Branding Yourself As A Photographer
January 28th, 2010A fellow photographer friend of mine asked me a question today. She wanted to know what the term branding meant in relation to a photographer’s career. This is a really good question because your career as a fashion photographer, portrait photographer, wedding photographer or any kind of photographer depends on branding yourself. As photographers we are hired for our style and look of our photos.
1. The first part of branding yourself is designing a logo. That doesn’t mean your logo has to be a graphic or initials. Take for example Gucci. When you see the word Gucci you know it’s Gucci by the font style that is used. Same can be said for Quicksilver, Versace, and the list could go on. My logo for example is the font style that is used as well as the spacing between letters. The next thing you want to be aware of is your color scheme of your logo. My colors are gray background and white letters.
2. So now you have your logo and color scheme. You then make your website. Your website should incorporate your color scheme as well. My site is a gray background and white letters. It has been this way for 10 years and hasn’t changed once. People are creatures of habit. When you change up your site and colors every year or every other year that is not a very effective technique to keep your brand in everyone’s minds.
Think of McDonalds. If those golden arches suddenly were green, or blue or red or whatever, what do you think would happen ? LOL
3. Now you make your business cards and letter head for contracts and correspondence. Everything must match.
4. The next MOST important part of branding yourself as a photographer is defining your own style of shooting. Now this takes years. You need to get to know and find yourself as a photographer and shoot what you love as noted in this post. This will become your signature style in which you will be hired for jobs. My signature style is the back lit flare look with a little bit of fill shot outdoors. I do not do this in post.
I really like this look and this is a technique I teach in my private photography workshops. It is a soft look that does not require much gear and you can use a reflector and or an off camera flash to just give a kiss of fill light. I also execute this look in studio as well.
In conclusion, this is branding yourself as a photographer. Only YOU can do it. Only you can find yourself and your style. Remember that this is the most important part of establishing your name / brand. Any questions or comments please ask away !
Cheers !
Tags: background, Branding, business cards, camera, fashion, fashion photographer, flare, gucci, photographer wedding, portrait photographer, Quicksilver, signature style, studio, website, wedding photographer
January 28th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Excellent and often overlooked advice!
I might add that just like most creative endeavors there are certain skills involved and one cannot just slap together a business card and design a logo and call it a day. Effective graphic design requires expertise and careful thought. Graphic designers and brand managers have spent years to get where they are, very similar to the practices and efforts it takes us as photographers to get where we’re at.
Also there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to branding but I agree, it’s a very important part of one’s presence.
Might I suggest to photographers looking for branding to really reach out, ask if you know any designers that you could trade services with it. That way you’ll get professional results and really button up your presentation skills.
As a current photographer and graphic designer as well as former art buyer It pains me to see beautiful imagery with substandard presentation. It matters!
Thank you!
[Reply]
admin Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Matt thank you for your post. You make some very good points !
Cheers !
[Reply]
January 29th, 2010 at 11:26 am
[...] Branding Yourself As A Photographer | Fashion Photography Blog … [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by fashion_shooter: RT @fashion_shooter Branding Yourself As A Photographer http://ow.ly/1nKmFv...
January 30th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jason Christopher , Jason Christopher , Destry Jaimes, Brad Garner, Antoine James and others. Antoine James said: RT @fashion_shooter: RT @fashion_shooter Branding Yourself As A Photographer http://ow.ly/1nKmFv [...]
February 9th, 2010 at 1:24 am
This is some really great information, thanks a bunch for sharing!
[Reply]
February 12th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
I agree with you that having a brand is the most important thing for a photographer but it’s the thing that keeps a lot of GREAT photographers from ever having any monetary success.
I think that #4 on your list should actually be number 1. Defining your style and not being all over the place is the most important thing for photographers to achieve in order to start bringing in money. Once the photographer has developed his/her style, things like logo design and business cards and what not should flow quite naturally and become more easy.
Just my two cents.
[Reply]
admin Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Hi Antonio,
I’m confused on your first point. You say that having a brand is the thing that keeps most great photographers from ever having any monetary success. What do you mean by that ?
Your second point I have to disagree with and this is why. In my post I say it can take years to develop and find your own style. So in the meantime why not at least make some side money with head shots and family portraits maybe ? It’s MUCH easier to decide on a color scheme and logo to at least get some business cards made and start passing those out. You then apply those colors and logo to your website so now people start knowing you by your color scheme and logo and will follow your development as you make your way to discovering your own style which again takes years.
We both make good points and it really comes down to the choice of the individual photographer. One thing we both agree on and I am sure others agree on as well is that you MUST develop your own style and be known for that because your style is what you will be hired for.
Thank you for your comment Antonio and thank you for your participation with my blog
[Reply]
February 14th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Very good advices. Thanks!
Tina
http://tinapicardphotography.blogspot.com
[Reply]
April 7th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Your website is amazing thankyou so much for giving fellow photographers insight on tricks of the trade..
I have a question:
Next week i will be shooting a high fashion/editorial style shoot in the heart of the city in front of a theatre at night. I will be having 2 agency models male and female who will be wearing designer clothes. The shoot is 60′s inspired; last night i went to do a test shoot and it turned out not as i expected! So i am now in a panic! trying to analyze different ways of doing this….and i got nothing!!
basically i want to create sharpness (no grain), some detail in the clothing and background and more importantly create the overall atmosphere of the theatre..
Now I’m working on a very small budget! and i cant hire any lighting equipment because its outside on the main street of the city, and the city council wont let me unless i pay them $1000′s of dollars! which i dont have! lol
Any idea how i can create this? I’m shooting with a nikon d80 and a 18-200 lens and i have a sb600 flash unit.
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
[Reply]
Jason Christopher Reply:
April 8th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Hi Stephanie,
Wow ! You’ve got a challenge on your hands. It’s difficult for me to tell you exactly how to light this without seeing the location myself. If there are street lights that illuminate the theatre what I would do is put the camera on sticks and shoot at a very slow shutter speed so you will capture the beautiful ambient light from the street lights. You must remember to tell your models to be very still though. If you want your models to be moving in some way then what I would do without having a full set of lights, is use your sb600 and have an assistant bounce it off some white foam core. That way you won’t get those harsh shadows on the building and the light will be softer.
There are MANY ways to light this. You just gotta try several things.
Let me know how it turns out. I am curious as to what you choose.
Thanx for your question Stephanie.
[Reply]
April 8th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Hey Jason
Thankyou so much for your reply!!
You have some great ideas! some i considered and others i havent…
I think i will shoot at low shutter speed of 1/30th @ f8
That way im still getting depth of field and still capturing the overall atmosphere
And an ISO of 300 maybe 200
Thanks again!! you have been a great help! i will show you some photos once its done..
[Reply]
June 5th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Hi Jason!
I love all of your pictures and these ones are awesome! Too bad i live in Europe and can not take part in one of your workshops
What kind of Weather is necessary to take such Backlightpictures and where should the sun be ( morning, noon or afternoon)? I tried to take some pictures with backlight, they were sharp but i didnt get this effect…I have a Nikon D90, my lenses are SIGMA 18-50 mm, 1:2.8-4,5 DC, SIGMA 50-200 mm, 1:4-5,6 DC and a NIKKOR MF-50 mm, 1:1,8. I also tried it out with a reflector and with the camera-flash and it didn’t work.
Kind regards
Michael
[Reply]
Jason Christopher Reply:
June 7th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Hi Michael, thank you so much for the compliments. If you are ever in LA I would love to have you take my private workshop.
The best time to shoot photos like this is late afternoon when the sun is dropping fast. The sun literally needs to be right behind the model. You could achieve the same effect in the studio if you were to place a strobe right behind your model.
And it really takes a whole lot of practice to get this right. I’ve been shooting this style for so long it just comes instinctively to me. However, I promise you that if you keep practicing this technique, you will master it.
[Reply]
June 9th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
would absoloutely love to do a workshop with u. Only problem is that im in South Africa (
[Reply]
Jason Christopher Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Hi Yaseen. Ya living that far away could pose a problem. However, I have had one person come from another country to take my workshop. Save , save , save
[Reply]
October 23rd, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I’m going on my 2nd year in the photography field and am learning new stuff constantly, such as this article – thanks for this site. Jen
[Reply]
Jason Christopher Reply:
October 29th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Hi Jennifer. You’re very welcome! Thank you for the compliment.
[Reply]
November 9th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
When I go through a seriously great article I proceed and do one of three things:1.Send it to all the relevant good friends.2.Bookmark it in all of the famous sharing internet sites.3.Make sure to return to the same website where I read the post. After studying this article I am really thinking of going ahead and doing all of them…
[Reply]
Jason Christopher Reply:
November 11th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Shaun thank you so much ! I really appreciate the support. I went through your site and you do some really beautiful work.
Cheers !
[Reply]