When is a headshot not a headshot?

Confused? Well don’t be. I’m here to tell you that it’s Simply simple when you know.

Traditionally, professional headshots have been about putting faces to the names of your team, or a face to the author of an article in the press. But, times have changed and headshots are being recognised as the valuable opportunity they are. Put Simply, when your headshot images add something authentic to your business’s story, they are better representing your brand – and when that happens, you have not just used but harnessed the power of the commercial branding photoshoot.

Where the blazes am I going with this..?
When you run a business, you really want people to love what you do and why you’re doing it, and if they love it as much as you do then they’ll want to buy into it (that forms a part of your brand).
One of the best ways to get people to buy into what you’re doing is to show them who they are buying from, (people buy from people after all) and your team are your brand ambassadors, the cogs in your machine and your greatest secret weapon.

But first it is worth taking some time to understand exactly what a brand actually is….
The problem with explaining what we mean by ‘your brand’ is that a brand is a concept rather than a specifically defined list of elements. A brand isn’t your logo or something that you can touch or hold, instead it is what makes your business easily recognisable. Your corporate personality. Just like a person, your business will look a certain way, behave to set of values and prioritise certain things over others. So you brand includes, the colour scheme you use, the tone of voice you adopt in your brochures, adverts and website. It’s the consistent quality and style of images through your digital and traditional marketing. When you put everything together to build your brand identity this is what people remember and what encourages them to choose you over a competitor.

Think about the messages your images need to support and how they can demonstrate your brand. Are you a fun, eye-catching, engaging business (in which case let’s take some fun, eye catching photos!) or are you placed in a more serious industry or arena? Do you provide products or services? Who is your ideal client? And then think about how your images will be interpreted and who they will resonate with.

One of the keys to a successful shoot, for commercial branding headshots, is to make it as engaging and relaxed as possible. These are not passport photos!

Photographs of people in small groups can also work well and these can be edited to focus on each person individually. I also advocate encouraging people to leave their desks and move around the workplace, interacting with products or demonstrating your services for great lifestyle images; as well as injecting some personality into the shots.

Whether you are selling a service or a physical product, the more that you can get your audience to engage with what you are offering the better – and getting your team involved with their commercial headshot is a great way to achieve this. This is where we can elevate your ‘meet the team’ pictures to the lofty heights of ‘commercial branded headshots’.

If you want to put the authentic heart of your business front and centre let’s have a conversation about making that happen.