One of the challenges for photographers posting online is learning how to hone in on what we decide to post. When I first started out as a headshot photographer, I only had an occasional client and creating a headshot was a huge accomplishment. Because of this, I will immediately post images from this session to my Instagram feed and website. However, as my client base grew and I developed my own style, I realized that I needed to be much more selective in deciding why and when I post an image.
Part of the growth process
Being a photographer and an artist is something I have deliberately decided to do publicly, whether on my Instagram page, YouTube channel, or when posting photos and articles on Fstoppers. One of the core reasons for this is obviously to grow my business and my brand as a photographer, but I also feel that posting, especially on Instagram, has motivated me. push my growth and improve my skills faster than when I work in a gap. Besides, I like to have a visual record of my progress in Instagram thumbnail form, because the work should theoretically improve over time. I talked about this in one of my first Fstoppers articles, which can be found here and still believe that posting our work is best practice – at some point.
If you’re just starting out on your photography journey and want to build your brand or online following, post now. Each photo or video can serve as a beta test for future posts, and even if you post something that isn’t well received, it’s not the end of the world and could be an export. color of the learning process. On my YouTube channel, it’s still fairly new, some videos resonate and some don’t. When a video fails, it’s no fun for me, but if it helps me improve the content, theme, and presentation, it’s still a win in the long run.
Hone your art and your brand
Growing our brand is like growing up. As children, we say whatever comes to mind, we act silly no matter what situation we’re in, and we have very little awareness of how the world perceives us. As adults, however, we begin to be much more selective about how we present ourselves to the world, and the same is true of our social media presence as photographers.
While scrolling through Instagram, sometimes a headshot pops up causing me to pause and for no reason. Whether it’s bad lighting, poor expressions, distorted shots or the like, I stop to stare like someone slowing down on a park road to watch an accident (I’m sure that’s it). people have done the same with some of my photos). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mocking the photographer or the person in the photo, but often I’m surprised when I say the photo was taken by a photographer I know and the work of someone I admire. Instead, I asked myself why would they post a photo like that when they have so much better work to show off? And the only answer I can find is that they basically post an image from every session they have without thinking about whether the photo helps or hurts their brand. .
I think this is crazy, as well as unnecessary. And I think we are all guilty of doing this to some extent. In fact, as I write this article, I’m scrolling through my own Instagram and remember I need to get my own advice and be more selective in honing my page, so to tackle this topic , remember I realize how many fingers are pointing back at me (more on that later).
Many of my photography friends and mentors have said, “show work that you want to get paid for” and I think this is solid advice for all of us as we build our businesses and grow. develop our social pages, especially if we are a few years into our journey as creators of images. If we are evolving, our style is bound to change and our work will hopefully get better over time. If your work doesn’t improve, that’s topic for another day, but that aside, we must carefully present our image and video content whether it’s on our website me or any of the social media platforms we use every day.
Time to reflect
Some of my favorite Instagram pages have a single theme, whether it’s a headshot, portrait, landscape, or street photo. The content of the photographer’s work is obvious from the moment I access their profile, and it immediately tells me what they do. As we reflect on our work and personal brand, now is the right time to take a hard look at what and how we present our images and videos online. We should also consider that consistency doesn’t necessarily mean you’re only posting in one category. More importantly, we should strive to post consistently good content and ignore the desire to just post about everything or everyone that comes across in front of our cameras.
I work with many clients who never visit my Instagram page or website for a variety of reasons, and often those are perfectly fine photos. However, if they don’t reflect the direction I’m going with my artistic and business vision, they only serve to cloud the waters for potential clients and companies that want to do business with me. Future.
When we think about these things, I also don’t think there is one size fits all answers. For some of us, having a separate page that only shows the head shot, for example, might be the best move. For others the solution may be different and having multiple categories on one page may work well, but the subject matter of all of us who have been photographers for a while should post better quality quantity and purposeful posting.
As I mentioned, in a way, I think my Instagram page has become like no other since I started my YouTube channel. This is partly because I now post a lot of content geared towards photographers and clients, and the feed is full of sample images from the device I review for my own face. myself in the reels as I promote the reels and try to keep the Instagram Page relevant. Whether or not this is wise is something I’m thinking right now, but so far my business and network have continued to grow and I only post content that I consider high quality. If I make the change, it will most likely be in the form of Instagram dedicated to my YouTube pursuits.
All of this in a nutshell, my advice to you is to scrutinize your website and social networks with a critical eye. Are you creating a consistent, quality brand that is easy for others to see, or do you post everything without thinking twice? If you run a photography business and you’re not carefully managing your online brand, now is the time to grow your website and social media presence.
