Branding is a hot topic for us entrepreneurs.
And these days, nothing can up-level your brand more than amazing photography.
If you’ve been following me on social, you might have seen a few sneak peeks of the two-day photoshoot that we just wrapped last week. We had an entire day shooting in my home office followed by an off-site shoot at the gorgeous Quirk Hotel here in Richmond VA.
But not all of us love being on camera. If you’re anything like me, thinking about getting new photos for your brand brings up all sorts of anxiety and thoughts like “I should lose 15lbs first.”
That’s where taking the time to prepare for your next big photoshoot comes in. Even though being in front of the camera makes me nervous, all the prep work ensured that this two-day shoot was a huge success!
Three Tips to Prep for Your Next Photo Shoot
[clickToTweet tweet=”With a little prep work, your brand photoshoot doesn’t have to be stressful!” quote=”With a little prep work, your brand photoshoot doesn’t have to be stressful!” theme=”style2″]
1: Bring on a Creative Director
This was the biggest change from my previous photoshoot – bringing in Sarah Ancalmo of Public Persona as my creative director. Sarah and I started working together in November on this re-brand as I realized I needed to really dig deeper than ever before to get to the essence of my brand here on RachealCook.com
Not only will a Creative Director help ensure that everything looks cohesive and gorgeous… but my favorite part is that I could basically hand off all the decision-making and focus on just being present for the photoshoot. Because we’d done so much planning, Sarah knew exactly what shots we needed and could direct the team to make it happen.
2: Have a Game Plan
Once it was all said and done… we probably spend a good three months planning this photoshoot. Mapping out the new website, getting started on copywriting, and listing out all the other items that needed photos was HUGE.
It’s so easy to just book a photoshoot and hope that you’ll figure out what photos go where, but honestly, each page of your site has a completely different intention. Photos you’ll share on social are different from the banner images on your home page. Add in blog post photos and landing page photos and sales page photos…
It’s a LOT of photos!
By starting with a shot list of ALL the potential photos including where and how they were going to be used, we were able to be much more efficient throughout the entire photoshoot.
3: Spend Time Sourcing Props
I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time shopping in my life! But thanks to our shot list, I knew exactly what photos we wanted to get and what types of props would be helpful in styling up my office (or the conference room table) to evoke the feel.
Because my brand is all about business strategy – we used every possible office supply from Poppin, MacBooks and iPhones, stacks of books, and lots of green plans.