Personal branding photoshoot: how to prepare and what to plan

Every place you publish has its own demands on framing,. List the channels you genuinely use and note what each one needs.

• LinkedIn. Your profile photo is shown in a small circle, so the face is everything: head and shoulders, a calm background, eyes to camera. The wide banner behind it suits a landscape shot with empty space on one side.
• Your website. An "About" page usually needs one portrait and one landscape photo. A homepage benefits from a wide image with room for a headline and a button.
• Instagram and Facebook. Here you need volume rather than one perfect frame: you at work, details, moments with a client. Vertical shots fill a phone screen better.
• Booking platforms and directories. A profile on a booking app, a specialist directory or a freelance marketplace is often the first thing a new client sees. The photo has to read clearly even as a thumbnail.

Send this list to your photographer before the session. When they know you need a frame with space for text, they will place you at the edge of the picture rather than in the centre.

A shot list is the simplest way to fit everything you need into 90 minutes, and to avoid coming home with forty near-identical portraits. Group it in three parts.

1. Portraits. A close profile photo, a waist-up portrait and a full-length shot, each in portrait and landscape orientation, smiling and neutral. Do these first, while you are fresh and your outfit is crisp.
2. Work. You doing what you do every day: at the treatment chair, at the keyboard, over a notebook with a client, at the workbench, in front of a training room. These photos explain your job better than any bio.
3. Details and surroundings. Hands at work, tools, your product, a branded mug, the studio interior, the sign on the door. Details keep your social feeds going long after the session.

Next to each item, write what it is for, for example "LinkedIn banner, landscape, space on the right". Collect a few photos you like from other people in your field as well. They show the photographer the mood you want: light and airy, or darker and more serious. Ten to fifteen specific items are plenty.

The location should say something about your work. The usual options, and what to know about each:

• Your own office or studio. The most honest backdrop, especially if clients come to you: a beauty salon, a therapy room, a workshop. Clear the surfaces and walls that will be in frame. A large window gives the best light, and the photographer can bring a lamp if the room only has ceiling strip lights.
• Coworking space. A good fit for freelancers and remote workers in tech: bright interiors, meeting rooms and a kitchen for relaxed shots. Ask the management whether a session is allowed and at what times, so other members are not photographed at their desks.
• Café. An easy, informal feel that suits consultants, coaches and creators. Clear it with the owner first and pick a quiet hour. Sit by the window rather than at the back.
• The city. Modern architecture, riverside boulevards or an old tenement courtyard add movement to the set and complement the indoor part with photos for social media.

Two places within walking distance usually give the most variety, for example your office and the street outside. Private property, such as a shopping centre, an office building lobby or the courtyard of a converted factory, may have its own rules on photography, so ask the building manager before the day.

Dress as you would for a meeting with an important client, then go half a step further. The outfit has to suit your industry: a lawyer in a suit looks credible, while a developer in a suit can look as if they borrowed it.

What tends to work:

• Two or three outfits. One more formal for portraits, one everyday look for the work shots. Swapping a blazer for a jumper gives you new photos without a long change.
• Plain, muted colours, including your brand colours if you have them. Fine stripes, small checks and herringbone can shimmer on camera.
• Well-fitting clothes, ironed the day before. Every crease on a collar shows.
• Workwear, if it is part of the job: a hairdresser’s apron, a beautician’s tunic, a company hoodie.

Props show what you do without words: a laptop for a developer, a notebook and coffee for a consultant, scissors and a comb for a hairdresser, brushes for a make-up artist, a book you wrote or the product you sell. A few are enough.

Do your hair and make-up on the day rather than a week before, and bring a small kit with a comb, mattifying powder and tissues. For more on colours and fit, read our guide on what to wear for a photoshoot.

Work out the number from your needs, not from the package. A sample count for someone running a one-person business:

That comes to about forty photos you will actually use. A personal branding session through Kadrova starts from PLN 950 for about 90 minutes and around 60 edited photos, which leaves room for two locations and a change of outfit.

If all you need is a new profile picture, a shorter portrait session from PLN 750 for about an hour may be the simpler choice. A longer session, several locations, a weekend date or travel outside the city can raise the price you see in your proposal. All starting prices are on the pricing page.

Branding photos are meant to work in your business, so it is worth agreeing in writing how you may use them before you accept the proposal. Terms can differ between photographers, and copyright and licensing are areas where, if you are unsure, a lawyer is a better source than guesswork.

Ask the photographer directly:

• whether you can publish the photos on your website, on social media and on booking platform profiles;
• whether you can use them in paid ads, on posters, in printed materials or on product packaging;
• whether you can crop them, retouch them yourself and add text;
• whether you can pass them to a publisher, a conference organiser or the agency that runs your marketing;
• whether the photographer may show the photos in their portfolio, and whether they expect a credit when you publish.

If your employees or clients appear in the photos, make sure they agree to the use of their image before the session. The photographer is an independent professional who issues their own invoice or bill, and whatever you agree should be written into the proposal or a contract.

Before the session, the photographer usually asks for a short call or message: what you do, who your clients are and where the photos will be used. That is the moment to send your shot list and a few reference images. If you would rather brief and be directed in English, say so in your request; photographers’ languages are listed on their profiles.

The session itself has a rhythm. Portraits come first, while you are rested and your outfit is fresh. Then the work shots, which look best when you are genuinely doing something: answering an email, talking to a client, setting up your station. Details and the outdoor part, if planned, come last.

A few things that help:

• Sleep well and keep the hour before free. Tiredness shows in the eyes.
• Arrive with time to spare for fixing your hair and changing outfits.
• You do not need to know how to pose. A good photographer tells you where to stand and what to do with your hands. Talking during the shoot gives a more natural expression than "smile, please".
• Bring a helper if you want shots with a client. A friend in the chair or across the table is easier than a stranger.

The delivery time for your photos is stated in your proposal.

The city gives you a ready-made backdrop for social media photos. A few ideas close to where people tend to work:

• Warsaw: the glass office towers around Plac Europejski for finance and tech, the Vistula boulevards for a more relaxed look, and the brick tenements and courtyards of Praga for creatives and makers.
• Kraków: Zabłocie, with its former factories, offices and cafés, and the streets of Kazimierz. The Main Square is crowded during the day, so quieter streets nearby usually work better.
• Wrocław: Nadodrze, with its tenements and small studios, and the boulevards along the Oder.

You can browse independent photographers with their languages and portfolios. Once you know what you need, send an availability request with your city, preferred place and shot list.