God has created you so unique and you use all those incredible personality traits to make your business just as unique. It is so important that your brand photographer uses all those details to create a custom experience with an amazing gallery as a result. And that gallery should have amazing custom stock images. Photos that are very YOU, that speak to your ideal clients that you’ve had fun planning and we’ve had fun capturing.

When preparing for your brand shoot, here are just a few helpful tips to make the absolute best not just of your headshots, but even those smaller details like these stock images. First, make sure that the space where your brand shoot will be hosted has a good clean shortly before. Dust might not show up on your images, but it can take away that “clean feel” that makes all the difference. Secondly, a manicure, and maybe even a pedicure not only makes your hands (and feet) look their best, but also allows you to incorporate brand colours into those closeup that involve those body parts. It also shows your ideal client that you are detail oriented. Last, but not least, aim to have your entire brand shoot plan finalized at least 24 hours before the start of the shoot. This will allow you to be more relaxed and also gives you that buffer time in case something does go awry.

The Classic Stock Photos

Let’s start with the basics, because they have worked for a long time. These are great to use for banner images and even those times when you want to say something on Instagram about something non-brand related – your amazing weekend, for example.

• Your hands on your keyboard. This is a classic, and it’s just a goodie. We do this for EVERY client that may work a lot from their computer.
• Your workspace (from different angles). We have a feeling you might love a cute workspace and that deserves to be captured. Adding those personal touches (a cute pic of your pooch and a cute little paperweight in your brand colours) levels it up even more.
• A flat-lay image of products that you sell or work with. We can even bring custom backgrounds to work with your brand colours to create even more unique images. We’re not scared of colour and also love those really captivating photos that lean more towards neutral tones.

Make Your Stock Photos Personal

Adding your brand colours into any part of your shoot is such an easy way to keep your gallery very on-brand, but even when you do this it’s important to make each image personal to you. God has made each of us unique and your custom stock images should also be very YOU.

• Your favourite tool of the job. This could be something you need to make your products, or it could even be an app open on your phone that’s in your hands!
• Your website open on the coffee table with some of your favourite magazines laying to the side. Make sure to find literature that is perfect for your ideal client, it’ll speak that much more to them personally.
• Something related to your hobby in its natural state/habitat. Think paint brushes on a palette for artists, flour in a canister for bakers or a measuring tape laying on a desk for a seamstress.
• Your favourite flowers (in your brand colours or in a branded environment). Or, if you’re not a flower person, a plant! And if you’re not a plant person… what are you?

Creating More Variations of Your Stock Photos

These next few ideas for custom stock images may take a bit more planning, but it would be so easy to get several different compositions of this. When you move these to a different location, you would add a whole different feel to it that adds so much variety to your gallery. We’re all about repurposing!

• Your favourite drink on a serving tray with a notebook on the side that has your logo on it! This could be seasonal, so think a hot latte in the winter or a cute cosmopolitan in the summer.
• Your hands holding your favourite book while you’re laying on the couch. Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn’t matter, but it should resonate with your ideal client!
• An on brand calendar with your hands writing social obligations on/in it. Make sure not to make it too “dated” so that you’ll be able to use it different times in the future.
• Something random that happens to be in your brand colours. Stumped? Head to your local hardware store and pick up paint sample strips!

Let’s Make Your Stock Photos Fun!

We believe that most brand photographers are great at their job. But are they fun? We know we are, and we bring that sense of enjoyment not just to the shoot, but we also plan to incorporate it into your gallery. Here are just a couple ideas, but whatever you choose, make sure they feel authentic!

• You hiding behind a magazine (or your own personal literature/graphics/physical logo) that you’re holding up with your hands. BOOK WITH US and we’ll give you so many ideas – your head might explode!
• Let’s throw or blow some confetti to celebrate you investing and believing in yourself. There might be a mess to clean up, but it’s so worth it!