Here’s what sucks about inspiration boards

Ever created an inspiration board of other people’s photos before your portrait session?

Here’s why you shouldn’t spend your time and energy on that.

During a recent, pre-session strategy call, I was working with a client on putting together the specific shot list for her shoot, she made a suggestion.

She mentioned an inspiration board of portraits of other people that she put together on Pinterest and wanted to know if I’d like to take a look at it. 

Before I could give an answer, she immediately responded to her own question by saying, “Wait, why would you want to do that?” 

Then, she reminded herself out loud that these particular photos have no bearing on this session and by focusing on them, that they would de-prioritize my own style and approach to branded lifestyle portraits, which is what drew her to hire me in the first place.

In the next breath, she nixed the idea and we continued on with the strategy call as if that never came up.

Needless to say, I was grateful that she saved me the trouble of politely saying no thank you :)

Now, I’m not here to say all inspiration boards are a waste of time because that’s simply not true. 

There is much value to creating inspiration boards for certain types of commercial photography projects, no doubt about it. 

But when it comes to personal portrait sessions, the process can be streamlined to three important factors without the need for additional visual aids:

Know who you are 

What’s your area of expertise? Who do you serve? What problems do you solve? What personality traits do you want to display to your audience? What does your day-to-day look like? And, what spaces and places represent and accentuate all of these qualities?

Know how you plan to use these photos

Website? Social media? Promotional materials? Printed materials? Presentation assets? Other needs to promote specific services and products?

And…

Trust that the photographer is the ideal fit for you 

Based on colleague recommendations and their body of work, hire one that can visually translate all of your uniqueness and nuances into photos that resonate with you on multiple levels and inspire you to share them immediately with your audience.

These are the only building blocks you need walking into a strategy session. 

If you introduce inspiration boards or other influences outside of you/your team and the photographer, that diverts precious attention away from the star of the show - that’s YOU - and more towards mimicking the sentiments shared in other people’s photos.

You’re an expert, not a copycat.

And your photos must reflect this if your goal is to visually position yourself as the authority you are.

When you keep things simple from the beginning, that opens up tremendous bandwidth to dive deeper and sketch out how to visually illustrate what makes you uniquely you. 

Trust yourself.

Trust your photographer. 

Trust the process. 

And everything else is downhill from there. 

Save the inspiration boards for the big box brands and let them have fun with that. 

You have your own special magic to create during your next lifestyle portrait session. 

Your turn…

What are your feelings on this? Love inspiration boards for your portrait session? Hate them? Either way, share your experiences with the below.