Find out more about our Personal Brand Photography Editor Emma Marshall

Emma uses her well-honed visual storytelling skills to put the ‘real you’ into the picture in a way that resonates with your clients and helps you meet your business goals. Her own life goals are to make a difference to others; to make a good living doing work she loves; and to have a life full of adventures.

What sparked your passion for personal brand photography?

As a portrait photographer, I’m endlessly fascinated bypeople and what they get up to. I love working one on onewith my clients and communicating their stories throughphotography. I’m often hired to make profile portraits forpeople who run their own business and increasingly Icould see that entrepreneurs needed much more than aheadshot to really tell the story behind their businessand their passion for what they do. I saw that I could addlots of value by using my skills in portraiture andphotographic storytelling to help people tell their storyeffectively. With personal brand photography I can reallyhelp them raise their online game and contribute to theimpact they’re making in the world.

In such a digital world, what advice would you give to people using camera phones to take photos of themselves for social media?

The social media world seems to demand that we keep itupdated 100 per cent of the time! We don’t always havea professional photographer on hand but with a fewsimple tricks, you can really improve the quality of yoursmartphone photos. First: clean the lens! Use amicrofibre cloth - you’ll be amazed at how much crisperyour images are. Second, turn off the flash. Your phonecamera flash will never make anything lookgood. Instead, get outside, or stand close to a lightsource. If you are taking photos outside, bright sunshineisn’t your friend! It causes harsh shadows and squinting.You’ll find much softer and more flattering the light inthe open shade. Finally, clear the clutter - findbackgrounds that are a single colour or texture. Phonecamera lenses are small and this means that anythinggoing on behind you will be in sharp focus and verydistracting.

If you follow these tips your images will definitelyimprove. As a bonus tip I’d say avoid posting too manyarms-length selfies - get someone else to follow thesetips and get lovely flattering portraits of you!

What is the 1 area of your own personal brand that you would like to improve?

I’d really love to achieve greater consistency with myonline personal branding. I’m currently going through astreamlining process at the moment, where I’m working tobring the different areas of my work into alignment witheach other, so that it is clear and consistent across theboard, in terms of message and design. This can’t happenquickly enough right now as I’m juggling multiplewebsites and social profiles and it can be quiteoverwhelming to manage as I'm sure you can appreciate!