Why brands should be milking the potential of Lifestyle Portrait Photography?

Why brands should be milking the potential of Lifestyle Portrait Photography?

Lifestyle portrait photography is proving to be an indispensable tool in the marketing arsenal.
Conventionally, digital profiles are something businesses have not put much thought or effort behind. However, gradually brands are beginning to realise how important first impressions are. 

Especially online, businesses are waking up to the fact that it is very hard to engage consumers online.
And if something isn’t catching their eye instantly, they are likely to scroll right past onto the next thing. 

 

What is lifestyle portrait photography?

Portrait photography is the act of photographing people and capturing their features and expressions.

When Portrait photography is combined with commercial lifestyle photography, we get commercial lifestyle portrait photography.

 The focus of lifestyle photography is on presenting people in a more real and natural setting. 

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Lifestyle portrait photography aims to deliver a natural, more genuine looking image of the subject. 

The aim is to present a more believable and relatable persona to the viewers. It usually includes self-portraits and silhouettes.

 It is fair to say that commercial lifestyle portrait photography is one of the most popular photography styles right now. 

And understandably so, given the accessibility and relatability, it brings to a corporate portrait.

The following are some of the major characteristics of professional lifestyle portrait photography.

  • Natural vibe

The usual advertising photographer is likely to overstate the product or brand messaging in the imagery of the photograph. 

However, a lifestyle portrait photographer is capable of soft-selling the message. He/she would subtly put across the brand narrative in a captivating manner. The vibe of lifestyle advertising photography is much more casual and organic.

 

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  • Social-media friendly

This kind of photography is considered perfect for social media platforms. Lifestyle portrait photography serves as a potent tool when it comes to promoting brand identity and image.

It does so by creating awareness about the people who are associated with the brand, by presenting them compellingly.

  • Personality-driven

This is a more candid take on corporate headshot photography. 

The objective of a professional lifestyle portrait photographer is to capture the personality of a subject. 

This is attained through close-ups, poses, and bringing out authentic expressions in the photograph.
This allows the viewers to better connect with the individual.

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Why lifestyle portrait photography is ideal for a corporate portrait?

There is much more to lifestyle portrait photography, then candid family photos. 

If you are a marketeer, promotional manager, or an art director, then unfamiliarity with this genre of photography is a real lost opportunity for your business.

The digital marketplace is pretty competitive and to survive, you must adopt and utilise every tool available out there.

It is a mistake to assume lifestyle portrait photography as something amateurish. 

There are several things that a lifestyle portrait photographer adds to a corporate portrait, like:-

  • 1. Personalises your brand

The main forte of any advertising photographer is to capture and highlight the qualities of a brand or its products/services. 

However, they can’t do much, when it comes to photographing people. 

A professional lifestyle portrait photographer personalises your brand and helps you better connect with your customers. 

Capturing people in their natural surrounding, conducting day-to-day activities, makes the photos look a lot more relatable and closer to real-life. 

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  • 2. Make your brand more trustworthy

What a Corporate portrait is supposed to do? 

Primarily, its job is to introduce the person, who is a staff member, to the consumers or users visiting the company’s website.

What a professional, such as a LinkedIn portrait photographer would do, is to essentially make the image more humane and connectable for the viewer. 

This helps in creating a genuine connection for the consumers, allowing them to view, not just the person but the brand as a whole, in a very positive light. 

  • 3. Balances out your brand image

By utilising lifestyle portrait photography for corporate portraiture, you can balance out the dullness of your website.

Lifestyle advertising imagery offers much more fun, creative, and engaging images. 

Using these images, you can introduce your team in a very compelling way, without making your platform look too boring or uninspiring. 

These images can beautifully counterbalance the stiff product images offered by the advertising photographer.

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  • 4. Better convey brand narrative

Lifestyle images, in general, are a better way to convey brand narratives and stories. 

The ability to add an approachable human emotion to the images is what distinguishes the work of a sound lifestyle photographer. UK, in particular, has emerged as a hub for talented lifestyle portrait photographers.

 If you are seeking to add context and narrative to your corporate portrait, then lifestyle portrait photography is the answer.

Why professional Corporate headshot photography is becoming important?

Corporate Head Shot Photography is similar to portraits. 

But instead of the entire body, a headshot typically covers just the head and the bust of a person.  

In some cases, it can go as far as the torso.
Professional headshots are usually used to introduce a staff member or managerial person of a company, online or in a professional setting. 

However, it is increasingly being preferred by companies in non-professional settings as well.

Corporate headshot photography is being used to project the confidence of the team members in online images, invoking trustworthiness among consumers.

 

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 Professional headshots are becoming more and more of a necessity nowadays, primarily because of social media. 

People prefer to see the picture and know about the person they are interacting with.

This is why you must use the skills of a professional corporate headshot photographer, to your advantage. 

  • 1. There is more to headshots than meets the eye.

Have you ever gone through the LinkedIn Profile of a person? 

If you have, you would probably know how we naturally gravitate towards profiles with well-shot pictures.

There is actual research that indicates that bios and LinkedIn Profiles that are without any photograph are routinely passed over for the ones that accompany a photograph.

Think about it. If a LinkedIn Profile headshot can have such an impact on a person’s chances of getting a job, then how crucial it would be for a business to better present its employees to the users/consumers. 

  • 2. First impressions matter.

Humans are programmed to judge quickly. 

So irrespective of our efforts to not judge a book by its cover, we end up doing exactly that, most of the time.

 It is better for a business to acknowledge and accept this hard truth, especially in these competitive times. 

If you want to engage consumers online, you will have to fight the million other distractions, by providing the best of everything. This is what a corporate headshot photographer helps you achieve. 

  • 3. Professional headshots Lend credibility.

Particularly in a corporate setting, hiring a professional corporate headshot photographer might come in handy. 

Not only does it lends immense credibility, but also makes you look more accessible. 

This could be a blessing if those people are prospective buyers, business associates, sellers, and other such persons. 

How a professional lifestyle portrait photographer can help a brand?

There are several ways in which a professional lifestyle portrait photographer can contribute towards the successful and vibrant portrayal of your brand image and identity. 

The following are some of the things that decent lifestyle portrait photography accomplishes:-

1. Contemporary style

Being well-versed with the current trends, a professional corporate headshot photographer will get you a prim and proper corporate portrait. 

2. Professional look

Because a portrait or a headshot primarily focuses on the individual, it is very important to get other aspects such as lighting just right. 

This is the areas where the talent of a lifestyle portrait photographer will shine the most.

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3. Facial expression and poses.

Engaging facial expressions and poses are the cruces of a good portrait or headshot. Thus, you must hire a capable lifestyle portrait photographer, who knows how to stage the photograph, while making it seem like natural and authentic. 

The ability to bring out the best expressions and poses from the subjects is what characterises solid lifestyle portrait photography.

4. Consistent messaging

Working in tandem with the marketing team, a professional lifestyle portrait photographer focuses on bringing out a specific tone in the portraits, that is completely aligned with the overall tone of the brand image. 

This creates a consistent style that would perfectly fit with your brand. 

Using randomly shot images to introduce your team, could ruin the overall vibe of your website or platform if you are following a particular theme for all your promotional material. 

 

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Conclusion

The picture does speak a thousand words. It is proving especially true for a corporate portrait. 

One glance at the headshot of a brands’ CEO on the company’s website, tells a lot more to the consumers than words ever can. 

Whether it is to garner credibility, or to invoke trustworthiness among the consumers, lifestyle portrait photography is a vital tool that every business should utilise. 

Only a beautifully shot photograph can add true personality and colour to a person’s image, and the image of the brand as a whole.

 

Simon Plant Lifestyle Photographer