Authentic and engaging imagery is key to making the right impression when it comes to your personal brand. No matter what your business is, capturing unique images on location can take your outdoor personal branding photoshoot to the next level.
Outdoor locations can provide interesting backdrops and unique lighting that can enhance your brand photos. Your choice of location can convey brand authenticity, spark creativity, and illustrate your connection to the chosen environment. There’s a whole world out there to explore! Let’s make the most of it for your outdoor personal brand photoshoot…
1. Choosing the Perfect Location
The first step in planning an outdoor personal branding photo shoot is selecting the right location. Check out my tips on how to choose the perfect location for your personal branding shoot here first.
You should think of outdoor spaces that resonate with your brand identity and personal vibe. For example…
- Parks and Gardens: Public parks can offer lush greenery and colourful flowers in summer, blossom in the spring and evergreen trees in winter. They are a great all-round choice of backdrop, with shade usually available for those hot summer days and pops of colour to work with. This type of backdrop conveys a laid-back friendliness and relaxed, natural feeling of informality.
- Urban Landscapes: Bustling city centres with impressive architectural features can convey a modern and vibrant energy in your photos. Choosing an easily identifiable landmark situates you in a particular city, connecting to your clients there. Street art backdrops can inject colour into your photos and give them a more edgy, fun or alternative look.
- Beaches and lakes: There’s nothing like being near water for a peaceful and relaxing time! These locations are perfect for a communicating a carefree and natural feel in your personal brand imagery. Kick off your shoes and enjoy!
- Mountains and Forests: For a more unusual, rugged or adventurous look try going a little off the beaten track. Locations that are more remote can showcase your love for nature and exploration, whilst tying in your brand’s environmental credentials. If you want to explore on your shoot, I’d recommend my adventure session listed on my Personal Branding Photography Services page.
2. Embrace Natural Light
One of the great things about being out and about for your headshot photo shoot means we can embrace the abundance of natural light. There are certain weather conditions and times of the day which create the best results for photos, depending on the time of the year…
Try to avoid booking your shoot at midday, as on a sunny day the direct sunlight can be harsh and overwhelming. If you do need to book your shoot in the middle of the day, cloudy conditions or a location with lots of shade is best.
Golden hour light is the absolute best if you want to create soft, warm, atmospheric images. This special light comes along an hour or so before sunset. This effect is even more exaggerated on sunny summer days, when the light takes on an almost magical quality! In winter, golden hour comes early and you also make the most of similar light by booking your shoot on a winter morning.
Blue hour comes after sunset, or you can get up at the crack of dawn to see it too! At these times the light takes on a cool, muted quality. Shooting at blue hour gives a unique and dreamy quality to your photos. It’s best used sparingly for truly atmospheric results.
I’m always happy to give my advice and input about when to have your shoot of course!
3. Dress for the Location
I’ve talked about what to wear to your personal branding shoot many times. It’s worth a reminder that you should make sure you dress for the location from a practical point of view.
Make sure you bring comfortable shoes if you need to walk to the location, and wrap up warm if it’s cold or wet out. You can always change your outfit once we’re ready to start shooting!
5. Go with the flow
One of beauties of outdoor brand photo shoots is the opportunity to get creative and explore! You never know what ideas the location might inspire… It’s good to go with the flow and see what backdrops we might come across and see where the light is best.
- Be prepared to be flexible in order to get the best results. We may need to walk a little further to see what treasures lie around the next corner.
- Be ready to interact with the location. Kick off your shoes to walk in the sand, put your hands into the cool water or even climb that tree!
- Don’t be afraid of unexpected weather conditions. We can work around them or with them.
Relax and enjoy being in the outdoor location you’ve chosen! As long as it matches with your brand identity, we are sure to achieve something fabulous.
Outdoor personal branding photoshoots
Outdoor personal branding photoshoots have so much potential for variety in which we can create a truly unique look to your images. By choosing the right location for your branding shoot, we can achieve fresh and engaging images that suit your brand down to a tee. So step outside, enjoy the great outdoors, and most of all have fun with your personal branding photos!
If you would like me to help bring your branding photography vision to life, I would love to hear from you. Please contact me today about my personal branding photographer services. Let’s get you booked in!
