PHOTOGRAPHY AND CORPORATE BRANDING
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PHOTOGRAPHY AND CORPORATE BRANDING
© Alan Rowlette
Corporate branding and photography are essential tools for your business. Together, they build your image.
How do you capture pictures that define your organisation? Corporate branding photography. In this article, you’ll learn what corporate branding photography is, the importance of a visual brand and how business branding photography can enhance your corporate identity.
WHAT IS CORPORATE BRANDING PHOTOGRAPHY?
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Branding and photography go hand-in-hand. When you use images to visualise a company’s characteristics, qualities, values and narrative, it’s classified as corporate branding photography.
By highlighting the culture, beliefs, mission, work environment and other unique components of your organisation in images, you create a visual persona that potential customers recognise and relate to.
A strategic, professional library of images can be utilised across all platforms for print and digital marketing campaigns. But what types of photos do you need to craft your corporate brand? I’ll break down the must-have shots for a successful business branding photography session below.
HEADSHOTS
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Headshots are the centrepiece of your corporate identity. By showcasing your people, professional portraits help customers put a face (or faces) to the company name. It also makes the organisation more personable since customers can see the real people who make products or provide services.
Not only does it impact potential customers, but portrait photography helps build your employer brand. Strategic headshots highlight the type of culture and environment that prospective employees can expect and give them a first look at potential co-workers.
TEAM PHOTOS
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While headshots showcase the individuality of your people, team photos encapsulate your brand as one cohesive unit. A single entity that fulfils your customers’ needs in unison to make life easier.
If you want to create a modern, casual brand image, take your team off-location to a setting that resonates with your corporate identity. Candid shots and non-formal attire make your team more relatable to customers, though this varies by industry. If you’re a criminal defence practice, you don’t want a team in shorts and t-shirts.
ON-LOCATION SHOTS
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Your office layout and aesthetic are a direct representation of your company’s brand. Business branding photography incorporates on-location shots to visualise your work environment and style. Sometimes these shots incorporate team members interacting for a personal feel.
On-location corporate photography gives prospective employees an initial impression of their potential work environment. A modern, open space with sleek furniture and natural lighting shapes your company into an innovative brand that understands the new way of doing business.
Customers also gain an inside look at where the products and services they buy are made. An organic industrial farm would want to highlight clean facilities and fair treatment of animals to create an ethical corporate identity.
PRODUCT AND SERVICE PHOTOGRAPHS
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What’s the core reason customers invest in your brand? Nine times out of ten, it’s the products and services you provide. But how do you separate your line from the mass of competitors offering the exact same? Advertising and product photography makes your brand bigger than products and services alone.
Strategic framing, posing and attention to detail emphasise specific qualities and features that are unique to your brand. One photoshoot can increase the perceived value of your products, services and company as a whole.
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRANDING PHOTOGRAPHY?
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So, you understand the types of photos that build your brand. Now, I want to emphasise the importance of corporate branding and photography. In some ways, photography is your corporate identity. While there are several components that go into a brand, visuals and images grab the eyes (and wallets) of your target market.
There are several benefits to investing in a professional corporate or commercial lifestyle photographer for your organisation. I’ll explain how the crossroads between photography and corporate branding impacts your business below.
TELL YOUR BUSINESS’S STORY
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We live in a visual world and one of the most effective ways to spread your brand narrative is through photography. If you’re strategic in the types of photos, setting, backdrop, atmosphere, framing and every other component of your photoshoot, you’ll end up with a library that tells the story of your organisation.
A well-planned photo shoot can help emphasise specific traits, characteristics, cultures, beliefs and values of your corporate identity. From the shoot, you’ll have a variety of images to update the pictures on your website, create engaging content on social media, and run effective print and digital ad campaigns.
MAKE YOUR COMPANY MORE RELATABLE
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Headshots, team photos, on-location shoots and corporate events all showcase a relatable brand to your target audience. Well-staged ad photos create situations that mirror the customers’ everyday life and, quite literally, sell your products and services.
Settling for stock photography can feel disingenuous and inauthentic. Instead, use your people to show there are real, genuine individuals serving the needs of your target audience. Photos of your staff interacting, modern headshots and casual team portraits give your company a face that customers can see a part of themselves in.
Corporate branding photography also gives executives and other figureheads in the organisation an opportunity to show customers that they’re part of a community that cares.
CREATE A POSITIVE EMPLOYER BRAND
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A corporate session is an arsenal for developing a positive employer brand. An organisation people want to work for. A relatable team, a modern office and abundant opportunities attract bright and promising talent.
Thoughtful planning and precise execution by a professional photographer with an eye for branding accentuate your company values and culture. That’s more valuable than marketing and promotional materials – it’s a corporate identity prospective team members aspire to be a part of.
ESTABLISH YOUR PERCEIVED POSITION IN THE MARKET
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Look good feel good. Feel good play good. If you want to be a major player in your industry, you need a strong visual brand. The library of images from a corporate session gives your company a pristine, polished look.
Strategising the body language of subjects, lighting, attire, background and other elements allows you to create perceived value or characteristics for your company. From product photos to headshots, you can carve your brand into an authority and a leader in the industry.
DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM COMPETITORS
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It’s not enough to be an industry staple, you need to differentiate from major competitors fighting to conquer the market. Images tell your visual story and highlight values, quality, culture and authenticity that exceed the competition.
Lighting, framing, props and many other factors are tools for photographers to shape a unique corporate identity. One of a kind.
HOW TO USE PHOTOGRAPHY TO ENHANCE YOUR CORPORATE IDENTITY
While it sounds plain and simple, creating your visual brand requires more than effective corporate photography. It takes a great deal of planning and knowledge to get the best results. Here are a few tips to ensure you’re prepared and get the most out of your images:
• Understand your company’s brand. I’ve emphasised the importance of a visual brand. But you can’t capture the right images if you don’t have a clear vision. No matter the size of your business or the stage it’s in, you need to understand the core components of your brand. Who are you? What do you stand for? What makes you unique? What do you want to be?
• Create a brand guide. Once you know your brand, make a concrete definition of what it looks like. Clearly define elements like colours, fonts and voice so anyone – including a photographer – knows what it means to be on-brand.
• Create a list of important shots. If you can visualise your brand, you probably have an idea of the types of shots you’ll need. It’s important to list out everything you find worthwhile to capture. That way, you’re not dwelling on missed opportunities once the session’s over.
• Hire a professional corporate photographer. iPhones have great cameras and interns need work. That doesn’t mean they want to learn photography nor should you rely on an amateur to capture your corporate brand in an image. Corporate photographers are trained, technically sound professionals with strong business acumen and experience in the field. Look for portfolios that align with your vision and photographers who’ve worked on similar projects in your field.
• Utilise your library of images to promote your brand. You can’t establish a brand if you don’t tell anyone. Investing in high-quality images is the first step. Make sure that you maximise your investment and use your entire library of images across all platforms. In marketing, promotions, recruiting, and internally, find every opportunity to use the authentic visuals that encapsulate your corporate identity.
Alan Rowlette is a Dublin-based corporate, PR, event, conference and commercial photographer. Alan's corporate photographic practice specialises in corporate headshots, corporate events, meetings, launches and conference photography.
Alan's commercial photography focuses on food, restaurant, people, fitness, product and property photography.
As with all of our work we shoot in a contemporary and dynamic reportage style.
To make and enquiry, or to view more of our work please go to
Alan’s background is firmly rooted in photojournalism and documentary photography and this shines through in his work. Alan specialises in bringing events, brands and businesses to life with his fresh and dynamic reportage approach. Alan's client list includes Google, Meta, Salesforce, Hubspot, TikTok, Diageo, The Royal Convention Centre Dublin, Aviva Stadium, The Convention Centre Dublin, Croke Park, Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Bord Bia, Failte Ireland, The Happy Pear, Lidl, Bord Gais, Gala Foods and Wicklow Wolf Brewing.
Alan is a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, The Dublin Convention Bureau, Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers and SITE Global.
You can view more of Alan Rowlette’s work here:
Dublin Industrial Photography
Dublin Award Photography
Dublin Brand Storytelling Photography
© Alan Rowlette