When people land on your website or scroll past your business on social media, they form an impression of you in seconds. Long before they read a word of your copy, before they check your prices or your reviews, they’ve already decided something about who you are and whether they trust you. And more often than not, it’s your photos doing that talking.
That’s a lot of pressure to put on a handful of images. But it’s also exactly why I don’t think photography should ever be treated as an afterthought, something you tick off the list once the “real” branding work is done. Your photos are part of a much bigger picture: your brand identity. And if that identity isn’t clear before we pick up a camera, it’s very hard for your photos to do their job properly.
As a personal brand photographer based in Croydon, South London, this is where I always start with clients, long before we talk about locations, outfits or shot lists: your values, your personality and your tone of voice.
Brand values: The foundation of your personal brand photography
Your core brand values are the beliefs your business stands for. They’re the compass that guides your story, your decisions and the way you show up. On your best days and your busiest ones.
Getting clear on these isn’t a box-ticking exercise. It’s what allows you to build something you’re genuinely proud of. Rather than something that simply looks fine from the outside. For me, that’s meant always acting with integrity, staying genuinely engaged in what I do, and building relationships that go beyond a single project. Yours might look completely different, and that’s the point. There’s no universal right answer here, only the one that’s true to you.
Take Julia, founder of Nurturing Wild, an Early Years education specialist in nature-based outdoor play. Julia’s values are woven right through her business. Play, curiosity, nature connection, community, inclusion and wellbeing, all in service of her mission to “let nature spark the play.” Once we’d talked through what each of those actually meant to her, it shaped every decision we made for her shoot. We photographed outdoors, in the kind of wild, unpolished green spaces she champions, not a studio. Every choice had to earn its place against her values, or it didn’t make the cut.
Brand personality: Giving your business a human face
If values are the compass, personality is the character. It’s the set of human traits people associate with your brand. The adjectives that describe how you want to be perceived. Fun, playful and cheerful. Or considered, serious and sophisticated. Neither is right or wrong, but it does need to be deliberate.
Mine leans towards sincerity, honesty and trustworthiness. With a good dose of cheerfulness thrown in; down-to-earth and genuine, both in person and in how I work. For Julia, her personality is exactly right for what she’s built: warm, nurturing and full of passion. With over 20 years in education, that warmth isn’t a surface-level trait; it’s earned. Knowing that meant we could choose moments that felt genuinely nurturing rather than staged. Letting her natural warmth do the work instead of forcing a smile at the camera.
This is often the piece that gets skipped, and it’s a shame, because it’s usually the piece that makes people feel like they know you before they’ve even met you.
Tone of voice: How your brand identity sounds
Finally, there’s tone of voice: how the character of your business comes through in your words, spoken or written. It’s not really about what you say, but the way you say it. We want the tone of your personal brand photography to match the tone of your words.
My tone of voice is natural, friendly and conversational. The way I’d talk to you over coffee is the same way I’d write to you in an email or a blog post like this one.
Julia’s tone of voice reflects her knowledge and expertise. She’s working towards becoming a genuine thought leader in Early Years outdoor education, so her words sound assured and informed, while still carrying the same warmth and passion that defines her in person. None of this shows up directly in a photograph, of course, but the tone shapes everything around it. The captions that accompany your images, the way you introduce yourself on your website, even the mood you’re hoping a photo will set.
Why brand identity should shape your personal brand photography shoot
Here’s the thing: values, personality and tone of voice aren’t separate boxes to fill in. They work together, and your personal brand photography needs to reflect all three at once. If your images don’t align with what your business stands for, how you want to be perceived, and how you sound, they don’t add clarity; they add confusion. And that kind of inconsistency is something people notice, even when they can’t quite explain why something feels slightly off.
That’s why, as part of planning any shoot, I take the time to properly understand who you and your business are before we ever discuss locations or outfits. It’s not an extra step tacked onto the process; it *is* the process. When we get this right, everything we create together feels consistent, not just in isolation on a single page, but across your entire marketing presence: your website, your social media, your emails, all of it working as one coherent story rather than a set of disconnected parts.
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Because We Do Our Best Work Together
This is also why relationships matter so much to me. I don’t believe the best results come from a purely transactional exchange, brief in, images out. I believe they come from genuine collaboration: from conversations like the one I had with Julia, from taking the time to actually listen before I ever raise a camera.
A shoot that starts with understanding, rather than assumptions, tends to end somewhere much better. Not just prettier photos, but photos that feel unmistakably *you*.
If you’re curious about how personal branding photography ( LINK ) could support your business, and how getting clear on your values, personality and tone of voice might change what that looks like, I’d love to chat.
Drop me a line, no pressure, just a conversation to start.
