Photo & Video
Creating top-tier visual assets that present your products at their finest, enhancing engagement and increasing sales.
Photo & Video
Tailored visual content designed to showcase a brand’s identity, products, services, and messages, enhancing marketing, promotion, and communication efforts.
Photo & Video
Creating bespoke portraits that authentically showcase your unique personality, ensuring a memorable and lasting impact.
Let’s be honest: we all judge books by their covers. Sure, we say we don’t, but one quick scroll through a cluttered website with blurry selfies as “about me” photos, and you’re hitting the back button faster than you can say “professional image.”
Anna Voloshyna
Professional Photographer
Jul 15, 2025
If you’re running a business and still relying on outdated stock photos or your cousin’s last-minute snapshots, we need to talk.
In this article, I am not just listing generic reasons, no. I will share 5 real-life examples and facts of how hiring a professional branding photographer has helped companies and entrepreneurs grow, build trust, and increase revenue. By the end, you’ll be fully convinced that investing in branding photos is one of the smartest moves you can make.
Before diving into the reasons, let’s understand what branding photography actually means. Simply put, a branding photoshoot is a tailored collection of professional images that visually represent your business or personal brand. This includes business portraits, team photos, product shots, your workspace, and lifestyle images that reflect your personality and brand values.
Think of it as more than just pretty pictures—it’s a visual narrative that helps your audience connect with your brand on a deeper level.
If you’re an entrepreneur, a start up founder, or a small business owner, remember: people buy stories and emotions, not just products. And today, audiences trust visuals more than text.
Picture this: you’re meeting a new client for coffee, and you show up wearing a wrinkled shirt and mismatched socks. Not a good look, right? That’s exactly what outdated or low-quality visuals do to your business.
Your website and social media are your business’s digital handshake. Professional branding photography ensures that handshake is confident, polished, and memorable. The mantra of all small business owners is that the client has to “know, like and trust” them. The best way to do this? By creating a great first impression with professional brand images.
The Skimm is a daily newsletter founded by Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, designed to make news easy to understand for busy women.
When Carly and Danielle launched The Skimm, they made sure their brand visuals, including professional portraits and team photos, reflected their approachable, relatable personalities. Their images, featuring casual settings and genuine smiles, helped humanize the newsletter and build a loyal community quickly.
The first impression of seeing real people behind the brand boosted trust, which contributed to The Skimm’s rapid growth: over 7 million subscribers and partnerships with major media outlets. Their personal branding photos showed readers they weren’t just another faceless newsletter but a team of real women creating content with heart and humor.
Stock photos are like fast food: convenient but forgettable. Sure, a generic photo of two people shaking hands might technically work, but it doesn’t say anything about you.
A personal branding photo session shows your unique story, your real workspace, and your authentic personality. It’s more than a headshot — it’s your business’s soul in pictures.
Avocado Green Mattress is a California-based company specializing in organic, eco-friendly mattresses and bedding products.
From the start, Avocado avoided sterile product images and instead invested heavily in lifestyle photography. Their photos featured cozy bedrooms bathed in natural light, families reading in bed, and lush green plants: every image reinforcing their core values of wellness, comfort, and sustainability.
This commitment to visual storytelling paid off: Avocado quickly grew to a $100+ million revenue brand, becoming one of the top-selling organic mattress companies in the US. Customers were drawn not only to their eco-friendly materials but also to the aspirational lifestyle depicted in their photos.
Their branding photos helped them achieve an average order value (AOV) 20% higher than many competitors. They also reduced return rates because customers had a clear, realistic expectation of the product experience. Beyond revenue, Avocado’s imagery helped foster a community of eco-conscious advocates who proudly shared the brand’s photos, further boosting organic reach and credibility.
Here’s a wild stat: people remember 80% of what they see, versus just 20% of what they read. Your visuals do the heavy lifting when you’re not in the room.
Professional branding photography is your brand’s “hype team.” From product shots to a relaxed business portrait, these images communicate quality, care, and trust — all without saying a word.
Gymshark is a UK-based fitness apparel and accessories brand targeting gym-goers and athletes, known for its youthful, high-energy branding.
Gymshark started in 2012 as a small online store run from a garage. Rather than using stock images or studio models, they focused on professional, dynamic photography of real athletes and fitness influencers actually using their products. These photos were vibrant, full of movement, and evoked the dedication and community spirit of the gym lifestyle.
This strategy helped Gymshark build a global community of fans and ambassadors, contributing to explosive growth: by 2020, the company was valued at over $1.4 billion. Their Instagram page, which now boasts over 8 million followers, was a critical driver. Posts with high-quality, authentic branding photos achieved engagement rates as high as 10%, far surpassing typical retail brand averages. By making professional visuals the heart of their strategy, Gymshark didn’t just sell clothes, they sold a fitness identity that customers proudly shared.
People don’t just buy services — they buy stories and feelings. A warm, candid photo of your team or a behind-the-scenes snapshot from your creative process can build trust and spark familiarity.
Branding photography helps create a personality for your business, making it alive and memorable. This is crucial for any entrepreneur or start up trying to stand out.
Jenna Kutcher is an American photographer turned online educator and marketing strategist, who helps entrepreneurs build personal brands and profitable businesses.
When Jenna shifted from wedding photography to business coaching and online courses, she knew that professional, authentic visuals were key. She invested in personal branding photos that showed her in real moments: at home with her family, working on her laptop, or relaxing with coffee. These images made her approachable and relatable, breaking the "perfectly curated" Instagram mold.
Her brand photos helped her grow a podcast to over 25 million downloads and build a social media following of over 1 million across platforms. By consistently using professional images that felt intimate and human, she built a community that trusted her advice and eagerly purchased her online courses and products. In one launch, she generated over $1 million in revenue in just a few days, thanks to the emotional connection she had built through visuals. Jenna's story proves that people don’t just buy products; they buy into personalities and lifestyles, both of which are powerfully conveyed through branding photos.
In a sea of similar businesses, what makes yours stand out? You do. A custom branding session highlights your unique story, team dynamics, and values, making your brand instantly recognizable.
About The Try Guys:
The Try Guys are a group of four friends who create entertaining and relatable video content on YouTube, trying new experiences and challenges.
What sets The Try Guys apart is their tight-knit team dynamic and authentic personalities, all captured through professional branding photos that show genuine camaraderie, humor, and creativity. Their images reflect who they are — approachable, funny, and real — rather than a typical polished entertainment brand.
This visual storytelling has helped them amass over 8 million subscribers and transition from BuzzFeed employees to independent content creators with a dedicated fanbase. Their team photos and candid shots make fans feel connected, strengthening loyalty and distinguishing them from other YouTube groups.
You might need a branding photoshoot or personal branding photo session if you are:
Whether you’re a small business owner, a start up founder, or looking to strengthen your personal brand, professional photography helps you create the “know, like and trust” factor that leads to growth.
Professional branding photography isn’t just about looking good. It’s about telling your story, building trust, and making your business unforgettable. Today, your audience trusts visuals more than text.
If you’re in the Netherlands (especially Limburg) — or anywhere in Europe — it might be time to invest in a professional brand photographer who knows how to capture your authentic story (hi, that’s me!).
Ready to finally look like the pro you are? Check out my Business Photo Service page and I promise the only thing I’ll shoot after is your best angle.
