Hiring a professional photographer is often a daunting task because everyone has a camera these days (including you on your phone), or a friend that likes to take photos.

The first thing you need to realize is that you are not hiring a person with a camera, you are hiring someone with a vision and the skillset to interpret your desires into an image or set of images for you to market your business.

The good news is there are some simple ways to ensure you are hiring the right person for your job.

#1  Hiring a traditional photographer instead of a specialist.

• Like in any industry hiring a specialist in a field means that person has dedicated themselves to educating themselves and doing the best work they can for their clients, they know the ins and outs of what their clients need even when the clients don't.
• A brand photographer spends time learning about their client's needs and vision for a shoot and does a lot of prep work before a shoot. Unlike traditional portrait sessions, a brand session is much more than just a few pretty pictures.
• Be sure to check out their website and portfolio for variety. If you aren't sure if you're seeing enough variety you can always ask to see a full client gallery.

#2  Shooting without a plan.

• A good personal brand photographer will have questions for you and actions for you to take before your session. This is because the photographer isn’t going in blindly and hoping that they get the type of images you need. They know what they need to capture and how they’re going to do it. Things you may not be thinking about are all the uses for your images and the sizing required for specific images. Think about how long you need the content to last you, 3 months, 6 months, a year? Is it only going to be digital or do you need to print anything?
• I like to add in here if you are going to require multiple shoots throughout the year it's a good idea to hire the same photographer for consistency in style. If you already know you need several shoots talk about an annual plan.

#3  Is a commercial license is included?

• Brand photography falls into the category of commercial photography because you are relying on these images to make money. Most traditional photographers don’t understand the licensing of images and do NOT always allow you to use those images commercially. (ie. to grow your business).
• It does cost more to have a commercial license but the images are yours to use freely without it costing you more down the road. This is not to be confused with what larger corporations and brands need to pay because it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Normally, commercial use licenses vary in price depending on the location where the photos are used, distribution numbers and how many copies will be distributed, the channels used for distribution, how long you’ll be allowed to use them, and more. Honestly for smaller businesses this is often more than they need.
• Personal brand photography is a fairly new niche in the photography industry that gives you the commercial use license you need but at one easy price. 
• Side note, you should expect to pay more than a traditional photo session rate because of the licensing and usage you need.