Stop Being Forgettable: Many photographers play it safe with “lifestyle headshots,” but that makes your work and your rates entirely replaceable. Emily Kim joins us to show you how to inject real creative value into every session.
The Inspiration Upgrade: Learn why looking at other photographers leads to “same-same” work, and how to use non-photographic influences to give your clients a unique look they can’t get elsewhere.
The “Designer-Ready” Secret: Discover the technical framing trick that makes your images essential for web and graphic designers, ensuring your work is actually usable across all marketing platforms.
Building a Visual Narrative: Shifting your focus from individual “hero shots” to a cohesive gallery increases the perceived value of your work and the results for your clients.
00:01.46 Marcus Well hello listeners, it’s Marcus here, I hope you’re all well. ah Today i have a guest, a transatlantic guest. I’ve got Emily Kim and she is helping us with our branding season because she’s a personal brand photographer. Emily, how you doing?
00:19.61
Emily
I’m doing great and I’m so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
00:23.00 Marcus It’s absolutely my pleasure. Now, I first came across you via your very successful YouTube channel. um And I saw, i do remember, I saw one of the clips you did was you were doing these predictions. It was last year. It was predictions for 2025. And I thought, wow, this Emily is really nailing it as far as personal branding photography goes.
00:47.19 Emily Thank you. Yeah, I loved putting that video together. i think a lot of it still holds this year too.
00:51.26 Marcus I think you’re right. I really think it does. Yeah, yeah. you cut you and And your content covers a lot of ground. You talk a lot about marketing. But in this episode, I really want to dive deep, as they say, into the creative side of personal brand photography.
01:08.18
Marcus
How do you feel about that?
01:08.54 Emily Let’s do it. I love it. Let’s do it.
01:11.16 Marcus But before we start, let’s just hear about your, as they say, they call it the origin story. Let’s hear how you ah got into photography, how you got into personal brand photography.
01:21.05 Emily My origin story actually starts in Silicon Valley. So I went to school for being a software engineer for computer science, got a full-time job at Apple, and then realized, wow, I hate this.
01:24.82
Marcus
Oh,
01:34.69
Emily
This office life is not for me.
01:34.84 Marcus oh no way.
01:38.01 Emily And while I worked at Apple, I was running my photography business on the side, doing all kinds of stuff, as most people do when they start, portraits, graduations, engagements, no weddings.
01:50.30
Emily
I only did a couple of those and decided no.
01:51.93 Marcus Yeah.
01:52.86
Emily
And I had a business owner reach out to me.
01:53.14 Marcus Yep.
01:55.58 Emily She was a jewelry designer and that was my very first branding client. And ever since then, I’ve been hooked. I had no idea that business owners needed this volume of photography.
02:01.78
Marcus
Wow.
02:07.48 Emily So once I stumbled into this niche, really, i went all in on it and have been a personal brand photographer ever since.
02:14.11 Marcus Gosh, that’s a fairly smooth journey you’ve got there, Emily. You really ah you got into it straight away, found out what you liked and just stuck at it.
02:22.58 Emily Mm-hmm. Yeah, I feel like I found it pretty early on in my photography journey, for sure.
02:30.36 Marcus Well, for I mean, for those listeners who can’t see us, I would have to say that Emily’s got a really on-brand background. So obviously branding is really a background, as I say, to your the to the video. So branding is obviously very important to you.
02:45.72 Emily Absolutely. Yes, I got served an ad for this backdrop. And when I saw it, it was probably the fastest I purchased something because we were moving too. So it was perfect timing for me to set up this colored backdrop.
02:55.17 Marcus Perfect. Perfect. Okay, let’s look. We haven’t got a lot of time. Let’s dive into some ah pre-prepared questions that I’ve actually put time together to make. So, Emily, a lot of personal brand photography plays rather safe. It’s clean, polished, but ultimately, you could say forgettable. So when you’re working with a client, how do you push them beyond looking professional into actually communicating something distinctive?
03:27.06
Emily
I love that question.
03:28.79
Marcus
Thank you. Yeah.
03:29.34 Emily When my brand photography clients come to me, a lot of the time their assumption is, okay, we’re going to get some headshots. Maybe there’ll be some lifestyle headshots. I’ll bring my laptop. Maybe I’ll have a coffee bag. And that is, i feel, the standard, the very, very baseline of brand photography. Everybody is probably going to capture some of those. But where I really make the distinction between brand photography versus taking portraits of business owners is really in the usability of the photos.
04:01.14 Marcus Yes. Ah. Hmm.
04:04.92 Emily So to help them build a distinct gallery that stands out, I actually start with asking them, where do you plan on using these photos? And the basic answers that come up are, of course, social media, on my website. But then when you dig a little bit deeper, most of the clients that I work with have slideshows, they have workbooks, they have printed material and lots of other seemingly random materials that they need photos for, but have never connected the dots of, oh, these could be pictures of me instead of just random stock photos. So then when we start there with the context, that’s how we start to generate the unique ideas for the brand photos.
04:50.77 Marcus Exactly. So they come in, they’re looking for just what they think is just a headshot or that’s what they know. And then you educate them into all the other things that are available that you can do to help build up their business and their profile. And then you take it from there.
05:05.78
Emily
Exactly.
05:07.67 Marcus Very cool. Very cool. Okay. um but you I’m writing a book at the moment called The Ideas-Led Photographer. little plug there.
05:16.81
Emily
Oh, I love it.
05:16.92 Marcus ah It’s a general photography book. And so it i mean um my mind is all about ideas. So but where do you get your ideas from? Not just on the shoot day, but were you looking or absorbing or researching to come up and build your yeah ideas, to build your images?
05:36.28 Emily not other photographers. but That’s step but one.
05:37.88
Marcus
Oh, interesting. Very cool.
05:40.30 Emily I, of course, draw inspiration from other photographers, but I feel like when…
05:40.28
Marcus
Yeah.
05:43.29
Marcus
Yes. Not directly.
05:45.85 Emily Of course, right. And when we as photographers get stuck in photographer land, that’s when the stuff starts to look really same-same, right?
05:56.29 Emily People, my clients will give me a Pinterest board.
05:56.80
Marcus
Right.
05:59.69 Emily They’ll say, oh, I really like these photos. And that’s great. But I ask them and to… Find inspiration, not just from other photos, but from architecture, from textures, from clothing, from nature, wherever it is.
06:09.94 Marcus Yeah. Yep.
06:15.14 Emily And that’s where I get inspiration to different art mediums, because that’s when your brain, your you know subconscious can get to work and start connecting these ideas so that you can deliver.
06:25.54 Emily an idea that you got inspired from in architecture and deliver it in the form of ah portrait. And it’s not like a direct, like, oh, I love this building.
06:38.30
Marcus
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:38.86 Emily Let me translate that. Right. But you’re subtly picking up on the compositions, the colors, the shapes, the textures, the light.
06:41.78 Marcus Yes. Yes. Yes. the the like The feeling, the feeling of it.
06:47.67
Emily
I get a lot of inspiration. Yes.
06:50.31 Marcus I mean, I do know what that is just absolutely perfectly because that’s exactly what I’m writing about. And I think, yeah, of course, photography is easy. It’s easy to go through Instagram and look at loads of images. But really, you’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to be involved. You’ve got to look at the first sources of things and be involved in in what you’re seeing.
07:09.69 Emily Yes, the first sources and actually living your life versus scrolling for sure.
07:14.71 Marcus Yeah, yeah. That’s a great answer. That’s a great answer. Okay, um let’s move on. So how do you balance staying true to a client’s brand guidelines while still making something visually interesting? Because sometimes the two aren’t natural and don’t naturally align.
07:35.80 Marcus So how do you make it look interesting? when you when Let’s say you’ve got somebody bit dull. How do you make it look interesting?
07:40.24
Emily
Hmm.
07:40.86
Marcus
Yeah.
07:41.59 Emily Yeah, i think that’s the fun challenge of brand photography.
07:44.66
Marcus
I agree.
07:45.23 Emily So I’ll give you an example. I work with a lot of what other people might consider, quote unquote, boring businesses. I work with a lot of law firms, chiropractors.
07:54.65
Marcus
Yeah. Yep.
07:56.03 Emily Once I worked with, this this is probably the most random, but a fire safety training company.
08:03.83 Marcus Oh, yes. Now that is boring.
08:04.98
Emily
So a company yeah a company that goes to other companies to do fire and safety trainings.
08:13.18 Marcus ah okay
08:13.24 Emily And i was actually so excited when I got that inquiry because i ah there’s my Apple, if you’re watching the video, my Apple will do emojis, gave it thumbs up, but the fire safety company, I was so excited to get this inquiry because I’d never done anything like that before.
08:23.83
Marcus
Yeah.
08:30.99 Emily And immediately, My brain went to, well, fire. Can we play with fire? These are fire safety people. And yeah, their normal environment might be boring, quote unquote, offices and training, but they actually had lots of really cool props. They had a giant warehouse where they housed all of their equipment. So it was a super different environment to be in. And we ended up getting lots of really fun shots,
09:02.39 Emily playing with fire because they had the ability to do that.
09:06.78 Marcus Emily, I think this is exactly why I wanted you to get you on the show. And but when I spoke to you beforehand, you know, I was struck by, you and it comes from that question we just had before about how open you are to different influences and stuff that’s going to, you know, is a stored in your brain and you can bring out later. And I think that’s really what makes, separates ah a good branding photographer into a great branding photographer. It’s coming up with these unusual ideas and not being fazed by it. Yeah.
09:37.69 Emily Thank you. I totally agree. i totally agree. And this is where I think brand photography has a special place in the industry because a lot of other photography niches are very photographer and art led.
09:55.05 Emily Not to say that brand photography is not necessarily art led, but I do think we have more constraints than other niches because it is ultimately a picture for commerce, right?
10:05.62 Marcus Yes, but, sorry, from constrained being constrained, you get creativity.
10:06.69
Emily
And Go ahead.
10:12.25 Emily Yes, exactly. I love creative constraints. I think they’re really, really great to learn how to work within. And they force you. It’s a forcing function.
10:22.27 Emily It forces you to come up with a different, unique idea, even if on the outside it looks like something that might be boring. Nothing is actually really boring. It’s your attitude towards it and your perception of it.
10:34.37 Marcus Oh, exactly. It’s your attitude and perception. Love that, Emily. Love that. You’re getting 10 out of 10 I should hear from me. I’d say that. 10 out of 10. So great branding photography isn’t just about one hero image. It’s not about that headshot that people people generally think about, like you said earlier. It’s a system of images put together. So how do you approach building a body of work for a client rather just than just a set of nice photos, a body of work? How do you go about building that?
11:03.70 Emily The body of work is so important. I say this to my students all the time.
11:06.31
Marcus
Right.
11:07.38 Emily The value in a brand photography gallery is not in the individual photo. It’s in the gallery as a whole. So how I start this, it’s all in the pre-planning process.
11:15.96 Marcus like
11:19.12 Emily So I take all of my brand photography clients through ah questionnaire. which collects their branding guidelines, but it also collects more of the business strategy side of things. So some of their business goals, where they’re showing up now, their client process, really everything I can learn about their business, I want to know upfront.
11:37.63 Emily So after that, I take them into the planning call, and this is where I start to generate the ideas. And this has always come pretty intuitively to me, but the way that i describe it in a system for somebody who’s trying to learn how to do this,
11:53.08 Emily If you were to stack like ten five or 10 random images from the gallery next to each other, if all of the compositions look the same, if all the lighting looks the same, if all the props look the same, that’s not a very compelling or helpful brand photography gallery.
12:09.86 Emily The value comes in the variety. So the way that I do that is for every shot or every vignette that we set up, I’m getting a portrait, a wide shot, a detail shot.
12:13.00
Marcus
Yep.
12:21.27
Emily
And then of those compositions, you can change where’s the negative space.
12:21.41
Marcus
Yep.
12:23.85
Marcus
Yes.
12:25.99 Emily And then on top of that, you can change what does the light setup look like?
12:27.64
Marcus
Yes.
12:30.47 Emily Could we do this in black and white? Could we use direct light instead of soft light?
12:32.34
Marcus
Yes.
12:34.51 Emily So there are all of these different modifiers that you can apply to the same scene, even if your client is wearing the same outfit, same hairstyle, same props, same everything. There are so many different things you can capture within that scene, and I try to capture as much of that as possible so that they have the variety.
12:53.94 Marcus I mean, if there’s one thing that photography is really good at, one thing a photograph can really do, it is tell a story. And when you then link one photograph to the next, you’re building on that story. And it’s we hear this word a lot, don’t we, a story, but we used to refer it in in photography education as a visual narrative. It’s the same thing. You’re creating a visual narrative about that person.
13:19.45 Emily Exactly. And you’re capturing all of the details that somebody might pick up on in person.
13:23.55
Marcus
Yep.
13:24.73 Emily But if you only have one shot and one portrait, that’s not enough to communicate the story of what’s happening.
13:24.92 Marcus Yeah. Yes. That’s right.
13:32.31 Marcus But it takes skill and it takes inquisitiveness um to look for those different angles and those details. You know, they don’t just present themselves. You have to go out looking for them you go without wanting get too s sort heavy on it.
13:46.23 Marcus But it’s just it’s a definite skill of the branding photographer.
13:49.14
Emily
Okay. Yes, yes, exactly.
13:53.40 Marcus Okay, so we’re still on the creativity tip here. So when most of your work is client-led, how do you evolve creativity creatively? sorry Do you have processes or habits that stop your work becoming repetitive?
14:09.46 Marcus how’d you How do you get that creativity creativity for yourself?
14:14.15 Emily That’s a great question. And I do think brand photography can start to feel a bit repetitive because the shot list generally stays pretty similar client to client, right?
14:24.86 Marcus mean
14:25.62
Emily
You know, you need a headshot, you know, you need a shot where there’s negative space off to a third.
14:26.65 Marcus Yeah.
14:30.14 Emily There’s a definite framework that I work within. And I also used to have my own studio. So it’s the same backdrops, Same setups, a lot of same, same.
14:35.96
Marcus
Oh, yeah. Ah, right.
14:40.90 Emily And my clients would come to me because they would see my past work and say, I want that, but for me. So it is super important. easy to get into the habit of things feeling repetitive if you’re not careful. So a few ways that i will vary that and stay creative is also remember that even though, yes, we’re here to serve our clients, it is also your job to use your creative expertise. That’s why they hired you.
15:10.65
Emily
So sometimes I’ll have a client,
15:11.22
Marcus
for yourself as well And for yourself as well, Emily, if I may.
15:12.92 Emily whom
15:14.34
Marcus
You’ve got to be true to yourself.
15:14.62 Emily oh yeah, Exactly, exactly. So when a client comes to me with what might be a truly terrible idea, I will still execute it because they have asked for it, especially if it’s like, no, I really want this shot.
15:25.65 Marcus Mm-hmm.
15:29.56 Emily But usually when they bring you a terrible idea, what happens? In your brain, you’re like, well, actually, if we did this instead, it would be so much better. You can still do both. Do what they want and then suggest, I also think while we’re here, we could do this idea and it could be really great.
15:43.98 Emily You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, but I think it could be really great. It’s all in the framing, right?
15:48.57
Marcus
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:48.62 Emily If you tell your client, I hate that idea, it’s bad, they’re going to be unhappy and then you’re going to be unhappy.
15:52.40 Marcus That’s right. Yep.
15:54.26 Emily But if you have a genuine idea, it’s going to make you happy. It’s going to light you up and they will pick up on that excitement. And then most of the time what happens, that ends up being their favorite photo.
16:05.78 Marcus Yeah, because you know, you know, you know, you you you know don’t you?
16:06.42
Emily
oh All the time.
16:09.38 Marcus oh is that yeah Is that your doggy in the background?
16:11.38
Emily
That is my dog.
16:13.29 Marcus Mine’s rummling around a bit as well. I think it’s that time the day over here where he’s looking at me. is know Isn’t it Walkie’s time? He’s thinking. any yeah but Yeah.
16:22.49
Emily
Oh, yeah.
16:23.74 Marcus Yes, quite right. Exactly. So basically you, and you know what you’ve almost, you’ve answered my other, my next question really succinctly there. So you’re taking, doing what the client asks, but you’re going beyond that and off and offering them an alternative and hopefully and invariably the client goes for the, and for the alternatives.
16:43.80 Emily Exactly. And the other thing that I do for myself is leave time to try something new with every shoot. So whether that is a new lens, a new composition, a new pose, a new um like lens modifier.
17:00.97 Emily something One of my recent new things, I started bringing, i use a cellophane bag.
17:01.88
Marcus
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yes.
17:07.58 Emily over my lens sometimes if it fits the vibe of the client and it adds that dreamy, colorful, almost like a rainbow effect.
17:14.55 Marcus ah Yeah, yeah. Yes.
17:16.26
Emily
So just little things like that.
17:16.63
Marcus
Yes.
17:17.86 Emily And I always tell them, look, we’re going to try this. You might like it. You might not. We’re just going to see what happens. And most of the time it works out.
17:25.40 Marcus I mean, I’ve said it on this show many, many times about branding photography and personal branding photography. They’re both the same, really. It’s that they’re uber creative. I think compared to other genres of photography, with branding photography, the the canvas is very wide. It’s very large. you you know You’re right there with the cloak deciding the clothing, the location.
17:49.14 Marcus yeah It just goes on and on. And that’s exactly what I like about it.
17:54.81 Emily Me too. And your clients are so different. They come from all kinds of different industries. i never know who’s going to land in my inbox. It’s something different every time.
18:05.63 Emily And it just exposes you to all kinds of facets of life in business that I didn’t even know people do for money, honestly.
18:06.26
Marcus
yeah
18:15.51 Marcus The next question I said you’ve answered it, we should do it when clients come in with a fixed idea. We’ve covered that perfectly. My next question is, it’s a tricky one. If you look at where personal brand photography is right now, what do you think most branding photographers are getting wrong?
18:33.53 Marcus Or could do better. Let’s say could do better. That’s a better way of putting it. Hmm.
18:37.66 Emily Ooh, could do better creatively in terms of business or all the above?
18:41.79 Marcus I think, well, let’s keep on the creative tip if you don’t mind, Emily. We are talking creatively. Um… I mean, one that I see used a lot is, and I’ve mentioned it to you before, is the coffee cup computer, the three Cs and C, the champagne glass, the three Cs, which is I’ve done myself, but it’s now completely, completely overdone.
18:55.67
Emily
Yes.
19:00.02
Emily
Yep.
19:03.89 Marcus but Have you got any other ones you notice?
19:06.68 Emily Yes, shooting too close to the subject and not leaving enough negative space.
19:11.62
Marcus
Oh, yeah.
19:12.18 Emily That is the biggest issue I see everywhere with all kinds of brand photographers.
19:13.18
Marcus
Yes, sir.
19:20.18 Marcus It’s funny, isn’t it? Because when we’re taught photography or the history of photography, the real the real sort of holy grail was this, you’re not cropping the images. You know, the Cartier-Bresson approach, the Cartier where I’m not cropping it as exactly as I saw it and as exactly as I took it.
19:36.44 Marcus That does not work in branding photography. Why doesn’t it work, Emily?
19:42.30 Emily It doesn’t work because if we think about the end use of the photo, it is going to go on a website, it’s going to go on a slideshow, it’s going to go on a graphic. And we as the photographer don’t know where the client is going to use any particular photo.
20:01.12 Emily So I always am shooting wider than necessary.
20:04.80
Marcus
Yeah. Yeah.
20:04.96 Emily It’s like I add like a 25% buffer margin to everything in case they need to crop it in somewhere. If they need to add text on one side or the other, you can almost never leave too much negative space.
20:18.96 Emily I always see photographers going in way too close, which makes sense because a lot of us come from portrait photography and we see it the way we would like it to be displayed.
20:26.58
Marcus
yeah yeah
20:30.80 Emily But the nature of brand photography is we just don’t know where it’s going to be displayed 90% the time. And your client could just be passing off these images to a website designer, to a graphic designer. And those are also artists who know what they need. I just had a client reach out to me.
20:54.26 Emily I’m always so careful with leaving as much negative space as possible. I still had to extend the space on one of the photos that she wanted to use.
21:00.32
Marcus
Right.
21:01.62 Emily So you can never, almost never leave too much negative space.
21:02.02
Marcus
Wow. You can never.
21:06.88 Marcus Well, the advantage we’ve got these days is that you know the cameras they’re shooting are really big file sizes, 50 megabytes, even more than that.
21:12.09
Emily
Oh yeah.
21:14.77 Marcus So crop cropping you know cropping in is not ah an issue anymore. You’re not losing any noticeable quality. um Yeah, and and and a crop that I really work a lot on or ah is the 16 by 9 or even 3 by 1 type crop, which is, of course, is that LinkedIn banner or website banner.
21:31.48
Emily
Yeah.
21:34.94
Emily
Yep.
21:35.65 Marcus It’s the old advertising billboard crop. That is something you’ve really got to develop your eye for because, obviously, when you’re looking through the camera, it’s nothing to do with that.
21:45.69 Emily Yep. It’s so tricky. I turn on the grid feature on my viewfinder.
21:49.50
Marcus
The grid, yes, yes.
21:50.63 Emily so I will usually just try to keep it in that middle grid, which helps frame it.
21:54.24 Marcus That’s right. Exactly.
21:57.23
Emily
But yeah, it’s you have to keep all of these things in mind because we never know where they might use it.
21:59.90 Marcus You have to. and And also the opposite, the vertical 16 by 9 as well. That’s a tough one, which is obviously, that’s hard, isn’t it?
22:07.10
Emily
Oh, that one’s so hard.
22:09.31 Marcus That’s a hard one. But again, that’s what separates it.
22:10.53
Emily
Yeah.
22:12.11 Marcus And you’ve got to go in there with knowing intently that you’re going to photographing for that purpose. You can’t just think, I’m going to crop into it for that size.
22:18.37
Emily
Right.
22:20.47
Marcus
It doesn’t work so well.
22:22.65 Emily Right. Another thing that I’ll do when possible is if they know they have a special crop they need, I ask for that information upfront.
22:30.46 Marcus Yes, that’s right.
22:30.65 Emily So ah one of my clients, she’s a candle maker, she needed 16 by nine for her wholesale page. And so I tethered my computer, which I don’t always do, but I tethered it so we could set it up and crop it and see the final results on set versus hoping for the best afterwards.
22:49.99 Marcus Here’s a little story about the old days, Emily. yeah tell you The old days of film. ah When we used to wear for advertising, we used to, you know, the only way we could test it was using a Polaroid, you know, a little beautiful little Polaroid, six by six Polaroid or whatever.
23:01.62
Emily
Yeah.
23:04.06 Marcus And you’d get an acetate, you know, a clear bit of plastic with the client’s logo on it, where they wanted it on the billboard or and whatever. And you’d hold it over the Polaroid to see if you got the space there.
23:13.11
Emily
Wow.
23:15.95 Marcus yeah, You know, it’s exactly the same process as you’re talking about now. You can do that on the Capture One or and i think you can do it on Lightroom as well. You can overlay it.
23:24.02
Emily
Yep.
23:25.09 Marcus Yeah, right. OK, very cool. OK, let’s have a look here. Got couple more left. I think we’re good for time. On a shoot, that there are hundreds of micro decisions to make. Competition, light, expression, framing. what are What do you prioritize in those moments to make sure the image actually works for the brand? With so much going on, how do you really focus on what you’ve got to do?
23:53.24
Marcus
Mm-hmm.
23:53.73 Emily I think my process is honestly to capture as much as possible. If you were to see how many photos I capture on a shoot, I would say I’m definitely an overshooter.
24:01.24
Marcus
Yeah. Yeah.
24:07.60 Emily But space is negligible. And in every shot that I get, I am having my client or me do some kind of micro change, right?
24:21.46 Emily So it might be look at me, look away from me, then I might back up and change the composition, then I’ll flip it from a horizontal to a vertical. Each of these, it takes practice.
24:31.62 Emily I used to keep a list of all of the things I wanted to run through for each setting, but now it’s so deeply ingrained in my brain.
24:35.74
Marcus
but Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s right.
24:39.14 Emily I don’t necessarily have to do that.
24:39.99 Marcus And you can move you can be flexible. Sometimes you can be a bit too fixed to the list you think, oh, I didn’t do that.
24:42.07
Emily
Yes.
24:45.85
Marcus
they
24:45.98 Emily Right, exactly. Exactly. It’s so important to change what you’re doing. Move your feet, because I shoot with a lot of prime lenses. Move your feet, change your zoom, change everything.
24:53.87 Marcus Same as, same as, yeah, yeah, yeah, same as.
24:56.31
Emily
course
24:57.50 Marcus I mean, I think, you know, working with an assistant can sometimes help because it is a very phonetic pace of the way you can work. And I think you you and I are probably working very similar.
25:05.62
Emily
Yeah.
25:06.90 Marcus well You said you do a lot of images, Emily. How many roughly are you shooting on, like, I don’t know, like a couple, two-hour session or something?
25:12.41 Emily the ah That’s a great question. If i have been on a roll, like I’ve had multiple shoots in the last two weeks span, but yeah, but but then i’ll I’ll be a little bit better.
25:19.45 Marcus Yes. And your eye is really in it. Yes, your eye is really in it.
25:25.90 Emily I’ll have probably between 700,000 a a three hour session
25:32.73
Marcus
Mate, mine’s exactly the same.
25:34.55
Emily
yeah it’s a lot
25:36.33 Marcus it’ so It’s a lot, it’s ah maybe, yeah, it’s exactly the same, you know, but it part of it’s creating the ambience and the mood of the shoot and, you know, and clients like it when you’re shooting a lot, I think that makes them feel better.
25:49.56
Emily
a
25:49.98 Marcus And yeah, and why not? You know, there’s, um, There’s an old saying, isn’t it? Shoot shoot the shit out of it.
25:57.43
Emily
Exactly.
25:59.96 Marcus Cool. Okay. um Let’s have this last question. I’ve got this large one here. It’s about AI. but And we have just had an AI season. So hopefully we’re not sick to death on it. But where do you think the real but value of brand photography is going to sit over the next few years with ai and everything?
26:16.47
Emily
Ooh, have another YouTube video on AI specifically for brand photographers.
26:21.27
Marcus
Yes. ah Yes.
26:23.62 Emily So I love this question.
26:23.70
Marcus
um Yes.
26:24.82 Emily And me being a software engineer, I also have more opinions than i i think most photographers.
26:26.84
Marcus
Yes. Go for it.
26:31.74 Emily I think if we as a collective photographers are going to sit and complain about AI and say, oh, it’s taking our jobs, that’s not productive for anybody involved.
26:42.70 Emily So I don’t really like to take that approach. It’s coming. There’s not really anything we can do to stop people from using it. So what do I need to be doing differently to stay relevant?
26:53.24 Emily with AI. And when I look at my client testimonials and the result that my clients get from the photo shoot, yes, they get a gallery of gorgeous photos, but they also have a distinct transformation, especially if it’s somebody who is booking their first brand photo shoot. The most common piece of feedback that I get on the set while I’m showing them the pictures is, oh my gosh, I didn’t know I could look like that.
27:23.44
Marcus
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
27:23.74 Emily They are seeing themselves the way that they want to be perceived because we’ve done the planning, because we’ve done the setup. And it is…
27:34.49 Emily an exponential confidence boost for the client. If they were to just go and generate an AI headshot, yeah, it could look cool.
27:46.10 Emily But you know it’s not you. You didn’t make take the effort to go and get your photo taken and be seen and be vulnerable. Creating an AI photo is not vulnerable. Being in front of the camera is. And that act is a huge piece of transformation.
28:01.30 Emily On the other hand, i also prefer a more positive outlook on AI because how many times have we gotten clients where they’re like, I just need one headshot. I don’t want this whole thing. I just need one headshot.
28:12.18 Emily Those i just need one headshot clients are going to go to AI. They’re going to start using these AI pictures to market their business. They are going to reach a point when they realize it’s not enough.
28:24.73 Emily The right clients are going to seek out a photographer to have this experience. So how I view it is, oh we’re actually expanding the market because now there are so many people that would have never taken the leap to get in front of a camera.
28:32.96
Marcus
That’s right.
28:42.76 Emily They’re just going to take iPhone pictures. Now they can use ai for their baseline level of headshot.
28:48.02
Marcus
Yes.
28:51.16 Emily And eventually if they keep going, they’re going to want actual pictures that are going to want the experience for themselves. So I think just focusing on the experience that you deliver and the feelings that happen, that only happen when you get behind the camera is so important.
28:59.50
Marcus
Yep.
29:09.43 Emily then just making it comfortable for your clients, right?
29:13.46
Marcus
Brilliant.
29:13.54 Emily Just being approachable and making it fun thing for them.
29:16.86 Marcus Yes. Yeah, that’s absolutely brilliant. Emily, where can our listeners get more words of wisdom from you?
29:25.94
Emily
Yes, I am on Instagram at emilykim.co.
29:25.99 Marcus Where can they find you?
29:31.45 Emily You can find me on YouTube also, Emily Kim. If you Google brand photography, or if you YouTube search brand photography, Emily Kim will probably show up.
29:40.28
Marcus
Yes, it does come up.
29:41.34 Emily And yeah, great, great. My website is emilykim.co.
29:48.89 Marcus Emily Kim Dessier. Well, we’ll put all these note we’ll put all these links in the notes, of course. And so if they want content, they want to learn about branding photography, go to the YouTube site. If you want book Emily for a fantastic shoot, go to the website.
30:03.96
Emily
Thanks so much for having me.
was so fun.
30:06.41
Marcus
Brilliant. You’ve been brilliant, Emily. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Okay.
