer to themselves as a specialist brand photographer on their website, social media or other channels. However, there is a simple trick to determine whether their claim is correct or not.
A brand photographer working in a niche-specific industry will have photographs of similar brands, products or services in their portfolio. For example, a fashion brand photographer’s portfolio will showcase consistent use of styling, posing and locations related to clothing aesthetics. Hence, look for sample images in the portfolios from brands similar to yours.
Another important thing to notice in the portfolio is consistent visual aesthetics. Although every professional photographer has a unique style, they maintain their signature composition style, lighting, color tones and editing techniques in all their projects. This ability to maintain consistency will make your audience stop scrolling and say, ‘Oh, that’s definitely their brand.’
Assess Their Process and Professionalism
Apart from the skills, experience and reputation, you need to understand the work process before choosing a brand photographer. The process of managing the whole process, from responding to your message to delivering final images says a lot about their level of professionalism. A professional photoshoot is not only about capturing the photos. It’s also about how well the photographer communicates with you, creates the plan and executes the project.
Some photographers share their work process in detail on their website. However, some prefer direct communication to explain their approach. Since a clear roadmap is needed to ensure the photoshoot goes smoothly and you get your desired results, you should carry out the inquiry properly. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while assessing their process.
Clear and professional communication style.
Sharing of pre-shoot planning, including shot list, photography setup, visual references, and so on.
Mentioning the timeline required to complete your projects.
Transparency regarding the agreements, such as NDAs, payment terms, usage rights, copyright ownership, etc.
Plans for managing last-minute surprises like unexpected delays, reshoots or changes in the plan.
Schedule a Consultation Before Booking
A consultation session before booking a brand photographer is an opportunity to build rapport with the photographer. This initial communication helps you share your vision with the photographer and understand whether they are the perfect fit for your brand. During the initial consultation, you can discuss the goals and expectations for the shoot.
You can share your mood board during the session to provide a clear visual of your desired theme and tone. Photographers may also share suggestions from their expertise. This discussion will also show their understanding of your industry trends. You can ask them for details about their work process, payments and things included in their package. This direct communication will give you the confidence to make the decision.
Most importantly, you must critically observe their personality and behavior. Usually, photographers who seem to brush off your questions, avoid giving clear answers or show impatience are considered not ideal for collaboration. Hence, evaluate these red flags before choosing the photographer.
Set a Realistic Budget and Timeline
Budget and project timeline are important factors you should consider for choosing the ideal photographer for your brand photography. Before deciding on your budget, remember that brand photography is an investment that gives your business a strong visual identity. So, you must look for the photographer who offers competitive pricing rather than the cheapest options.
Pricing can vary depending on the photographer’s experience, shooting styles, duration of the shoot, licensing rights and many other factors. You must set a realistic budget considering all these aspects to ensure you get the best value for your investment.
In addition, you must consider your project timeline before booking your appointment. For example, you need the final images within 2 weeks for a campaign launch or product release. You should clearly mention it during your initial consultation session. Since creating commercial-quality photographs is quite time-consuming, rushing the process can result in compromising the quality. So, it’s recommended to maintain transparency regarding the timeline to get the best outputs.
Discuss Post-Production and Editing Workflow
Professional quality images are the combined result of great photography and post-production in expert hands. Raw images often have issues like color imbalance, overexposure or unwanted shadows. In the fashion industry, clothing images are shot on mannequins that ruin the visual aesthetics.
Fixing these issues requires editing techniques such as photo retouching, color correction, ghost mannequin and so on. Another must-have image editing service is clipping path. This technique is used to isolate the subject from the background. You can use the independent image cutouts on your desired background or in your marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, websites or social media.
Usually, photographers include retouched images in their package. However, the number of edited images can be limited. Therefore, you need to discuss post-production before signing the deal. Here are a few basic queries you should include in your discussion.
How many edited images are included in the package?
Will the edited images include only basic adjustments or high-end retouching?
Will they provide revisions if you don’t like the retouched images?
What file formats will you receive?
What is the expected turnaround time for the final images?
You need to have clear knowledge of their retouched image policy. In case of advanced photo retouching, fast turnaround or larger volume of edited images, you may need to outsource to image editing services.
Wrap-up
Finding the perfect brand photographer may seem challenging. For this reason, we've designed this guide to make the process easier. Hopefully, our organized guidelines will help you find a photographer who understands your vision and delivers quality images that truly represent your brand.