I get it, finding the perfect photographer for your brand photos can be completely overwhelming.
It can seem like everyone and their sister is a photographer, but sorting through everyone to find a photographer who understands what you need as an entrepreneur to help you grow your business and connect with your audience on a deeper level can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack (I'm exhausted just thinking about what you went through already!)
Mistake #1: Hiring a Traditional Photographer Who Doesn’t Specialize in Personal Brand Photography
While there are plenty of photographers who can take a beautiful photo or a nice headshot, very few traditional photographers understand how to transform your personal brand into images.
They’ll expect you to have all the ideas, or they wont understand the differences when shooting for web use.
Traditional photographers will not have the expertise you need to create images that truly connect with your audience and grow your social media following.
A personal brand photographer will take the time to understand your brand and your audience.
An experienced brand photographer will use this information to create a set of unique images that will truly reflect your brand and help people feel like they know and trust you.
It’s far more than just a beautiful headshot.
They don’t just work off a generic shot-list, they strategically transform your brand into a set of images that connect with and engage your audience.
It’s hard enough to stand apart from the crowd online.
If you’re going to take the time and money to invest in personal brand photography, picking a traditional photographer who doesn’t truly understand how to transform your brand into images is a huge mistake.
You’ll just blend in with everyone else and it won’t actually strengthen your brand. If you want to use these images to strengthen your personal brand and grow your business online, you need to work with someone who specializes in Personal Brand Photography.
Pro Tip #1: Look for variety in their images and ask to see images grouped by client to see how they convey a persons brand.
When you look through their portfolio, watch to see if they have “go to” poses that they do with everyone, or if they have a wide variety of images that vary from client to client.
If you want to see what I’m talking about, check out the featured work on our website by clicking below.
Mistake #2: Not Asking if a Commercial Use License is Included.
Most traditional photographers do NOT allow you to use the images they take commercially.
This means you can’t use them to grow your business in any way.
If you want to use these in your business, you MUST have a commercial use license, and you should expect to pay more for this than you would for photo sessions that you do just for personal use since you’ll be using them to grow your business and make more money.
Traditionally, commercial use licenses varied in price based on distribution numbers, the location where the photos are used, how many copies will be distributed, what channels will be used to distribute them, how long you’ll be allowed to use them, and more.
Quite frankly, it’s a complicated mess that’s a pain to track and deal with.
This is why working with a modern Personal Brand Photographer is absolutely ideal.
Personal Brand Photography is a relatively new niche in the photography industry that gives you the commercial use licenses you need, but at one easy price ( or at least that's the way I do it).
No confusing tracking.
No complicated pricing.
One price.
Almost unlimited commercial usage.
Because if you have a post go viral, the last thing you want is to get a huge licensing bill from your photographer, or worse, have to pull it down because you didn’t have a commercial use license in the first place.
Pro Tip #2: Ask for details about their usage license and contract before making a decision.
Many photographers treat their business like a hobby and not an actual business.
If they don’t have a contract or usage license, or things get a bit awkward when you ask about it, they likely won’t understand your mindset as an entrepreneur.
If they don’t take their own business seriously, how can you expect them to understand YOUR needs as an entrepreneur?
Mistake #3: Not Getting the Right to Edit the Images
This is a big one.
Traditionally, photographers do NOT give the right to edit their photos in any way.
Their photos are their art, and the thought of anyone modifying their work makes them cringe.
Consumers generally don’t need to edit the photos they get from traditional photographers.
They hire photographers because they like their work. It’s rare they’d do more than buy a few prints, an album, some wall art, or some cards.
But if you’re using these images to grow your online business, you’re likely going to want to edit or modify a few of them.
Whether it’s adding words to the image and making it a quote, optimizing an image for Pinterest, making it into a Facebook ad, adding an Instagram filter, or something more drastic, you are going to need the rights to do this.
Pro Tip #3: Ask if you’re allowed to edit the photos.
You want unrestricted access to edit the photos however you or your graphic designer needs to in order to grow your business and customize the images for each platform you’re using them on.
Avoid any photographers who won’t allow this.
Mistake #4: Hiring a photographer that requires you to credit them
Photographers usually only allow you to use images online if you link to their website and credit them wherever you use the image (or require you to use a logo’d version of the image, which is even worse!)
While all photographers appreciate getting credit for their work, if you have to link to their site on a sales page or in your Facebook ads (or anywhere else that you’re trying to get people to take action), it will lower your conversion rate.
Anytime you add links to outside sites on posts or pages, you risk losing your traffic to those sites instead of them taking the action you really want them to take.
This is why it’s so important that you hire someone who understands that it’s not always appropriate for you to link to their site, use a logo’d image, or credit you each time you use one of the photos.
Do I appreciate it when I’m credited on posts or pages where it’s appropriate (like casual social media posts or in blog posts)?
Of course!
But I’d never want it to hurt your conversion rate or make your own content less effective.
I do everything I can to help you grow your personal brand and make working with me as amazing as possible so that when you hear of someone who needs a personal brand photographer, you’ll be happy to recommend me.
Pro Tip #4: Ask for specific details on how you’re required to credit the photographer.
Any photographer that requires you to credit them every time an image is used doesn’t understand basic conversion principles and the needs of an entrepreneur or influencer.
Bonus Tip: Ask what rights the photographer has to use your photos in their own business
As photographers, we rely upon the images we take of our clients to show new potential clients examples of our work.
If you’ve got a very large following and do not want the photographer to be able to use your photos to market their business, or you want to buy full copyrights to the images, you’ll want to have this discussion before you hire them.
I know that entrepreneurs and influencers with large audiences often have people try and take advantage of the brand they’ve built, or they are burned by people who misrepresent their relationship to promote their own business, and I’d never want you to feel violated by
how your images are being used.
That being said, non-disclosure agreements and/or buying full copyrights will increase your costs significantly.
I’ve found that when you find a personal brand photographer you trust, they won’t misrepresent your relationship because they understand the work you’ve put into creating your brand and growing your audience and they would never want to take advantage of
that.
Just have a discussion. You can generally work out an agreement that allows them to use the work in a way that’s acceptable to you both that won’t require a non-disclosure agreement or any extra fees.
If you want a photographer you can trust who won’t take advantage of the brand you’ve created, who genuinely has your best interests at heart and that will provide incredible images that help you strengthen the brand you’ve created even more, I’d love to work with
you.
Mistake #5: Not Having A Plan
A good personal brand photographer will have a series of questions for you to answer that will make sure you have all the images you need for the content you create for a solid 3 months.
Whether you need daily images for Instagram, images for blog posts, website banners, Pinterest images, Facebook Ad images, or more, they’ll help make sure you have everything you need ready to go at your fingertips, all formatted correctly for each platform.
Not only that, but many traditional photographers shoot vertical portraits, which are hard to use for website banners and Facebook ads, or they shoot close-ups that don’t leave the space you need to add text or other graphic elements to your images.
My goal is to give you every image you need for the next 3 months, making your social media management and content creation much more efficient. No more wasting 10 min taking a low-quality selfie when you’ve got the perfect image ready and waiting for you each day.
You will be able to batch create your posts with ease and efficiency, saving you time and helping you get ahead so you can schedule it in advance and not have that hanging over your head each day.
Pro Tip #5: Hire a photographer who offers yearly packages
If you are using social media to grow your personal brand, you’re going to need a steady stream of new images month after month.
While traditional photographers only book one session at a time, so you have to remember to book them on a regular basis and hope they aren’t too busy to fit you in, personal brand photographers offer yearly packages that guarantee you’ll have fresh images every quarter and locks in your spot with them.
You’ll often get a better rate for booking a yearly package instead of individual sessions, and it’s one less thing you have to worry about doing. Plus, you can pay on a monthly basis, helping even out your cashflow throughout the year.
