What Do You Want Your Image to Communicate?

By Shea Swinford, Founder of The Personal Brand Studio

Most people come to a photo session knowing what they don't want. They don't want to look stiff. They don't want the smile they make when someone says “cheese.” They definitely don't want to see the same headshot they have been using for the last five years.

Those are useful things to know. But there is a better place to start: What do you want someone to understand about you when they see this image?

I ask this of executives, speakers, entrepreneurs, and people who are still figuring out how they want to show up. The answers are rarely “I want to look professional.” They tell me they want the warmth people feel when they work with them to come through. Or the experience they have earned. Or that they can lead a room and still be someone you can talk to afterward.

Now we have a reason to make the photograph.

Start with the person, then the place

An image never appears in a vacuum. It might sit in a tiny circle beside a LinkedIn comment. It might be the first thing a conference planner sees on a speaker page. It might introduce a leadership team on a company website. The place changes the job.

A close portrait can make someone easy to recognize on LinkedIn. A speaker image can give a planner a glimpse of the person at work. A founder's website may need photographs that show both the person and the way they lead a client through an experience. There is room for more than one image because there is more than one way people meet you.

Before we talk about clothing or background, I want to know: Where does this image need to work hardest? Then I want to know what you hope comes through there. Credible and approachable? Experienced and energetic? Warm and authoritative? You get to choose. My job is to help you make photographic decisions that serve that intention.

Notice what is already coming through

Sometimes the image you have is doing more than you realize. Your expression may feel open. Your eye contact may draw people in. The photograph may be easy to recognize even when it is small. Those are strengths worth keeping.

Other times, a small detail may pull the introduction in a different direction. A crop might leave no room for the gesture that makes you seem engaged. A setting might compete with you. A very formal photograph might work beautifully for one role and feel out of place on a page where you want people to understand your more collaborative side.

That doesn't make the image bad. It tells us more about its job and whether it belongs in that particular place.

The Authority Image Audit™ begins with your intention. It considers the image you are using and, where relevant, the words around it in your LinkedIn or website presence. The point is to see whether those pieces are helping people recognize what you meant to communicate.

Give your next image a better brief

Try this before choosing an image or booking your next session. Write down where you will use the photograph. Then finish this sentence: “When someone sees me here, I hope they recognize that I am ______.”

Now look at your image at the size someone else will actually see it. What helps that quality come through? What might be telling a different story? You do not need to solve the whole thing on your own. You do need to begin with the right question.

Your image can make the introduction. Give it an introduction worth making.

Take the Authority Image Audit™ and see whether what is coming through matches what you intended.

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