How to Market Yourself?
It’s no secret that now even an individual person are considered to be a brand. What does it mean to develop a personal brand? You establish your core strengths and uniqueness that makes you stand out from everyone else. Identifying that and bringing it to life in a photoshoot is a key component to creating a strong media presence. When it comes to planning a branding photoshoot I always start with a conversation with my client. Regardless of how much you already know your brand or you just flirting with an idea, in our conversation we reveal its aesthetic. Not everyone has a full vision ready. It’s okay. It could be as simple as “I want a photoshoot with cherry blossom trees” or “I want to create a red and dusty universe”. That’s a great start to me. Depending on the complexity of the project we discuss styling, make-up/hair, props, lighting and deliverables. I love mood boards, I usually start a Pinterest board and share it with a client. They also can add their own images and references that inspires them.
My second step is to scout a location or find a photo studio in Manhattan or Brooklyn that fits the vision. For outdoor location I prefer to visit it in person and to take reference images for lighting and composition.
Even though shooting during the day outdoors has plenty of light adding a bounce or a flash light allows for more flexibility. In the “Cherry Blossom” session with Ashley we used a flash light to make her “pop” more on the image. I like using crates or apple boxes on locations to give my model more options to play with height for full body shots and portraits.
Every session I do usually includes at least two looks. The “money shot” for me is when I can see that my model is fully relaxed and feel natural. The body and facial expressions are not forced. The music is another part of preparation, I usually create playlists based on our conversation. It’s all about how YOU feel. Because it’s what shows on the photographs.
After going through all of the photos and narrowing it down to 4 favorites I pull images to Adobe Photoshop to begin retouching.
My retouching process has 3 steps:
I touch up the skin making the color look even.
Secondly, I work on color and light, making sure light and shadows are creating beautiful even shapes on the face.
Lastly, I look at the image as a whole and add an accent to it if necessary. Sometimes it means a crop or using AI to adjust the background. Like in this photo: in the background there were no flowers and it felt empty, so I generated a “background aware fill”. I love the results! 😃
This tool has improved tremendously over the past decade and I like using it when I need it.
And finally, a social media reel with photos and behind the scenes footage is something I always love to add to my package. I've been recently loving stop-motion effects in videos so I had a lot of fun making this one. Take a look.
And that was my process from inception to execution. I love every step of the creative process especially when I get to collaborate with my clients on the vision. Have a project in mind for us to work together? Feel free to fill out this form and let’s talk! :-)
