Branding and Promotional Photography Portraits
Artist, Tim Muddiman. Taken in his studio, 2022.
One of my greatest pleasures, is creating promotional, or brand portraits of other creative people.
It’s incredibly satisfying, because photographing people within the creative industries, makes you dig deep as a photographer. You want to create an image or series of images that will not only endure, but that will define a moment in that creative person’s history.
The folded arms, quarter turn, dip your chin, ‘estate agent’ shot may be great… for estate agents, or realtors in America, but people in the creative industries need character in their branding portraits.
It’s also a joy to create branding portraits of creative people, because they’re usually fully invested in the final image. It’s because they need these images to get across a message that words, or their own form of art alone can’t convey. People after all, buy from people, especially if they ‘know’ something about them, they want to invest in them, the artist, the human. Branding and promotional photography of other creative people usually involves fantastic communication between you and your client. Portrait concept ideas are born from these two or more creative minds, conspiring to create something lasting… If for no other reason than the person sitting for the portrait doesn’t want to go through the process again for a while to come.
Creating a more moody image. Practical lighting (anglepoise), plus careful studio light techniques can turn day to night.
So as photographers, how do we ensure our creative clients will not only be happy to use our images for the foreseeable future, but also, hopefully, will call for your services again when the time is right for an update?
I always try to come up with a series of images for my creative clients, so they can use the images as a drip feed for social media, or they have options for different outlets. That could be online spaces or physical print requirements, magazine interviews, book jackets etc., which is why my portraits are always supplied to the client in both print ready and web ready resolutions.
In this series of images for the incredible artist, Tim Muddiman, I came up with a five shot to set up. It is obviously incredibly helpful if your client understands that a creative portrait shoot isn’t a quick process. Tim is a very busy and in demand artist, so I was able to set up the different shots at his gallery space, while Tim was able to carry on creating work in his studio for an upcoming exhibition. When I was set, I’d call Tim in for the shots, then move on to setting up for the next shot.
Don’t be afraid to offer up some concept ideas that may seem, to your client, a bit ‘out there’. Two of the shots I set up with Tim, he wasn’t too sure about, but one he used as his profile image for quite a while and another gained a huge amount of positive feedback from his own audience, for both Tim and myself.
‘Two Tims’. With some accurate positioning and a little computer magic, a different image concept can be produced.
Although Tim was fantastic at going along with the ideas, I could tell he wasn’t convinced when I first mentioned a couple. The shot with the curtain half across Tim’s face looked great as a social media header shot and the ‘Two Tims’ was what seemed to capture his audience’s imagination. Both of us got praise for the creativity of that shot on Tim’s social media feeds. Which only happened because a) The shots turned out great, as I knew they would, and b) Tim is very good at giving image credits to the photographers who create them, meaning his own audience can invest a little of their time in another artist’s work if they feel like it.
One of the ‘safe’ shots of Tim. Simple composition with his artwork and some books for context and scale.
Obviously, you need to bag the safe shots too. I always ensure I create a couple of guaranteed useable portraits among the set. But never be afraid to go a little off piste, you never know which concept will hit that home run.
So if you’re a creative in need of branding or promotional photography, you could always give me a call, I’d be honoured to collaborate on your images. But if we’re too far apart practically, don’t be afraid to push your photographer to create something a little different. And if you’re a photographer, once you’ve got the safe shots, offer up something outside of your artists comfort zone. Have an idea or two in your back pocket that you can drop in with “hey, I’ve got this portrait idea I’d like to try and I think you’re the perfect fit…” You never know, it may just be the shot that grabs the attention for both of you!
