131. What are some prop ideas for your personal brand photo shoot?
Wondering what to do with your hands when you get photos taken? 📸 The secret comes down to props! In this episode, Brand Therapy hosts Phil and Lauren reflect on (hundreds of) client photo shoots to narrow down the ultimate props list. Get ready to be inspired—because these ideas will take your photos to the next level!
Episode transcription
Phil
Hello, welcome to Brand Therapy. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
phil
And this is the podcast where we help you position, build and promote your brand. Welcome to you. I don't know where you are right now, listening on your headphones, you're driving your car, maybe on a run. I don't know. But I'm just happy you're here. And I think you're here for an important discussion around something we encounter or discuss with almost every single client we have when the project involves photography. This is one of Lauren's very favorite topics, and I just have a feeling she's excited about this one.
Lauren
Am I excited? Of course, I'm excited. I'm the one who came up with this topic, because I think it is a critical part of getting good photography. And as someone who doesn’t like getting their photo taken, what we're talking about today, props, is a game changer. So let's first frame it for our listeners. Phil, why do you think props are important for photoshoots?
Phil
Okay, because when I think about a photo that shouldn't be used for your brand, I imagine the client or you in this case, let's use our imaginations, I imagine you standing against a boring white wall that tells me absolutely nothing about your brand, absolutely nothing.
Yet, when I see you, in your environment, I see you doing you, whatever you whatever your thing is, it could be writing, it could be reflecting. It could be jumping, it could be a photo of a hairstylist with mannequin heads around him. We have so many good examples we're going to give you by the way, that will describe them for the purpose of the podcast. But we're also gonna have a blog post, which has the photos we talked about in it on our website. To answer your question, I went a little long winded there, I think the worst photos for your brand are the ones that don't tell us anything about you. And props are such a good way to communicate you in brand photography. And that's why we get excited about it because it gets us as brand strategist, closer to our goal of communicating you through visuals, without someone having to really sink their teeth into a 10,000 word biography that no one wants to do, right. That's why we get excited.
Lauren
The way that you interact with objects and photos helps paint a picture of what your energy is, what it's like to sit in a room with you, what's important to you. It's just incredible how adding a single prop can really, really be a game changer for the overall atmosphere of an image.
So I want to talk about some of our favorite client examples because I have a feeling with props. People are like, oh, I guess I'll bring a coffee cup or oh, I guess I'll bring, I don't know some jewelry. And yes, those things are great, but one of my favorite props that I've ever seen a client use is Judy Stakee, who has been a guest on our podcast before and is a client. We love her to pieces, and we recently helped oversee a photoshoot for Judy. And in that, in one photo, Judy recreated her morning routine, which is to read the LA Times in print every morning at her countertop with a bowl of berries or oatmeal. And something like a printed newspaper, I don't think people would necessarily think of that as a prop for a photo shoot, but picture this kind of an aerial shot of Judy's head, leaning over a paper that brings this incredible atmosphere, it really captures this morning calm vibe. And what is goes beyond that is that the newspaper itself acted almost as a texture or a pattern just from the way the words were laid out on the page. That's one of my favorite prop examples and from something that is kind of boring, but ends up being beautiful.
Phil
So one of my favorite examples is from a few years ago, you won't see this project on our website. This is even before we would really do the kind of full thorough all encompassing brand projects that we only do nowadays. So this client's name is Jillian and this photo that we have from her photo shoot I use in some of my presentations. This is vintage, this is like probably six or seven years old. But this photo I still have in my mind is one of my favorites from a personal brand shoot. Jillian was developing a brand is a mommy blogger, and there's this amazing picture of her laughing on the doorstep of the house, child in one hand, bag with things overflowing for her child in the other hand, and her just laughing hysterically in this moment that so accurately captures a day in the life of being a mom and juggling 4000 different things with a positive attitude, which is pictured on her face. It's one of my favorite pictures. In my decade of doing this, we'll put all these photos, I'm making a list of them here, as we discuss. We'll put all of these photos in a blog post so that you can reference them. But that's one of my favorites. Do you remember the picture I'm talking about?
Lauren
I do? I do. And I think you bring up a good point that your prompt doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful. You can have a bag that's like, overloaded with crap, and it can still communicate what you want in a photo.
Phil
Yes, exactly. It doesn't have to be pretty imperfect, and produced and artificial. It should be real. It should be a tool that helps communicate your environment in the way to your point, the way you interact with your environment. I think props are just so useful as a tool for that humanizing element.
Lauren
Can I say one more?
Phil
Yes, cuz I have one more for after that.
Lauren
Perfect. Okay, so we'll cap it up for our client, Rachel Begun is a nutritionist. And there's one prop that I love, which is actually her with a cookie, splitting it in half. And it's it's awesome, because in the shot, you actually don't see Rachel's face, it's just her hands and a latte, I think basically pressing the cookie and half. And it's just, again, creates this wonderful atmosphere where you feel like you're sitting at the table with Rachel talking about food or talking about the cookie that you're about to share together. And I think symbolically it just touches on so many powerful points that again, a typical headshot wouldn't even come close to covering.
Phil
I love it, I have two more ideas. So I need to choose one, since you said we're capping it at four.
Lauren
We can do five if it's important to you.
Phil
Okay, so I have to name for this next example, I want to use an example that's not loud or funny, or big energy because not every client project is that way. When we talk about being quiet or reflecting introspective, Shawndresh, who we've talked about on the podcast before comes to mind. One of his props is actually something he wears. And this prop is so vivid and so connecting between his digital footprint and his real life experience. He wears a bracelet that has huge symbolic meaning for him spiritually. I think he actually got it from his dad, who was his guru, and Chandresh wears this amazing bracelet given to him passed down to him, and all of his photos, and you see it, and you just know it's him. So that’s Chandresh using a prop in photos as a branding element. You see it throughout his photos, we actually turned that bracelet into a brand color within his personal brand. And then when you meet him in real life, he's also wearing it and you tie it all together. It's really smart. It's actually it's a very smart branding for him. I know it's more than just branding, but that's the role that it plays. I thought that was a neat example, because it's not like a coffee mug or something like that. But it's actually something he wears, that brands him in a quiet example. Chandresh’s photos are normally him meditating, he's thinking, he's walking, more quiet actions. And so that's really cool.
Okay. And then I have one more example that's also a vintage throwback, didn't do the branding, but helped with the photography for this brand. Christy Miller, who is a coach for coaches. It's been years since we work together, but I have this amazing picture in my head of her in her kitchen with her soft, beachy brand colors in the back. And she's holding food in her hand that represent the type of methodology and fun that you can still have as someone on a diet or as someone that's making healthy life choices. She's got chocolate, she's got a pineapple. She's got all of this, you know, the kind of like this range that shows it's actually showing people what they're going to get from her or a little peek into her process, if you will. And I think that's a really good example of props.
Lauren
Love it. great examples. Okay, so let's get into tools. What are some tools that could help people come up with their own props list?
Phil
Hmm, well, selfishly, the first word that comes to mind is a freebie that we have on our own website. A shot list template that you may have heard about or discovered I've promoted on Instagram or on Pinterest before. In fact, I think I've included it as one of our pre rolls in a previous podcast episode. But if you go to Phil Pallen freebies, we have this amazing Google Docs template, a shot list template that has obviously a one page layout that will help you plan the shots in your photoshoot. But we have a whole section on that page dedicated to listing out the props, so that you remember what to bring to your photoshoot.
And even just the exercise of thinking ahead of time, what could I gather, almost like go through your apartment or your house and go hmm, what do I use every day? Oh, this pen or this notebook, this dog you know who's always here when I'm working. The example you gave of Judy reading the LA Times, start to source things that are a part of your workflow, your rituals, your day to day and list them so you don't forget to bring them on shoot day. So that's the first tool
Lauren
Great completely agree, I'd say the best tool is the notes app on your phone and just make it your mission one day to decide that you are going to make note of every single thing that you touch and interact with that day. And it doesn't have to be pretty like your toothbrush, for example. I really, really want to get a day in the life of whoever is getting their photo taken. So no object is better than the others, at least for this brainstorming part of the exercise, collect and jot down then the objects that you interact with every single day. And dogs are included in that objects, way more than objects obviously. And then beyond that, I would start to look at that list and start kind of knocking down and axing out any that definitely you wouldn't want in the photoshoot. But what ideally what you're doing is you're kind of creating your own mini props closet that you can actually bring to your shoot, because you might not necessarily use every object, but you want the opportunity there to be able to use them.
Phil
I love that you listed toothbrush as an example. I don't think people would have thought of that. Can you give an example of how a toothbrush could be used symbolically in a brand photoshoot?
Lauren
Yeah, so I think I'm imagining a cute photo of someone holding up a toothbrush and smiling at the mirror and maybe the photos captured of their reflection and it could be for a motivational coach who talks about self talk and how you can they can help you start your day on a positive note.
Phil
Yes, that's a great example a toothbrush. If you think of it symbolically represents like you waking up early and get to it getting started, you know, routine, early riser, love your job, all of those types of things. Who would have thought just from a toothbrush. There you go. There's a fun prop example you might not have even thought of. Now along those lines, go through your day to day and think about what else you can grab that you may not have even thought of. Actually go through your routine we find that helps.
Lauren
Perfect now for step by step in terms of when it is shoot day, what you do with gathering your props. So we always recommend to consider your brand colors, but not be too matchy matchy. So you might want to be grabbing objects that actually are in contrast to your brand colors, or complement your existing brand colors. Our client Kate Payne had yellow as one of her brand colors. So she got a yellow folder and some yellow flowers around the house where we did the shoot, but she wasn't wearing a yellow shirt. Do you know what I mean? It's like subtly tying in the brand but not being or overboard or in a uniform. Now the most underrated objects I think that's not actually going to be in your photoshoot is a suitcase. I carry on suitcase and you can throw everything in there. I got that from you Phil, the suitcase thing.
Phil
That's my thing. I love just packing everything into a suitcase. Do you know I can't actually take all the credit for that because the first time I ever did it was when you and I were in Sweden. And we got brand photos done with our friend Erica. We loaded that case up with every possible prop. And it's amazing. We had some of our best brand photos taken because we had so many great props in those photos. In fact, I'll include one example of that in our blog post this week as well. We've got my God, we've got like over eight examples already.
Lauren
Yeah. And I think one last note on this topic is, before you do the shoot, you have your shootcase and it's full of all these different props, show your photographer and let them decide what objects to use in the photos. They're ultimately going to be behind the camera, and how everything comes together, so defer to them. If there's an object of extreme meaning to you that you have to have in the shoot, tell them but other than that, I would really let them decide about what should be used.
Phil
I completely agree you've already done the work to choose a photographer that has work in their portfolio that illustrates they're going to deliver to you what they've delivered to other people in the past. That's why you feel confident booking someone looking at their portfolio, trust their vision, don't micromanage it, make the information and explanation available to them on what you brought and why you brought it. But they're the creatives. You're essentially making their job easier and better by saying, here's a range of options to make these photos super creative. Now trust in them to execute, right, your job is to load up the shootcase, load that thing up with all the possibilities and let the creative do their work.
Lauren
There you have it,
Phil
Step by step.
Lauren
Yes, step by step, load up your shootcase, get to the shoot, or show your photographer, everything. Let them do your job. Enjoy your photos. There you go five steps.
Phil
That's how you do it step by step. So we've talked about that. We've talked about tools, examples. I love this, I think what a handy little resource we've created now, for you to listen through before your photoshoot. Props can be more exciting. They can be simple. They can be your toothbrush.
If you want visual references, examples for all of the ones we've talked about today, we have a blog post published with those examples. Every single one of them. I can't wait to hear what people think about this episode. We have never tackled this topic on its own. But I love that we've done that on social media. I'm @philpallen
Lauren
I'm @thelaurenmoore
Phil
#brandtherapy to continue the conversation. Let's continue that conversation. And if you've enjoyed this episode or previous episodes and you haven't done this before, you totally should leave us a review in the iTunes Store. This helps other people discover this podcast that we work very hard to create, five star, five star. And you know how this works, we'll be back next week with a new topic and new guests. Thank you for spending your valuable minutes with us right here on Brand Therapy.
Lauren
Bye
