Do I Need Headshots or Branding Photos for My Business?

Here are my two pennies: most businesses eventually need both headshots and branding images. If you’re updating your Edmonton business website, LinkedIn, or marketing, you might be wondering which one to do first. Headshots help build trust and credibility before we ever shake hands. Branding images go a step further by building your digital marketing library, giving you a collection of photographs you can use across your website, social media, launches, press features, and print media.

What is a Professional Headshot?

A professional headshot aims to make us seen how we show up every day, usually framed from the chest or waist up, designed to help you look credible, approachable, and current with a simple background. Headshots are commonly used for LinkedIn profiles, team pages, speaker bios, business cards, and other places where a single strong professional image is sufficient. There are no props involved in a headshot.

Your professional headshot acts as a digital handshake. It helps build trust and credibility before you ever meet in person. A headshot is a great place to start when you don’t have any images yet.

Personal Branding Photograph of Cristina Yun, a fractional Chief Marketing Officer and an impactful Canadian Digital Marketing & Brand Strategist. You can find her on CristinaYun.com

What is a Branding Photo?

Branding intends to show our brand personality. A branding session with Cynthia Priest Photography provides a variety of images that show your personality, your work, your environment, and the feel of your business. These images are useful for your website, social media, email marketing, launch images, press releases, and other places where one single photo is not enough.

We dive into what your values are (your WHY), what you do (your WHAT), and I do the sleuthing needed to effectively customize prompts to communicate your brand personality effortlessly for your branding session. We have a pre-session call to figure out your brand personality. The branding session could be done on location or at my studio.

You can think of branding photos as part of your digital marketing library. They are planned with intention and used strategically across your website and content so your online presence feels cohesive, current, and aligned.

Branding photography, in short, is the process of building a brand story. It tends to be cinematic in nature and carefully preplanned. We reverse-engineer who your target audience is before we start to create the images.

The goal of branding images is: “I can so relate to this service provider!” It feels like your target audience HAS met you despite only seeing you in photographs. That is the power of intentional branding photographs.

Branding images help us stand out from the crowd. They are ideal for the busy:

• Entrepreneurs and founders,
• business coaches
• family-owned businesses

Musicians can also benefit from a branding session.

Highlight Testimonial from Beth Portman Picnic Shows:

“Cynthia, the branding photos you took for me make it easy to do my marketing. I have two sets of shows with different target audiences. One is more kid-based; the other is more adult-focused.”

The kid-facing show branding for Beth showed Beth in her natural environment, with specific, curated elements for Beth’s brand.

We may have different brand personas for different people we help. It is important to differentiate our audiences.

Headshot vs Branding Portrait: How do you know which professional photoshoot will benefit your business?

Choose Headshots if you only need ONE image for now. You would only need a quick update to your LinkedIn Profile or a speaker engagement headshot.

Choose Branding if you need:

• consistent images across different platforms,
• Your business is evolving
• You want a story-driven session
• A brand-curated image library

Want to inquire about your Edmonton photo session? Hi, I am Cynthia, founder of Cynthia Priest Photography. I would love to help you with headshots and branding. Not sure which one you need? Send me your website or LinkedIn in the contact form and I’ll tell you where I’d start.  Pricing can be found on each headshot or branding page. Let’s get you more visible to your ideal audience!