Have you ever felt excited about the results of your photos but ended up getting a different reaction from your audience? This is a step that can help you better manage your images.
Photography with the purpose of serving an audience, creating a visual impact, and/or serving a client’s needs is more than simply taking an aesthetically pleasing photo. While it can be said that people are often drawn to beautiful images, that does not always mean having images that make an impact and are thought-provoking. Whether in person or on social media, the availability of cameras and the ability to easily distribute images have made the efficiency or impact aspect more important.
Beautiful pictures don’t automatically work
No matter how technical photography is, the way people see our images will always be shrouded in subjectivity. Beauty itself is subjective, that’s why it’s impossible to get the same reaction and perspective from everyone viewing a photo. Effective visuals have a non-quantifiable aspect that not only makes the viewer look at the image longer but more importantly, somehow leaves an imprint on their mind.
Whether it’s the actual beauty of the images, the visual storytelling, the content, effective visuals not only inspire awe but also create a chain reaction in the viewer’s mind. For images specifically aimed at connecting with audiences for social or commercial purposes, such reactions are what we should aim for. The question is, how do we objectively approach such a subjective outcome?
Assuming a neutral point of view
The only way to objectively approach more effective photo creation and photography is to ensure that as many viewers as possible will have the same reaction to our images. It’s almost impossible to get 100% on this, but aiming for the closest possible is always good.
To do this, the aspect of managing your images not only involves making sure that the images are at their best in terms of aesthetics and composition, but more importantly, the photographer will have to remove all aspects of the image. individual subjective edge of the image. There are a number of factors that can cause us to be biased, sentimental, or emotionally attached to an image, and those factors can cause us to overestimate the effects of photographs on a wide range of subjects. The goal is not to eliminate aspects that can cause us to bias our images, but simply to ensure that even if the viewer’s perspective is not affected by all of these factors, the overall experience the viewer’s body will leave the necessary impact.
First, it’s important to identify all the reasons why you personally like or maybe even excited about the photo. List all the reasons why you, at this point, think it’s a good image to use or give, and determine which of them might not apply to a passerby. random. We often have emotional attachments to the subject of the photograph itself, be it a model you know if you are a portrait photographer, a favorite place (or kind of place of interest) if Whether you’re a landscape photographer or a memorable travel experience doesn’t have to be fully represented in one image. These elements, although relevant to the photo in context, may not be fully conveyed to the viewer.
The second is to simply consider the visual experience. Once you have put the subjective factors aside, then you can objectively examine the image in terms of balance, flow, harmony and all other visual design aspects that will determine experience when viewing photos. While style and taste will ultimately vary from person to person, the way you create and design your images through exposure, composition, and everything in between is also representative of the audience you want to see. towards. You certainly can’t please everyone, but aiming to connect with a specific audience that prefers a certain style is a valid strategy for a more effective image.
Our technical judgment of a photograph we take can also be an aspect that is not conveyed significantly to the viewer unless they are also familiar with and can understand how to achieve it. a certain visual effect. Unless everyone viewing your photos is also the photographer, you may be overestimating the impact the photo will have, which will result in you not getting the response you expect. An environmental portrait can be lit with 10 different lights to achieve vibrant results, but viewers with no background knowledge of portrait lighting will only perceive the image as “beautiful.” “. A minimalist long exposure landscape photograph taken in 10 minutes will have a huge impact on how landscape photographers see it, but the average person has no idea how to achieve such an effect. will eventually just find it smooth or clear.
The process that leads to pressing the shutter button, or maybe even the “save” button, can also have a huge impact on our perception of a photo. As a landscape photographer, it is often true that the journey to the vantage point is much more difficult than taking the pictures yourself. In terms of post-production, achieving the most refined image processing can be exponentially more complicated than it looks. While the stories behind these images are certainly worth telling, we had to see the images without the behind-the-scenes stories as we curated them in the hope of being more effective.
3 steps to refine and manage for more impact
1. Make your photos brighter
If you have a lot of time, take a few days or even weeks to get rid of any overwhelming feelings you may have about a particular image or set of images from a shoot, trip, or other. calendar or project. These emotions stem from the factors mentioned above that can obviously distort the way you see your output. Taking some time to recover from or even get over the source of those emotions, whether positive or negative, will certainly help you see your photos from a more neutral perspective as the emotions calm down or subside. At the same time, this gives you more time to identify areas that can still be improved upon in the image and to make choices about how you will process and render the output if you choose the image.
2. Practice mindfulness
As an alternative to the first option when you just can’t wait, being mindful of all your emotions throughout the creative process can be very helpful. By being mindful, you can identify and label the subjective aspects of how you see images and better filter them out. Again, the goal is not to get rid of such subjective aspects, but to simply look through them when you want to make a visual impact regardless of them.
3. Test your audience
You can test your audience in different ways depending on your end result. If it’s as simple as putting up an image on your social media accounts or digital portfolio, asking random people for their opinions and reactions can be a great way to check the waters before posting online. On the other hand, if your image is going to be printed, displayed, or used in mass media, using social media or a private group can be a good way to see initial audience feedback. , but remember not to do this if there is any undisclosed information. related agreements. Doing this allows you to reach a well-sampled test audience, especially if you have a lot of contacts on a given platform.
The secret to more impactful images is essentially curating your work in such a way that the images or image collections you put out maximize the overall visual impact and Make a significant connection with your audience. Doing this involves removing any elements that don’t apply to the random object and achieving a good impact even if you ignore those elements will increase your chances of turning around more and attracting more attention regardless of the purpose of the photos.
