All the things you need to know before a branding shoot.
This is about you & your brand and I get it, standing in front of a camera can feel a bit intimidating and make you feel self conscious. I know that but I'm there to help you feel less self conscious and really create some images that you love & are excited to share.
In this world of visual media everywhere, having the right shots of you and your business is essential, everyone is drawn to a face or the person behind the product. The shoot above is of a lovely friend who is also a herbalist, she'd be the first to tell you how she hates being in front of the camera but totally gets the fact that she needed images so she trusted me to help photograph her in this gorgeous garden in Dorset, (fortunately another friend runs the garden).
Anne had a few ideas of what she wanted but wanted help with my creative eye to bring those images into reality. So I had a little dive into Pinterest for some inspiration incase I got stuck but I actually find the photographic flow starts as soon as I pick my camera up. I helped Anne with her personal styling (I used to work in Fashion in London so this is a little extra bonus). My eye looks for everything, hair, makeup, clothes, background, positioning, lighting, angles & composition. My brain is doing a lot while I'm photographing you.
The real flows starts as we begin, & we chat and talk about what lights you up, why you do what you do, where your inspiration comes from and piece by piece we find our flow to create. I always think there's a warm up period on a photo shoot, for both of us, for you to start feeling relaxed and for me to feel in creative flow. Once we are flowing the time seems to evaporate and before I know it 2 hours has gone, and our shoot was just done in that time.
In a 2 hour shoot we have the time to focus on you, get some great head shots, some shots of you doing what you do best and some closeups of the work you do. For Anne that was the apothecary she creates from the herbs. I realised this day how lucky I am to work with friends doing such beautiful altruistic work within nature. I learnt so much on this shoot it was so interesting & Anne was a wealth of knowledge about all the plants, even the weeds! I came out with new knowledge.
Towards the end I give you a sneak peak of what I've captured, we go through the shoot list and double check I've got all the images you want with lots of variety to choose from and we are good to know.
Then it's just down to me & my editing. A part I love and wouldn't change and am not using AI for, maybe that's crazy but I don't see how AI can choose what my eye sees as art. But that's whole other topic!
If you are in Dorset and looking to level up your brand, especially in wellbeing, I'd love to help. Please get in touch and we can chat.
Till next time. If you'd like to follow Anne, instagram.com/theherbalpractice
Ella
