Small Business Tips Visual Brand Identity

Creating Original Content For Social Media: Photography Tips & Tricks

Well-crafted, original imagery could be the key you need to increase your social media presence and build trust with your target audience. It IS more than a snap and a post, don’t get us wrong. But it doesn’t take a team of pros either. An organized To Do list and some insider tips and tricks will get you where you’re trying to go.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

  1. Identify Your Brand Photography Style
  2. Brainstorm Photo Ideas
  3. Schedule Your Photoshoot
  4. Edit Your Photos For Social Media
  5. Organize Your Content For Easy Social Media Posting

Ready to dive in?


Identify Your Brand Photography Style

Look at the branding for your company and jot down some adjectives that jump out at you to describe the personality of your business and your target audience. For example, at Fuze, we have a brand color palette of bright tones that evoke energy, fun, positivity, and a little quirk too. With your brand adjectives and visual identity in mind, scour Pinterest for images that reflect the same mood or tone. Create a vision board of all the images you’re pulling, and pretty soon, you’ll start to see a theme emerge.

Here are some popular Instagrammer’s who have really honed their brand’s aesthetic on social media:

Social Media Photography Style Examples

 

Brainstorm Photo Ideas

Easier said that done right? Get a blank piece of paper out, and start brainstorming photo ideas. Below are some creative prompts to get you started. And if you’re in extra need of some inspiration, check out our Social Media Photoshoot Ideas Pinterest Board.

Part 1 |  Start by Brainstorming styling ideas:

For Product-Based Businesses:

  • What raw materials is your product made from? Can you showcase those?
  • How is your product made? Can you show the process or its elements?
  • Where and how is your product used and by whom? Can you show it being utilized by customers?
  • What other items or products make great sidekicks for your product? Can you show them together?
  • Where is your product usually stored or kept? Can you show it in its natural habitat?

For Service-Based Businesses: 

  • What tools do you use to do your job?
  • How do you organize your work? Are you a paper planner? A vision board guru? Share that!
  • Do you have certain key points that you find yourself repeating to your clients? Can you create a clean, branded template to share those quotes across your social channels?
  • Do you work with a team? Behind the scenes photos are always popular. People like to put a face to a name.

In need of additional inspiration? Check out these great styling and photography resources below!

 


Pro Tip: Getting fresh eyes always helps—consider wrangling a few friends or family members to help you brainstorm.


 

Part 2 | Collect your best ideas and create your image concept list

To keep you on track and on target on shoot day, list all of the photos and setups you plan to shoot. Include all supplies and props you’ll need. We’ve created a handy Shot List Worksheet, which you can download soon!

 

Schedule Your Photoshoot

Photoshoots don’t have to be fancy schmancy setups with thousands of dollars of professional equipment. All you need is a nice setting or backdrop, good lighting (Bright, natural light, if available, is always a winning option!), and a decent camera or a newer model iPhone. And your creativity. Definitely bring that.

You’ll need to do a little prep work before you can start snapping away though:

1. Get your backdrop.

  • DIY ideas are here and here.
  • Tons of affordable options here.

2. Get your lighting.

  • DIY options are here and here.
  • Affordable and portable solution here.

3. On-set photography tips.

  • Gather all your props and backgrounds beforehand to keep things flowing.
  • Have an extra pair of hands available, if possible. It helps with setup and switching from shot to shot and also for doing interactive or action shots too.
  • Grouping shots cuts down on setup time.Which concepts use the same or similar setup, props, and background?
  • Take a variety of shot styles and groupings. Be sure to take a few shots of each concept from different angles and distances so you can choose which one you like best. Having differences in composition provides visual interest, which is important in visual planning for grid layout platforms like Instagram.
  • Be sure to take some shots with negative space for adding text overlays. They’re great for ads and special promotional shots!

Pro Tip: According to content creator Lizzie Darden, modeling paste is great for fixing props and getting just the right look. Who knew?


Edit Your Photos For Social Media

Canva User Example

Photo courtesy of Canva

Once you’ve got the images themselves, the next step is prepping them for posting.  If you’ve got experience working with Photoshop or another image editing program, feel free to use that. If you’re not a designer, there are plenty of user-friendly apps and websites that give you professional looking results without having to master the entire Adobe Creative Suite. Some of our favorites are:

  • Canva: This website and app essentially lets you DIY graphic design. You can make your very own images with their easy and intuitive templates. The majority of Canva is free to use and the aspects that do cost money are only a dollar—what else can you get for a dollar these days?!
  • Snapseed: This completely free editing app is everything you need for editing on the go and is totally intuitive to use.
  • A Color Story: This app gives you pro-level filters that takes all the fuss out of editing. Slap a filter on it (they feature filter sets by big names like J Crew and more), and you’re golden. Oh, it’s been named the best new app and has over a million downloads, too. Convinced yet?!
  • Wordswag: Ever wondered how people get such cool and expertly designed text on their Insta’ photos? Wordswag, that’s how.
  • Afterlight: For just .99, you can download Afterlight to your Apple, Google Play, or Windows device and get access to over 78 filters, 128 frames, 78 textures, and more. That’s a lot of content for less than a dollar!

Once editing is complete, make sure you save your images in a format that is appropriate for viewing on the web. Most apps will give you a straightforward process for doing this, but a good rule of thumb is saving to at least 1,080 pixels wide.

Organize Your Content For Easy Social Media Posting

Once you get into a routine of creating your own creative content, you’re going to realize just how easy it is to build a large bank of gorgeous assets. And just how easy it is to spend an hour looking for One. Specific. Image.

And that’s why we’re going to give you our exact filing system for keeping those new images nice and tidy:

  1. Save all your images directly to Dropbox. We recommend having an account just for this purpose, because these files will take up some major digital real estate. You can sign up here.
  2. Download the app onto your computer and your mobile devices too. Here are links for Apple, Google Play, and Windows.
  3. Create a folder for each month of the year.
  4. Create another folder for specific dates or holidays that you might create content for. This will keep you from hunting through your folders for time-sensitive images.
  5. After each shoot, drop your images directly into the appropriate folder.
  6. Once we’ve posted an image on a platform, we move it to a folder labeled “Used,” so we can keep track of what’s still fresh and ready to post.

Pro Tip: You can use a visual planning app like Planoly for scheduling and posting to Instagram, which will link to your Dropbox.


And there you go! You see? A little prep work and planning, and before you know it, you’ll have a wealth of on-brand content to attract new clients and customers.

What are your favorite photography resources for your small business? Share in the comments below, so we can all check them out!

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