Difference between Headshots vs. Personal Branding Photography
San Francisco East Bay
In the dynamic business landscape of the San Francisco East Bay area, crafting a compelling visual identity for your business is essential. When it comes to professional imagery, understanding the nuances between traditional headshots and personalized branding photography will help create the best representation of your business or brand to the world.
Let’s dive in.
1. Defining the Basics: Headshots vs. Personal Branding Photography
Headshots: In photography circles, I often come across heated debates about the exact definition of a headshot. Can it feature a hand?! How much of the body should be included in it?! But for most people, it’s enough to know that a headshot normally features the classic head-and-shoulder shot where more of the facial features of a person is the focus of the photograph.
Traditionally, headshots were taken at the studio in front of a neutral backdrop. Usually, they were used for resumes, business directories, or advertisements in a local magazine.
Today, headshots have come a long way. They can be shot against a variety of colored backdrops, can include interesting poses, and can even be shot outdoors against natural backgrounds. Nowadays, headshots are mostly used as profile pictures for social media as well as websites.
Personal Branding: This type of business photography is a relatively modern concept. In short, personal branding photoshoots are aimed to capture a business owner’s personality, values, and brand identity in diverse settings.
Personal branding photographs are aimed to show the brand’s heart and soul to help it build trust and attract ideal clients. It’s a lifestyle photoshoot incorporating many different parts of the brand and naturally capturing what makes a business unique, relatable, and unforgettable.
Personal branding photoshoots will almost always include some type of headshots.
2. Purpose:
Headshots are focused on a professional appearance of a person and useful to help potential customers put a face to the name. They are used as profile pictures on social media and on the about pages of websites.
Professionally done headshots are a must for marketing purposes of any business. However, they are limited in storytelling, so if your goal is to educate your potential clients and customers about your services, your mission, and your unique voice, you may need a personal branding photoshoot.
Personal Branding photography offers a narrative, showcasing your brand’s story, values, and one-of-a-kind approach that only you provide.
If you are the face of your business and have (or want to have) an online presence (Website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn), you have a personal brand, and you must make the right first impression to attract your ideal clients and earn their trust to do business with you.
Your personal brand images have the power to take your potential clients behind the scenes, introduce them to your workspace and give them a sense of what it would be like to work with you before they even meet you.
3. The Investment: Quality vs. Quantity
Headshots are generally shot during a very quick session in front of a simple backdrop. Because of this, it is a more budget friendly option.
Personal Branding photography is a much more involved process. This type of session is a collaborative process between the business owner and a photographer. It will start with a strategy, purpose and goals setting. I also like to help clients visualize their session by creating mood boards and shot lists. A personal branding photoshoot will utilize multiple backgrounds and settings, and may include multiple locations. There is time allocated for outfit changes to show different aspects of your personality from professional to casual and everything in-between.
4. Choosing Your Photographer:
Whether it’s a headshot you need or a custom personal branding photoshoot, consider learning about the photographer. A successful branding photographer will have a website that introduces their photography brand to the fullest (how else will they be able to help showcase your brand if they can’t even showcase their own brand to a potential client). Make sure you love their style (some photographers will have very artistic editing styles that may clash with your modern brand), their business photography portfolio (not every photographer will have indoor lighting experience or vice versa, an outdoor shooting experience if they only shoot in a studio), and their personality (it’s so important to have a good personality fit for you to feel comfortable to truly open up and present yourself in an authentic way, and that can only happen if you fully trust the photographer in front of you).
Conclusion:
As you navigate the choices between headshots and personal branding photography, remember that your visual identity is a powerful tool for success in the San Francisco East Bay area’s saturated business scene. Now that you know the difference between headshots and branding photography, you can make an informed decision based on your needs and goals.
Take action!
Hey fellow business owner, if you’ve read this far, thank you!
But more importantly, congratulations!
You are taking time to learn how you can elevate your brand, and that’s something to be proud of! With branding having such a powerful impact on client behavior, it’s so important to continually build it and invest in its growth.
High quality branding photographs of you will infuse personality into your brand, help you show up consistently and authentically for your audience and become more valuable to your clients.
For a personalized consultation, reach out to me, your trusted SF East Bay Area branding photographer. Let’s chat about how I can help you elevate your brand images and create photographs that will make your business stand out in this thriving business landscape.
