True Colours: How to Make Your Brand Photography Pop with Perfect Colour Choices...

You've seen them scrolling through Instagram, you’re stopped in your tracks by the pop of fuchsia, a hugely successful business coach whose stunning images show her in funky, colourful locations with a warm smile and big promises.

Whether you want to work with her or not, you can’t help but think about the world she seems to offer.

Or perhaps you’re more drawn to the light, bright interiors and cool, stylish welcome that our other coach suggests. Although she looks professional in her neutrals, her warm smile and pops of colour are friendly and appealing; every time you see her posts, you’re drawn to them and would love to sit and chat.

Colour can do that!

The colour in your brand photography will draw people in, and potentially push others away - but that’s ok. The right colours communicate your brand personality, showing a little of what people can expect when they work with you. In this post, we’ll explore colour psychology in branding and how you can use colour in your photographs to help strengthen your message and your brand identity. Does that sound good?

Let’s Think About Your Brand Colours

How did you come by your brand colours? Not just the logo on your business card, but the whole colour palette that represents your business? Perhaps you picked your favourite colours, or they were meaningful in some way. Maybe you came up with a logo, and the rest just came from that.

Did you know, your brand colours are - or certainly should be - much more than just pretty shades? While it might be tempting to choose colours just because you like them (and yes, that does matter!), I’d always recommend working with a branding professional to understand the power of the colours you choose.

Understanding the psychology behind colour choices and how different shades and tones will demonstrate your position in the marketplace, a professional designer will help you develop a brand colour palette that reflects your values and resonates with your target audience. They’ll consider factors like:

●      The emotional response each colour evokes

●      Colour combinations that work well together

●      How your colours will appear across different media

●      Any cultural associations with specific colours

●      Your industry expectations and opportunities to stand out

Your brand colours are an asset, helping you stand out in your market and engage with the right people. And it’s important they resonate with you too, you’ll be looking at these colours regularly as you use them across your marketing. Whether it’s your website, social media, banners and marketing graphics, ensuring everything fits within your brand colour palette is crucial. And then, of course, there’s your photographs. Remember, your brand photography should reflect your company’s values and personality; we talked about this in our post, Unleash Your Brand Magic. Colour is key.

How Do You Use Your Brand Colours?

Having found your brand colours, how should they feature in your photography? This is where your brand strategy comes into play, something we looked at in our post Planning Power.

Some brands make their colours the star of the show. Think about how Cadbury uses their distinctive purple or how ‘Tiffany blue’ is instantly recognisable. When choosing colours for brand photography, do you want your signature hues to take control or be a support?

As we considered at the beginning of the post, there are two main approaches:

Colour as the focal point: Your brand colours can dominate the composition, creating bold, recognisable imagery. This works particularly well for brands with distinctive colour schemes that want to really focus on visual recognition.

For example, a wellness coach with a brand colour of sage green might create content where this calming colour appears prominently through clothing, backgrounds, or props. The colour itself becomes part of the brand story.

Colour as an accent: Your brand colours appear as thoughtful touches within a more neutral palette. This subtle approach works well for brands with a minimalist aesthetic or those wanting versatility in their image library.

A financial consultant might opt for a primarily neutral photography style with their brand blue appearing in small, deliberate touches – perhaps a scarf, a top, a notebook or a mug.

Are You a Brights Person?

Do vibrant, bold colours make your heart sing? If so, you might be a “brights person” – and your brand photography can reflect that energy!

Bright colours can create scroll-stopping content that grabs attention instantly. In a world where we’re all constantly bombarded with images, this can be a powerful advantage. Bold colour choices work particularly well for:

●      Brands with a playful, energetic personality

●      Creative industries where innovation is valued

●      Products or services that solve problems in unexpected ways

Brands like Innocent Smoothies and Mailchimp use bright, cheerful colours to convey their friendly, approachable personalities. These colours instantly communicate brand values without saying a word.

Using monochrome looks with a single bright colour can be incredibly powerful. Imagine a series of images where everything – the background, clothing, and props – uses variations of your signature colour. This striking visual becomes instantly recognisable as your brand.

If you’re drawn to vibrant colours, embrace them and be intentional about how you use them to bring recognition and emotional connection while avoiding visual overwhelm.

Or are subtle nods your thing?

Of course, not everyone wants their brand colours shouting from the rooftops. Subtle colour use can be just as effective and often creates a sophisticated, timeless aesthetic.

Using your brand identity colours as thoughtful accents within a more neutral composition creates more versatile imagery. This will work across multiple platforms while maintaining brand consistency. Here are some elegant ways to incorporate subtle colour touches:

●      Fresh flowers or plants, picking out your brand colour

●      Props and stationery such as notebooks, pens, mugs, and artworks

●      Accessories and clothing, scarves and jewellery or base layers bring out subtle pops of colour 

●      Digital colour accents, think about how colour appears on screens in your photos – perhaps your website displayed on a laptop or your app on a phone

Effective colour coordination in photos doesn’t always require bold statements, with your colours appearing as a thoughtful thread tying everything together rather than dominating the composition. The process of choosing colours for brand photography should start with your existing brand palette, but how prominently those colours appear is entirely up to your brand strategy and aesthetic preferences.

Dressing For Your Brand Photography

Your brand photography will be used across your website, social media, and marketing materials, so your clothing choices matter. Firstly, it’s important to be recognisable. Think about how you will present yourself when people meet you; what kind of image do you want to give? If you’re a personal trainer who normally works in sports clothes, wearing a suit for your photographs doesn’t really represent you. 

Consider Your Skin Tone

The best brand photography happens when the colours complement not just each other, but you as well. We all have unique skin tones, hair colours, and eye colours that naturally harmonise with certain colour families. Understanding your personal “colour season” – whether you’re a Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter – can help you decide how to use your brand colours within your photographs.

Spring Warm, clear colours with yellow undertone, think coral, peach, warm greens, and clear blues.

Summer Cool, soft colours with blue undertones, think rose pink, lavender, soft blue, and sage green.

Autumn Warm, rich colours with golden undertones, terracotta, olive green, teal, and warm browns.

Winter Cool, clear colours with blue undertone, true red, emerald green, royal blue, and pure white.

When your brand colours align with your natural colouring, magic happens – you look healthier, more vibrant, and more confident in your photos. But what if your established brand colours don’t match your seasonal palette? This is where thoughtful styling comes in.

Wearing Your Brand Identity Colours?

Complement, don’t compete: Choose clothing that harmonises with your brand palette. If your brand colour is a bright coral, wearing the exact same shade might be overwhelming, but a complementary neutral with coral accessories could work beautifully.

Create distance: If your brand colour doesn’t suit your colouring, put some space between it and your face with neutral layers (like a cream blazer between you and a bold colour), strategic accessories (keeping challenging colours away from your face), and thoughtful makeup choices that help bridge the gap.

Consider context: Your photos may be used against coloured backgrounds on your website, or with graphic elements in your brand colours. Planning ahead ensures your clothing enhances rather than clashes with these elements.

Create a capsule photoshoot wardrobe: Working with a professional brand photographer or stylist before your shoot, get some help selecting 3-4 outfit options that will work with your brand colours and provide versatility for different content needs.

Plan for longevity: While trendy colours can be fun, classic colour choices in your wardrobe ensure your photos won’t date too quickly. This is especially important for hero images that might remain on your website for a year or more.

Clothing is often one of the largest blocks of colour in brand photography. Whether you opt for dressing in your brand colour or something complementary, you’ll need to get it right.

Ask yourself the question: “Am I wearing the outfit, or is the outfit wearing me?” When colours overwhelm your natural colouring, they draw attention away from you and your message – not what we want in brand photography!

For help on preparing for your brand photoshoot, including colour coordination and styling tips, read my previous article How to Prepare for a Successful Brand Photoshoot: Stylist Tips with Gigi Vakilzadeh. Gigi is a brilliant stylist who specialises in helping business owners look their absolute best in brand photography, and you can find out more about her work on her website.

Let’s Create a Lasting Impression

Colour is one of the most powerful tools in your brand photography toolkit. Whether you prefer bold, attention-grabbing shades or subtle, sophisticated accents, the key is consistency and intention.

Your brand photography should tell a colour story that:

●      Reinforces your brand identity and values

●      Creates emotional connections with your audience

●      Makes your content instantly recognisable

●      Complements your natural colouring

●      Works harmoniously across all platforms

When you’re planning your next brand photoshoot, I’d always suggest taking time to discuss your colour strategy with your photographer. A professional brand photographer understands how to create images where colour works strategically to strengthen your brand.

As a side note, check out all those amazing go getting women in business that you admire and see how they use colour strategically and you will see exactly what I'm talking about.

I also really recommend checking out Fiona Humberstones' (AKA The Brand Stylist) take on colour psychology She has a fabulous free course on this and her book 'How to Style your Brand' covers this subject too, amongst many other fabulous things.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with colour in your brand photography! What colours represent your business, and how do you incorporate them into your visual content?

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....or if you want to chat through your options for professional photography for your business or how you might be able to use branding photos effectively in your business, I’d love you to get in touch. 

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