Reinforce perception through visual storytelling

What are 5 words that describe how you want to be perceived by your audience?

Are you illustrating those words through your photos?

During a typical portrait pre-session strategy call, one of the questions I pose to clients revolves around perception. 

What 5 words describe how you want to be perceived by your audience?

The answer to this question varies by expert, but they all lead to the same result. 

The goal is to gain intelligence on this person that can be directly applied to the photos we set out to capture. 

Why?

It’s not enough to shout from the mountaintops that you’re creative, warm, knowledgeable, or any of the other 500 words that experts have used to answer this question.  

Show them what it looks like by visually punctuating these sentiments through image content that clearly illustrates these qualities. 

How?

Through everything that’s visible in that photo, that’s how!

It all starts with your facial expression and the dance between your eyes, eyebrows and mouth. With every portrait that you post, this is the star of the show in every single one of them, because this is where your audience’s attention immediately goes first.

Then, your body language comes into play. It compliments and reinforces the sentiment created by your facial expression. 

Next, the activity in which you’re engaged while in front of the camera, whether you’re brainstorming an idea, reacting to a client, or just sitting out a window, thinking to yourself. This helps create a greater context that supports the sentiment of the photos.

And finally, the location ties everything together by helping to draw all of the viewer’s attention to where? Yes, your facial expression :)

It’s one thing to say you’re empathetic/passionate/fill-in-the-blank word in the stories you share with your audience; it’s quite another when you present them with a photo that has it written all over your face. 

That image offers your audience an opportunity to connect with you more deeply because well-crafted, purposeful photos speak to them on a level beyond the brain. 

It’s an emotional experience. 

When you create a portfolio of images that conjures up the emotions, you’ll captivate an audience to pay attention to what you have to say…

...more importantly, learn how you can help solve their problems. 

And, you’re doing it in a way that’s uniquely you. 

Keep your 5 words in mind the next time you find yourself in front of the camera. Better yet, speak with your photographer about it BEFORE the session, so that you both are on the same page in order to be able to capture compelling portraits that are in line with who you are as a person and how you want to be seen by those you serve. 

It’s an extremely effective...and persuasive...approach to maximizing the value of the session. 

This is one of 28 questions that I ask every portrait client before their sessions. 

If you’re interested in learning the other 27 because you are in need of refreshing your image content portfolio, set up a time to chat with me and let’s see if we’re a fit to work together.