Personal Branding Photography Checklist: What Photos Does Your Business Actually Need?

Where will you actually use your photos?

It’s the first question I ask before any session, and most people answer with one word: LinkedIn. Then they pause, and the list starts to grow.

The website, a speaker bio, the podcast they said yes to, the Instagram account they keep meaning to post on.

This personal branding photography checklist starts in the same place, with where each photo has to live. Outfits and backgrounds come later. Once you know a photo needs to sit behind a headline on a wide website banner, or fill a tall phone screen, we can plan for it in the room instead of cropping around it afterward.

In more than 30 years of photographing professionals, I’ve seen the same pattern again and again. Someone gets a lovely, tight portrait. Two weeks later their web designer asks for a horizontal image with room for text, and there’s nothing to send.

If you already suspect you need more than one portrait, my personal branding sessions are planned around exactly this kind of list. If one strong portrait covers you, start with professional headshots. You can read more about how I work with clients before you decide.

7 Essential Photos for Your Personal Branding Checklist

What Should a Personal Branding Photography Checklist Include?

A personal branding photography checklist should include a LinkedIn or directory headshot, a homepage hero portrait, a relaxed About page photo, an environmental or working portrait, a speaker or media bio portrait, a vertical image for social media, and a horizontal image with open space for text. In my experience, many businesses need only three or four of these.

The LinkedIn or Company Directory Headshot

This is the photo people see at the size of a postage stamp: LinkedIn, the team page, your email signature, a Zoom tile. It has to read clearly at that size, so the crop is tight, the background is simple, and your eyes do most of the work.

One practical note: LinkedIn shows it as a circle, and many team pages use a square. LinkedIn also lets you edit your profile photo after you upload it, which is one more reason I leave a little breathing room around the head so it crops cleanly either way. If you’re wondering whether one portrait can cover every platform, I answered that in can you use the same headshot for LinkedIn, your website, and bios.

The Website Homepage Hero Portrait

The homepage banner is wide and short, and your designer will almost always lay a headline across part of it. Of all the photos for your business website, this is the one I see cropped badly most often, so you need to sit to one side of the frame with clean space beside you for the words.

Ask your web designer for the banner dimensions before the session. It takes them two minutes, and it saves us from guessing where the text will land.

The Relaxed About Page Photograph

Your About page is where people decide whether they’d enjoy working with you. A polished portrait can feel a little formal here, so this photo is looser: jacket off, a real laugh, a softer angle.

The best ones rarely come from the first few frames. They tend to show up between setups, when someone jokes about not being photogenic and forgets the camera for a second.

The Environmental or Working Portrait

This one shows where you work and what you actually do: behind the desk, at the bench, beside the treatment chair, in front of your storefront or beside the van with your name on it. A home inspector in Montclair or a dentist in Hackensack gets more from one honest workplace photo than from a fourth studio headshot.

Before we start, clear the desk of client files and anything on a screen that shouldn’t be public. I’d rather spend five minutes tidying than retouch a confidential folder out of a good frame.

The Speaker or Media Bio Portrait

Event organizers, podcast hosts, and journalists will ask for “a high resolution photo,” usually on short notice. They want something with a little more presence than your LinkedIn crop, on a clean background that drops into any program or press page.

I usually shoot this one both vertically and horizontally, because one event wants a tall program photo and the next wants a wide slide. A confident posture with the arms folded or a slight turn works well here.

The Vertical Portrait for Social Media

Phones are tall, and vertical images use more of the screen. A horizontal portrait cropped down to vertical loses your shoulders and starts to feel cramped.

So we shoot it vertical on purpose, with enough room above your head that an app’s buttons and captions won’t land on your face.

The Horizontal Promotional Image With Space for Text

This is the workhorse for email headers, event banners, ads, and video thumbnails. You sit on one third of the frame, and the rest stays soft and uncluttered so a designer can add a headline or an offer.

It looks like a simple portrait until someone needs to put words on it. Then it becomes the most useful photo you own.

Not every business needs all seven. A consultant who never speaks at events can skip the speaker portrait, and a firm with a strict directory format may only need the first one. If you want to see why a single session can produce such different looks, I walk through it in why one professional needs multiple looks.

How to Build Your Personal Branding Shot List

Your personal branding shot list is just this checklist, filtered by your actual business. Go row by row, write where each photo will be used, and mark it essential or optional. Anything you can’t name a use for comes off the list.

Photo	Where it will be used	What it should communicate	Composition or orientation	Priority
LinkedIn or directory headshot	LinkedIn, team page, email signature	Competent and easy to talk to	Tight head and shoulders, crops to a square	Essential
Homepage hero portrait	Website banner	Who you are at a glance	Wide horizontal, subject to one side	Essential if you have a website
Relaxed About page photo	About page, newsletter	Personality and warmth	Looser framing, either orientation	Essential for solo businesses
Environmental or working portrait	Services pages, case studies, press	What you do and where you do it	Wider horizontal in a real workspace	Optional
Speaker or media bio portrait	Event programs, podcasts, press kits	Authority and presence	Vertical and horizontal, clean background	Optional
Vertical social portrait	Instagram, Stories, mobile posts	Energy and timeliness	Vertical, room above the head	Optional
Horizontal image with text space	Email headers, ads, thumbnails	Your face plus a message	Wide horizontal, subject on one third	Optional

Treat this as your branding photoshoot checklist on the day, too. When we finish a setup, we check the row off and move to the next, so nothing important gets left for the drive home.

Do You Need Headshots or a Full Branding Session?

If every essential row on your shot list is a head and shoulders crop, a headshot session is usually enough. If your list includes a website banner, a workplace portrait, or photos in more than one outfit or location, plan a branding session so each setup gets the time it needs.

The shot list answers this question better than any package description can. Count the essential rows and look at the orientations. When they’re all the same tight crop, keep it simple; when they’re spread across wide, tall, and on location, you’ll want the longer session.

What to Share With Your Photographer Before the Session

When a client sends me their website before we meet, I can usually see the problem within a minute: a stretched banner photo, an About page with no person on it, or the same headshot used five different ways. That short look saves us a lot of guesswork on the day.

Here’s what I find most useful to receive ahead of time:

• Your website link and the specific pages that need new photos
• Your shot list, with each photo’s intended use and priority
• Three words for your brand personality, such as calm, precise, and warm
• Preferred orientations and sizes from your web designer or marketing team
• Two or three examples of photos you like, even from other industries
• Any rules you work under, such as firm or compliance guidelines on imagery

Clothing is its own conversation, and I’ve covered it separately in what to wear for professional headshots. Bring your outfit questions along with the list, and we’ll match each look to the rows it serves.

Plan Your Branding Photography With Alex Kaplan

If you’re a business owner, consultant, or executive in Northern New Jersey or New York City, I’d be glad to look at your list with you before you book. For personal branding photography in NJ, my New Milford studio is the easiest place to start, and for professional branding photos in NYC, I also work from a studio near Penn Station.

Send me your shot list, even if it’s half finished, and we’ll work out which photos you need and which you can skip. You can reach me at 917-992-9097 or 201-834-4999, or book a call with me here.