Brand Photoshoot Tips for Women Who Hate Photos

After working with hundreds of women over 16 years, I've learned that hating the camera is a practice problem, not a confidence problem. Here's what helped me.

I just did my first brand photoshoot in over two years (and I still don’t love having my photo taken)

Here are a few of my favourites:

I’m a big believer in updating brand photos regularly, mostly because I really dislike having my photo taken 🤣 and I know the only way to get better at something is to practice.

Here’s the thing I want to talk about today.

Before I created my marketing academy, I built websites. For 16 years. Every single website needs at least one headshot and the ones who really want to see their business take off usually need a lot more. Beyond the websites, I’ve had hundreds of women come through my courses, join my memberships, and DM me with questions about getting their photos taken.

The one thing that has never changed in all those years is how much women dislike getting their photos taken. It ranks somewhere between bathing suit shopping under fluorescent lights and getting a mammogram. You know I”m right!

I’ve watched it happen over and over, coached women through it before their shoots, and given them every tip I have.

It’s not because they’re vain or insecure or any of the things we like to label ourselves as. It’s something else entirely.

My first few photoshoots, I fell for the self-criticism trap too. I’d get the gallery back and see every single thing I didn’t like about myself, from the way my chin folded to the smile that felt too big to the angle that made my arm look weird. I hated almost all of them.

Then slowly, I started to understand something.

When we were young, we had 12 or 24 photos on a roll of film. The camera came out for birthdays, holidays, and the occasional Sunday at grandma’s. We couldn’t see the results for weeks or even months, so by the time we got the photos back from being developed, we’d already forgotten what we looked like in the moment they were taken.

You know what didn’t happen because of that?

We never got desensitized to seeing our own faces. We never learned that it’s okay to take 25 photos to get one good one. We never figured out our angles or built the muscle memory of how to hold our body so we like what we see when we look back.

Anyone born after the age of digital cameras and smartphones has been doing this since they were old enough to hold a phone. They’ve taken thousands of photos of themselves, so they already know which side they prefer, what their smile looks like when it’s real versus performed, and how to tilt their chin so their jaw looks the way they want it to.

We didn’t get that practice.

This is not a confidence problem. It’s a practice problem.

It gets better the same way every other skill gets better, which is by doing it.

By my fifth shoot, something had clicked. Part of it was just having done it enough times that I wasn’t bracing for the gallery to be a disaster.

The bigger shift was something I’d been doing in private, where I’d pull out my phone when no one was around, take 20 or 30 selfies of myself, study them, and delete them all so no one would ever see. I needed to know what I actually looked like, not what I thought I looked like in the mirror where my brain had been editing my reflection for forty years. I needed to know which smile I liked when I saw it from the outside, which angle I wanted to favour, and what my face did when I laughed for real.

Then I practiced and practiced.

The women who tell me I’m just photogenic? I am not photogenic. Hand to God, I have so many photos that prove that I’m NOT photogenic. How can you look at these and THINK I’m photogenic? I’ve done this a lot.

Brand photoshoot tips that actually make a difference

Here are the things I wish someone had told me before my first photoshoot. These are the ones that made the biggest difference once I actually started using them.

Practice on your phone first. Alone. Delete everything.

Ten minutes a day is enough. Take selfies, try different angles, different smiles, different tilts of your head, and notice what you like and what you don’t. Delete them all so no one ever sees them. The point isn’t the photos themselves. The point is getting used to seeing yourself on a screen so that when a professional photographer points a camera at you, your face isn’t doing that frozen thing it does when it’s startled.

Choose a photographer whose editing style actually matches your brand.

This is the one most women skip. They hire whoever a friend recommended without ever looking at the photos that photographer has taken. If your brand is moody and rich, don’t hire someone who shoots bright and airy weddings. Look at their portfolio, look at how they edit, and make sure you like the look of their finished photos, not just the vibe of their Instagram grid. (I used Meghan from Mirror Form Photography for this shoot! AND I’ll definitely book her again!)

Hire a makeup artist who understands mature skin.

I used to think this was ridiculous because I know what I like and I can do my own makeup.

Here’s something worth sitting with for a minute. When we look at our own photos and start cataloguing everything we don’t like, we’re usually comparing ourselves to women on Instagram who have a hair person, a makeup artist, a lighting setup, a photographer, and a retoucher on speed dial. Jennifer Aniston is not waking up looking like that. There is a small village involved. We’re holding our regular-Tuesday face up against a fully produced photoshoot and wondering why we don’t measure up. The comparison was never fair to begin with.

So I started hiring a makeup artist to do my makeup for my shoots and the difference in how I felt was immediate. You will too, TRUST me.

Stick to solid colours for your clothing.

Solid colours photograph beautifully and prints rarely do. Black is fine (if you’re a winter season!), though I’d encourage you to think about your brand colours too. If you don’t own anything in your brand colour, you don’t have to wear it. Buy a scarf or grab a notebook in that colour and have it in the shot, sitting on the chair behind you or lying across your lap. It pulls the whole gallery together visually without you having to wear a shade that doesn’t suit you.

Don’t forget your nails (and your cuticles).

I know this sounds small, though your hands will be in a lot of the shots. Holding a mug, typing on a laptop, writing in a notebook, holding your phone. The one time I skipped this step, I barely used any of the photos where my hands were visible. Even a clear coat is enough.

Plan your shot list before you go.

Treat it like a wedding photographer would, where you write down every shot you want before the day arrives. Headshots, working at the laptop, holding your phone, laughing, looking off-camera, with your tools and props, without them. Bring the props that actually belong to your business, whether that’s your laptop, your microphone, your sketchpad, or your essential oils. The photos feel more like you when they include the tools you actually touch every day.

Take the photos now. Don’t wait.

This is the one I want to say loudest. So many women are walking around using a photo from five years ago because they’re waiting to lose 10 or 20 pounds first. When a client meets you on Zoom or in person, the jig is up. There are so many ways a good photographer can work with you on the features you’ve grown sensitive to, so just tell them what you’re worried about. They’ll know what to do.

Here are a few more from this shoot:

If you’re a woman who has been avoiding getting brand photos done because the idea of standing in front of a camera makes you want to crawl under your desk, I see you. I get it. I’ve been you. Most of the women I work with have been you.

You don’t have to love it. I still don’t.

You do get better at it though and the photos start to look like you.

xo,
K

I also have a post I shared a few weeks ago on how to clean up the clutter of too many photos or screenshots on your phone. You can read it here: