Elevate Your Image with a London Personal Branding Photographer

In a vibrant and competitive market like London, establishing a strong personal brand is more crucial than ever. Your digital presence is your first impression, and studies show you only have seven seconds to make it good – let alone memorable.

As an experienced London personal branding photographer, I’ve worked with solo entrepreneurs, small businesses, coaches, consultants, and craftspeople to create compelling visual narratives that resonate on a personal level with their target audience.

Whether you’re a coach looking to connect with potential clients, a consultant aiming to enhance your professional presence, or a small business founder looking to add a face to a logo, personal brand photography is how you visually tell your story to the world and illustrate that you’re someone who can be trusted.

 
London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures Indian man in sport coat and olive pants smiling candidly in sunset looking off in front of St. Paul's Cathedral on Millennium Bridge in London

Personal branding photography session near St. Paul's cathedral while crossing the Millennium Bridge in London, UK.

 

Without meaningful personal branding photos in London, your business – and the image it portrays – falls into the sea of sameness. For service providers, an eye-catching logo isn’t enough. Catchy graphic design for consumer products makes the purchasing decision easy, but if you offer a service, your client is ultimately looking for someone they can trust – no matter the ticket price of what you’re selling.

When I first started shooting professional photography in London, I felt my logo alone emulated the professionalism I needed. Koby Photography was a faceless brand, like many media companies, that tried to grow independent from its founder.

However, the reason my clients told me they came to me was because of my About page. I received feedback that I came across as easygoing and someone new to working with a photographer could feel comfortable with. As the core service provider, I’m inseparable from my business.

When I leaned into this and swapped profile pictures of a logo to my face and added more behind-the-scenes images to my About page, my photography business changed. What was once a side hustle has now gratefully become my full-time career.

Personal branding is personal. Unless you’re a physical product on a store’s shelf, you need a visual story. Even then, my bag of crisps tells me this family has been making its spicy Jalapaño flavor for generations.

 
London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a man in a suit drinking coffee outside St. Pauls Cathedral at sunset

Personal branding photography session at St. Paul's Cathedral café in London.

 

You may not be the core service provider of your business, but those who provide those services for you have a story worth telling. The smaller your business, the more important your story is for getting those early clients and customers to trust you. People buy with their emotions, especially with services.

Without your story, what do you have? ChatGPT has made writing marketing content effortless and accessible, but what it can’t write is the reason why you decided to make an impact on others through the unique offering you’ve decided to birth into the world.

With that in mind, what do your potential customers think about you in the first seven seconds they visit your social profiles or website?

In this article, I hope to illustrate why personal branding photography in London is a necessary investment, what makes good personal branding photography, how to prepare for it, how to present it, and maybe even connect with you for capturing personal branding photography for your business in London.

 
London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a man in a suit smiling while waiting for a black cab in London

Personal branding photography session in London while waiting for a black cab.

 

Contents


1. Lifestyle Photography: The Backbone of Personal Branding

2. What makes effective personal branding photography (+ Case Study)

3. Why Being Comfortable with Your Photographer Matters

4. Beyond Headshots: Telling Your Story Through Personal Branding Lifestyle Photography

5. Why London Coaches Need Personal Branding Photography

6. Why agencies need personal branding photography (+ Case study)

7. How to prepare for a personal branding photography session

8. Consistency is Key: Maintaining Your Brand’s Visual Identity

9. Choosing the Right Photographer for Your Personal Brand in London

10. Case Studies: Transformative images from London Coaches and Consultants

 

1. Lifestyle Photography: The Backbone of Personal Branding


Lifestyle photography is the art of capturing candid, authentic expressions and fleeting moments in an image – whether it be staged or organic. Lifestyle photography in London is the most dominating genre of commercial photography in 2024 for businesses. You see it in major outdoor advertising campaigns on London’s tube network, in political campaigns for this years’ elections, on the windows of shops encouraging you to come in, and especially everywhere online like business websites and social media.

Lifestyle photography dominates because it is relatable. It documents a scene that you want to emulate in some way and triggers your emotions, whether that’s wanting to feel what the subjects feel, doing what they’re doing, or connecting with that person. It’s also one of the most accessible forms of photography for small and large businesses alike because the trends in 2024 prefer less polish to further emphasize its relatability. Highly manicured or produced images showing unattainable aspirations are falling out of style.

I share more about the commercial lifestyle photography space in London, as its a broad term and covers many genres, in my article about what is lifestyle photography from my perspective as a London photographer.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a lifestyle coach smiling and looking off in nature

Personal branding photography session with burnout coach Damien who specializes in helping sales professionals in tech find balance and meaning between their work and personal life.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a lifestyle coach looking off over a lake in nature on a cloudy day

Personal branding session with burnout coach Damien in the Canadian wilderness.

As lifestyle photography is a blanket term, many use cases fall underneath it both in the commercial and personal space. Dating profile photography, for example, is a service I offer that many people may turn their chin at, wondering who on earth would spend money on dating profile photos. However, a good number of people reading this may think “This is exactly what I’ve been looking for”.

To understand better, the majority of my clients have just left five or more year-long relationships. They don’t have photos of themselves on their own. They’re career-focused and have more income than they may have when that relationship began, but that also means they have less free time. Their time needs to be spent efficiently and effectively. Investing in dating profile photography in a competitive city like London is a no-brainer to allow them to be selective with their time and relationships.

The goal of dating profile photography is to not make the audience wonder “Why was this photo taken?”. It needs to tell a story, whether that be creating a scene with props like coffee cups, exploring London landmarks, and enjoying life – making it look like they have a friend with a camera who captures what they’re up to.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a bald man wearing blue shirt drinking a pint with a confident smile in London

Dating profile photography session in London. While a beer may not fit a professional personal branding profile, all other aspects of this branch of lifestyle photography fits an effective lifestyle photography image.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a bald man enjoying empanada at food market smiling in blue sweater in London

Dating profile photography session in London at a food market.

Why is this important? Everything I’ve mentioned about effective dating profile photography applies to personal branding photography. The only difference is the audience, the stories we choose to tell through images, and the outcomes we’re looking for the photos to achieve.

Interested in learning more about the art of dating profile photography and why it shouldn’t be overlooked? I describe why professional dating profile photos are a must and a worthwhile investment. I offer tips from my experience as a London dating photographer too.

 

2. What makes effective personal branding photography


Unlike dating profile photography, personal branding photography will always have its underlying professional tone. It’s meant to be vulnerable, but not always show the vulnerability you would on a dating profile. Think, “This needs to be something I could share on LinkedIn”; however, what’s appropriate for different LinkedIn profiles is always unique to the individual entrepreneur.

Effective personal branding photography is manifested in each of the different layers of the image:

  1. The story

    Eliminate someone wondering “Why was this photo taken?”. The story needs to be clear: whether in the action you’re doing, your natural expression, or where you are. The story is how you avoid the cheesiness you may roll your eyes at on sites like LinkedIn.

  2. The styling (outfit)

    Personal branding is very much a personal fashion photography shoot. Fashion photography in London is a cornerstone of the city along with the style and garments it produces. What you’re wearing is everything. This doesn’t mean necessarily a shirt with your logo on it. The most effective styling, as we’ll get into later, fits well, has layers, a colour palette that matches your skin type, and compliments the environment you’re in.

    As an easy way to work with what’s in your wardrobe, here’s how to dress and prepare for your headshot or lifestyle photography session.

  3. The expression

    Kill the fake smile. If you’ve never worked with a photographer before, getting an organic smile may feel like a challenge and give you anxiety; however, an effective photographer will guide you through all the steps. Getting natural expressions comes best with comfortability with your photographer ahead of shooting.

    Even if you’ve never met your photographer before, there are easy techniques you can use to catch an organic-feeling expression – especially a smile – even in a short amount of time. Here’s how to pose people (or yourself) who aren’t models for headshot, portrait, and lifestyle photography.

  4. The action

    This relates to the storytelling. We want a fleeting moment or something in the action. This doesn’t mean that portraits looking into the camera in a flatting pose are not what you want; incorporating headshots and portraits is important in an effective personal branding photography stack. For the action, think of props you can have or hold that emphasize the story or maybe what’s on the table or desk in front of you. Think about the ways you can interact with someone else and hold a genuine conversation.

  5. The location

    Pick environments that represent you. Your office is great or wherever you do your work, meet clients, or perform services. This can also include your favourite places outdoors and other businesses like cafes and restaurants. Imagine you’re telling a story about a day in your life and think about the different places you would go. However, don’t be afraid to use a studio setting or other places that may not be your home or office. At the end of the day, staging is a reality when it comes to lifestyle photography and personal branding – especially in London where it offers so many location options.

  6. The editing

    Good editing for personal branding is subtle, yet refined. It should be consistent across your different photoshoots; however, unless it is banner images on your website, be sure to use editing and lighting methods in the shoot that are easy to replicate for consistency on your social media.

  7. The publishing

    This is where you showcase your images: how do you tell your story? Most commonly, your About page, your LinkedIn, sales pages, on your website, and even print brochures. What makes personal branding photography effective is how you layer your images together. You want it to look like the photos came from multiple shoots when juxtapositioned next to each other.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a tattooed yoga teacher sitting confidently a sunset in living room around mats and exercise equipment.

Personal branding photography session with my yoga teacher client. These were the last photos we shot, and as built comfort working with each other through our session, the relaxed nature made these our favourite.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a tattooed man sharpening an axe on a belt grinder wearing hearing protection.

My personal branding client has a successful side hustle sharpening knives, so we photographed him sharpening an axe on his wheel grinder to support the other side of his professional life.

 

Case study: My experience seeing the financial impact of personal branding photography on online course creators


Before I took my side hustle photography business full-time, I had a career in software sales for six years. The last company I worked at was an online course platform designed for course creators to sell and market their own courses or membership sites. They accelerated through the pandemic and became a publicly traded company. The types of the 60,000+ clients it served ranged from individuals like me to enterprise businesses.

The website customers would build is fully branded to their company and exists as a standalone site – or it can attach to their existing site. The end customer purchasing the course would have no idea that my company ever existed; it would look as if our customers had built the course platform themselves.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of three online course creators who specialize in training people to launch their own eCommerce store. They smile confidently looking at camera wearing matching shirts.

Personal branding photography session for Launchers Academy: eCommerce business scaling, coaching, and mentorship.

Because of this, not only did I get the experience of working with hundreds of entrepreneurial service providers looking to grow their online presence (with the end goal of generating sales revenue), but I also saw who became financially successful from their course sites and the choices they made to make that possible.

While correlation does not always equal causation, overwhelmingly, the course creators who were the most financially successful had their website and sales pages staggered full of personal branding images of themselves. The formula included:

  • A banner image of them looking into the camera as an environmental portrait in their place of work

  • The following images reflected them working with students and clients

  • Photos of them working independently, and often where they would deliver or record the class

  • Photos of them in their personal life, exemplifying the lifestyle or result they’re hoping to facilitate in others

  • Concluding with another set of portraits when it came to the call to action: asking the audience to make the purchase.


This formula was successful for celebrities through to those starting who had no prior online presence. The images and text they chose told their story, their experience, why they made the course, what the students would get from the course, what’s in it, what students had to say, and then their closing pitch.

The reason why these course sites were effective, versus those who created a faceless “school” brand, is that students felt like they were getting a piece of the course creator’s time and attention. Trust was built and they felt they were being supported. They knew who was behind the computer guiding the journey, and this enabled substantial ticket prices for courses.

Of course, the design of online courses enabled creators to scale their reach indivisibly without offering their finite resource, time, to every student. However, where the real revenue generation came in were those who offered two courses: one that was pre-recorded, and another that offered some level of one-to-one coaching, a group call, or something live with the instructor.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of online coaching platform founders smiling and looking off around books

Individual personal branding portrait sessions for Launchers Academy founders.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of online coaching platform founder holding her laptop and sitting

Individual personal branding portrait sessions for Launchers Academy founders.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of online coaching platform founder with arms crossed looking into the camera

Individual personal branding portrait sessions for Launchers Academy founders.

Because trust and a level of authority were built with their pre-recorded course, a live course offering, which demanded a higher price point, came as a finite product (often limited seats). These were advertised with effective video campaigns alongside, you guessed it, more personal branding photography.

The personal branding photography for these high-ticket live courses centered wholly around the course experience: photographing the instructor in their element delivering the course working with the students. It made you feel like you were in the classroom with them.

 

While you may not be a course creator yourself, the lesson shown for financially successful course creators is that visually telling your story is an indispensable tool when it comes to selling your service and justifying your price point.

This section was designed to break down the elements of a good personal branding photograph and how they can be effectively used. The following sections will now describe how to make personal branding photography like this possible in London.

 

3. Why Being Comfortable with Your Photographer Matters


The key to authentic personal branding photography is comfort. When you’re at ease with your photographer, it shows in the photos. This comfort allows your personality, humor, and approachability to shine through, making it easier for potential clients to connect with you. Building rapport is essential.

Before I shoot with all my clients, at the minimum, a phone call (ideally video) is the best. Written communication back and forth isn’t enough. Especially for larger projects, meeting in person is the best approach.

The celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, in her book At Work, describes her process of meeting with a portrait subject the day before shooting. She wouldn’t even bring her camera. Leibovitz would connect with them as a friend and learn about their story. The following day at the photo shoot, sometimes the shoot may not be any longer than 20 minutes. The rapport has already been built and they got the image they’re after.

While this may not be scalable to all shoots, this process I try and emulate with my clients – especially those who may be new to being in front of the camera.

I’m grateful to have my lifestyle photography studio in London where I live and work from. Instead of meeting my personal branding photography clients exclusively on location outdoors, it is a privilege to invite clients for coffee first, sit and chat with them, and use my studio as a base for our shoot before heading out to different environments to shoot in.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of an estate agent in a decorated flat wearing blue suit looking at camera

Personal branding photography session with London estate agent.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of an estate agent looking into camera wearing cream suit with window pane shadows across him in evening light

Personal branding photography session with London estate agent.

 

4. Beyond Headshots: Telling Your Story Through Personal Branding Lifestyle Photography


Headshots are essential, but they’re only one piece of the puzzle. To fully convey your personal brand, it’s important to go beyond headshots and show your audience the environment where you thrive. Whether it’s capturing you in your workspace, interacting with clients, or engaging in activities that are central to your brand, lifestyle photography tells a more complete and compelling story.

My collection of headshot photography offers ideas around posing and expressions that are natural and confidence-driven with positive body language.

I offer headshot photography services for individuals and teams too. They are often combined with personal branding for individuals and small teams. On the other hand, I partner with larger brands for lifestyle photography services for their web presence and advertising initiatives.

Headshots are the first photography place professionals go when creating their presence. It’s often the first thing a prospective client sees when visiting a social media page or website.

A great headshot peaks interest, while great personal branding lifestyle photography gets their attention.

Like the successful online course creator formula shared earlier, headshots are a part of the complete pictures to emphasize professionalism and approachability. But in 2024, headshots alone aren’t enough to seal the deal.

Ask any realtor or estate agent: when competing on the market, the expectation is that everyone has a headshot. More realtors and estate agents in London are investing in personal branding photography to show they can be trusted with one of the most important financial decisions someone may make in their life and stand out from the crowd.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of an interior designer wearing grey suit smiling while arms on stack of books

Personal branding photography sessions with London interior designer.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of an interior designer wearing tan suit looking off in living room by window

Personal branding photography sessions with London interior designer.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of an interior designer working on blueprint plans in office wearing grey suit long blond hair

Personal branding photography sessions with London interior designer.

 

5. Why London Coaches Need Personal Branding Photography


For coaches and consultants in London, personal brand photography is more than just a visual asset—it’s a business necessity. When your brand is directly tied to your persona, the images you use need to convey trust, professionalism, and approachability. High-quality personal branding photos help potential coaching clients who are about to form a long-term relationship feel more confident in choosing you, especially in a competitive market like London.

Coaches are my most frequent personal branding photography clients. Referring back to my online course creator case study, coaches were our most frequent individual course creation clients too. If you’re a coach reading this and you aren’t using an online course platform to scale the information you may find yourself repeating over and over, consider investing in one. This means the time you spend with clients can be directed at their needs versus repeating the fundamentals over and over.

The most successful coaches make funnels. A funnel captures an email or phone number from someone in exchange for a freebie, like an e-book, video, or short course. The funnel is slowly dripping premade email campaigns and content to these new subscribers, ultimately building trust and familiarity to then offer the call to action: purchasing a long-term relationship with the coach.

The more trust you build, the more you can charge.

You can imagine that if each of these touch points only contained graphic design and stock imagery, it would blend in with the sea of sameness that often fills their inbox. When making it personal by advertising your competitive advantage, you and your face, it gets their attention and lets them know you’ll be there for the entirety of their long-term relationship with you.

Continue reading to #10 for two case studies on personal branding photography for coaches in London.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of senior female coach smiling looking into camera in front of bookcase wearing fluorescent orange sweater

Personal branding photography session with London-based coach and clinical counsellor.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of senior female coach smiling at dining table holding coffee

Personal branding photography session with London-based coach and clinical counsellor.

 

6. Why agencies need personal branding photography


Unlike coaches who may be a one-person operation, many agencies operate with a team of specialized team members. Whether you’re a creative agency, advertising, public relations, or marketing, you offer a catalog of services tailored to each of your customers to foster long-term relationships and retainers.

Agencies often create the image of being a large organization, while it may be one to three people making the core decisions while the other individuals are contracted out for specific projects. And that’s ok – the nature of building trust as an agency will look different than a coach. However, it becomes tempting for an agency to hide behind an organizational name, logo, and graphic design to share its message so the founders are separate from the business.

Like any service provider, trust – and especially reliability – makes an effective agency. From the marketing agencies in London that I’ve worked with to build their personal branding content, their clients expect them to be available for emergencies. When ads stop delivering, accounts go down, and things outside of their control may happen, they need to know someone is there to field their calls and get their marketing machines moving again. They need someone to talk them off the ledge and feel comfortable when there’s something wrong or there are changes.

Because of that, a robust story page showing the creative process, the office in action, relationships between members, and even photography of successful clients as case studies paint a picture of reliability and garners future retainer clients.

 

Case study: Cherry Creative Group


Cherry Creative Group has been a longstanding marketing agency servicing small market cap public companies in North America and the United Kingdom. Starting as a two-person team, they expanded to over fifteen team members. As they grew, the founders, Bianca and Justyne, wanted to distance themselves from the business because they weren’t able to keep up with every client and focus on new initiatives.

However, as the distance grew, they found the long-term clients they partnered with needed them back. Otherwise, they were on the ropes and considering a departure. I worked with Cherry Creative Group for a branding refresh to put the two of them back into the business. This led them to create an effective funnel where the two of them led the initial introductory calls and biannual meetings but set expectations for the Account Managers to lead each client through frequent touchpoints, as if they were extensions of themselves.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of two company founders on red background white chairs wearing black suit with matching Bazaar magazines over their faces

Personal branding photography session of London, Toronto, and Vancouver-based creative agency Cherry Creative Group.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of two company founders wearing white and cream posting signs on walls to create physical mood board

Personal branding photography session of London, Toronto, and Vancouver-based creative agency Cherry Creative Group.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of two female company founders wearing matching outfits smiling in front of brown background

Personal branding photography session of London, Toronto, and Vancouver-based creative agency Cherry Creative Group.

 

7. How to prepare for a personal branding photography session


The best piece of preparation you can make is ensuring you and your photographer are on the same page. The most effective way to communicate this is by creating a mood board.

I ask all my clients before we shoot to send over any inspiration materials they have. If they don’t have any, I ensure they spend time finding some. Pictures speak a thousand words, as the cliché goes, but pictures wholly communicate the feeling you’re after. I often use a template on Google Slides for my clients to use and communicate what they’re looking for.

It may not be likely that you’ll find one image that has everything you want. Notate the things you like about certain photos you find – even things you don’t like are helpful to see.

The best way to find inspiration images for your mood board is Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, competitors in your space, your photographer’s portfolio, or even photos of yourself that you’ve liked in the past to show the characteristics you look for.

When left only to words, the way a photographer may understand a descriptive phrase may be different than how a client would understand it. For example, the term “documentary style” can be interpreted in different ways in images – especially around the types of gear and lighting used by that photographer.

 

When it comes to preparing how you’ll look for your personal branding photography session, leave no decisions to be made on the day of the shoot. The fewer decisions that have to be made, the more relaxed and comfortable you’ll feel. This is especially true if you’re new to having your photos taken.

Working with a makeup artist and hair stylist is a great way to feel confident in your look and to be yourself. However, don’t try any radical new looks before your session. I’ve had shoots cancelled because clients have wanted a bold new haircut right before a session, but the self-consciousness had overridden our goals.

 
London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of a woman smiling wearing blue outfit on white wall

Personal branding and headshot photography session in London. This is one of my favourite headshots because of the styling she underwent (her blue outfit is stunning) along with the hair and makeup she had done moments before this image was taken.

 

Makeup isn’t something that should be overlooked by men. I carry a translucent powder and brush to help mask any oil to create a matte look without any tint. This is what they use for TV anchors and others frequently in front of the camera. The impact a light powder can make is infinitely better than what can be edited with Photoshop later. If you’re not keen on buying makeup supplies as a man, try getting “oil absorbing wipes” as a close second to translucent powder.

Onto the colours that compliment you best. For some high-end business consults that I’ve photographed, they’ve told me that they’ve had their “colours done” before our sessions. There are professionals (but also self-serve resources online) who can recommend colour palettes based on your skin tone.

For me, I look best with lighter and earth-tone colours – especially light blue. Use this knowledge of your complimentary colours to plan out your wardrobe in advance and how you shop. Make sure to collaborate with your photographer ahead of time to understand the backgrounds you’ll be using and what outfit choices will pair with each environment. The best looks are always cohesive and complimentary with the background.

With your wardrobe, spend the night before steaming everything. You may have found a wonderful, brand-new shirt, but the creases from it being in the store are visible for all to see and often hard to edit out. A good photographer and their studio will have a steamer available for any creases that form in transportation as well as a clothing rack to keep things organized and wrinkle-free once there.

 

8. Consistency is Key: Maintaining Your Brand’s Visual Identity


In personal branding, consistency is crucial. Regularly updating your visual content ensures that your brand remains relevant and continues to resonate with your audience. A consistent visual presence across all platforms helps build brand recognition and strengthens your connection with potential clients.

You want to create the illusion, even if photographed on one day, that you’ve had multiple different shoots. When you look at magazine editorials and campaigns, notice how most of the images of a celebrity all contain different outfits and backgrounds, though those are often shot at once.

In your use case for your personal brand, you want to continue posting images and updates – but only pulling from the same outfit in the one scene of a photoshoot you had becomes repetitive and you lose the attention you once grabbed.

To maximize the value of a single photo session, mixing in shooting indoors and outdoors alongside multiple outfit choices helps create variety.

If you can shoot on different days, including different times of day as well as different weather, this all contributes to the brand you’re creating of a photogenic person who’s often near a camera.

Different off-camera lighting techniques and flash are an easy way to make a dramatic difference and make your shoot look like multiple.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of music artist lit by pink light wearing all black and sunglasses laughing and looking down

Personal branding press release photography session with music recording artist 5urati.

London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of music artist lit by pink light looking off wearing sunglasses with building light reflections in glass behind him

Personal branding press release photography session with music recording artist 5urati.

 

9. Choosing the Right Photographer for Your Personal Brand in London


When selecting a personal branding photographer, it’s important to find someone who not only has the technical skills but also understands your brand vision. The right photographer will help you create images that are not just visually appealing but also strategically aligned with your business goals. However, there are a ton of photographers in London and it is a crowded space – especially with the growth of lifestyle photography services.

For what to look for in a photographer, do they ask questions about your business, the goals and outcomes you want, and how will you know the shoot will be successful?

It’s easy for photographers to offer a pre-packaged session, but tailoring it to each unique audience is a critical step in effective personal branding. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all. You can get away with that for headshots often, but every founder’s story needs to be told uniquely.

When it comes to knowing if a shoot is successful in the end, creating a shot list gives you criteria to weigh your shoot against. As mentioned previously, planning reduces the number of decisions needing to be made on the day of and a shot list gives you a set of tangible image goals to focus on executing.

I connect my laptop or phone to my camera when I shoot personal branding photography sessions. For comparing with a shot list, it’s easy for my clients to see what is looking good while shooting and if we can check a scene off our list. The reality is, there may be things my client notices about themselves that I don’t – and often they’re things that can be fixed with editing later on. If your photographer doesn’t show you the photos as you go, you’ll be shooting blind.

Especially for those who aren’t often photographed, seeing the photos as we shoot gives confidence.

If my client is nervous ahead of shooting and then they can see a photo they like when shooting, there’s an instant click that we’re speaking the same language. My clients instantly relax as they know we’re creating something they can be confident about.

 
London personal branding photographer Ian Kobylanski captures lifestyle portraits of an Asian estate agent at sunset wearing grey suit with skyscrapers behind him as he smiles and looks off

Personal branding photography session of London estate agent.

 
 

10. Case Studies: Transformative images from London Coaches and Consultants


I’ve worked with many London-based coaches and consultants who have successfully transformed their brands through professional photography. These visual case studies below highlight how impactful personal brand photography can be in helping professionals connect with their audience and grow their business. By investing in professional personal branding photography, they’ve been able to attract more clients, command higher fees, and build stronger connections with their audience.

 

Jaden Easton: Clients and Community


Jaden Easton, co-founder of Clients & Community: a coaching training program inspiring over 50,000 coaches, used our personal branding photography session to grow his presence as a founder.

Jaden used our personal branding images as part of his funnel, where prospective coaches joined his Facebook group which ultimately upsold into his course and coaching call progams. Using the tool Click Funnels, he generated millions in revenue and became one of ClickFunnel’s top revenue generators – using the same personal brand photography staggering approach as shared before.

While I shot with Jaden earlier in his career and he finds himself now in the United States, he’s continued to seek out personal branding photography to stay consistent with his brand and apply it to each of the different businesses he’s investing in.

 
 
 

Balazs W Kardos: The Diamond Life


Balazs W Kardos, founder of The Diamond Life podcast and lifestyle transformation program, is a college dropout turned eight-figure lifestyle entrepreneur. Balazs offers a training program for those looking to make a radical life change and earn a higher income to create legacy wealth for their families.

Before our several personal branding sessions, Balazs used a collage of candid shots from speaking appearances and older shoots. We worked together to map out a studio photography session along with shooting in his home and podcast studio to show his approach in action. Consistency is key, and we incorporated elements of his emerald green brand colour in each of the key scenes and styling we used.

Balazs overhauled the images in his entire coaching funnel to the ones we photographed together, including his podcast images, YouTube thumbnails, Instagram feed, web presence, and more. His consistent brand image and refined funnel attracted more students and conversions, resulting in millions of dollars in course sales since our shoot along with student testimonials that emphasize the impact of his mentorship.

 
 
 

I hope this article has helped shed light on the importance of personal branding photography for your business, how to prepare for your session, how to find the right photographer who understands your business goals, how you can communicate visually what you’re looking for, and how to effectively use your personal branding images to build a funnel.

The smaller your business, the more important your founding story. Use personal branding photography to illustrate your message and your why to stand out in a competitive landscape in London. Especially for service providers, understand that you’re one with your business and people are looking for someone they can trust and rely on. People buy with their emotions, so use personal branding photography to express your relatable emotions with them.

 

If you’ve found this article helpful, I invite you to follow my recent work on Instagram and stay connected with me by joining my infrequent newsletter below.

On the other hand, if you’re in London and you’re looking for personal branding for your business, I encourage you to check out my personal branding photography services and contact me for a free discovery call.