Our minds are wonderful - creativity, vision, thought, emotion - all stem from our minds.
Now the idea of brand photos has come to mind and I bet your mind is swirling with ideas. You see yourself in an open space full of clean, natural light. You want to show the level of strategy you put into your client's service. Somehow you want to incorporate your love of fun shaped pasta into your photos.
You have the vision in right there in front of your eyes, well your mind's eye. Now how do you get your photographer to see what you're seeing?
Communicating your ideas and thoughts is a challenge in any creative collaboration. Thankfully someone came up with a search engine full of visuals - Pinterest.
Using Pinterest to Create Inspiration Boards for Brand Photos
One homework assignment all brand clients receive is the task to create an inspiration board. This board should contain at least 15 - 20 images that inspire you, reflect an aspect of your brand, or illustrate a concept.
Before your planning call, I review your board and identify what themes I see. These themes could be reoccurring emotions, style of images, a concentration of portrait versus content images, etc.
Then together we discuss the board and note any important features we'd want to include in your brand photos.
5 Ways to Use Pinterest to Prepare for Your Brand Photos
Beyond actually curating your board, what are you actually using Pinterest for to plan your brand photos?
There are so many ways to use Pinterest. I've narrowed it down to my top five ways to use Pinterest to prepare for your brand photos:
Communicate Your Vision - Whether it's your brand values, emotions you want to elicit, or brand personality, what you save to your inspiration board can be the bridge that conveys the vision for your brand photos.
Assemble a Visual Representation of Your Brand - your overall brand aesthetic can be illustrated by saving images that reflect your brand's aesthetic. Colors, textures, 'aesthetic' photos all work well to portray your brand.
Generate Outfit, Hair, and Makeup Inspiration - Pinterest is the OG of outfit inspiration. The days spent in 2009 and 2010 saving peplum tops and statement necklaces have prepared us for finding brand photo outfit inspiration. Same goes for hair and makeup, too!
Concept Communication Tool - by finding images that resonate with what you have in mind, we can discuss how your specific ideas can be translated into finished images.
Inspire Creativity - The possibilities are endless and as you browse through my hope is that you feel inspired, hopeful, and assured that you too can have beautiful polished brand photos that capture your audiences attention yet are unique to you!
How NOT to Use Pinterest When Planning Your Brand Photos
Copying! - All images found on Pinterest are the intellectual property of some other creative(s) who so kindly shared their work for others to admire and be inspired by. No images will be directly copied out of respect for the creator and respect of you. Yes, you! You are a unique brand and business owner who deserves to have unique images created for your own use.
A Shot List - Nope, no way, no thank you. Any Pinterest boards made for planning purposes will only be for planning purposes. During your session, we want to find a natural creative flow for your brand photos. That's why it's so important to put time into the planning process and identify what makes your brand unique.
No longer are we expressing our ideas and ending that conversation with 'you know what I mean'. Because now, I can know what you mean.
About the Brand Photos in This Post
Samia of Samia's Studios reached out for brand photography with the goal to create content for new services that help aspiring wedding photographers. She is one of the top wedding photographers in Northern Virginia and the surrounding area and wanted to use her experience and gained knowledge to teach others.
In her photos we wanted to show that she's a photographer who has established systems and automated workflows in place to elevate the client's experience. Photographers can purchase her course on utilizing Honeybook, email templates, and designed guides to use within their own business.
We took her photos at Shabby Chic, a beautiful well-decorated home in Purcellville, Virginia.
See how Samia is utilizing her personal brand photos and cheer her on by following along on Instagram.
About Emily Marcella for Creative Brands
Emily Marcella is a Northern Virginia Personal Brand Photographer serving creative small business owners, like photographers. Emily has a three-part approach to brand photography - together we plan strategically in order to shoot creatively and generate images that allow you to market intentionally.