When you’re looking through photos to curate, what details do you focus on? Do you pay attention to what is “happening” in the photograph? Almost always that is what people do and that is why the subject of the photo catches your attention in the first place, even though you were not aware of this. Besides, you also check the technical quality of the photo to ensure that you use only the best photos that make you stand out from competitors. How does paying attention to technical aspects of a photograph aid in making your content curation more enticing? Let’s take a look at some pointers and see what might help!
MISTER COMPOSER
A photo of Antartica by Bruno Lassus – download here
Most people have heard of the Rule of Thirds in composition, such as using lines or creating “triangles” to improve how dynamic a photograph can look. What a simple and helpful trick, right? You can also check out some composition techniques on Peta Pixel! What does composition really have to do with curation, you may ask? Composing a photograph is one of the first steps a photographer would take while shooting because it can make or break your photograph. As a creative or marketer, you would benefit from evaluating which photographs have a better composition with the very same technique. Great composition can make even the most boring subject feel surreal, while poor compositions are the hardest to look at. It doesn’t matter if the subject is as strange as a UFO – it is your job to choose photos that draw the attention of the audience, long enough in order to trigger buying behaviour.
HOW IS THE ANGLE?
Paragliding by Aprison – download here
Angles in a photograph can propose a sense of “voice” – what kind of tone is the photo setting? For instance, this photograph lets you sense the height and feel the exhilaration of this subject. You would feel different when looking at this photo, compared to a photo taken at a straight angle of the paraglider. Moreover, angles are not only all about height, but also about depth. It might be a bit tough to understand depth though. Imagine the paraglider as the subject and you need to draw imaginary lines to the corner of the frames. In this case, depth is how close or far the paraglider is to you. Deeper in or shallower out, which angle do you think will be the best way to portray an experience? The photos you choose based on angles could significantly influence how quick your audience understand the message you are trying to deliver.
WHERE ARE YOU POSTING THEM?
Working by Jacoblund – download here
The medium you post your photos on can also have an impact on how well your photos are received. Will you use the photo on your website, blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or somewhere else? The aspect ratio of the images posted on each of these platforms is different. So, there is no one-size-fits-all way to curate photos for your marketing campaigns. Since social media is very competitive, you wouldn’t want to post a photo that is poorly cropped – such as getting rid of the good composition and angle originally composed by the photographer. Furthermore, social media platforms can be tricky, as they keep ‘improving’ their UI/UX which means changing the size and ratio of the images as well. You could keep yourself updated on the latest image sizes for social media platforms on links like this one.
A SENSE OF YOU
It is important to have a sense of you in your photos. Ask yourself, what makes you, you? We could apply this in curating photos in the same sense – what makes a curation yours? What makes people see it and think, without reading your name, “this is something you did”! If audiences could recognize you in seconds, imagine the benefit of that to your brand and business growth. While it is good to be creative and have the project portray multiple feelings, it could be more important to not go “overboard” so people don’t get confused, and if they could recall your brand better and faster. When your collection has an overall sense of uniform style, it creates a sense of unity and the story won’t feel disjointed.
CREATE SCENES
Umbrella lady by Tzido – download here
So, you ended up with countless photos. A helpful way to make the curation of your photos nicer is to lay them out by scenes. Scenes could be created based on anything. Let’s take an example of classifying based on the messages you want to deliver to your audience. You know the audience would better grasp your message if you deliver it in a timely manner, right? Each “scene” would be like a chapter in a story. Scene 1 could be morning, Scene 2 could be afternoon and Scene 3 could be night. Doing this allows you to create this flow down your projects. And the scenes do not have to be explicitly mentioned; it could be this invisible spine that allows people to read into the mood of the curation you did. This way, you allow the viewers to notice the flow themselves.
WORK IN A TEAM
A meeting by Dragonimages – download here
Another approach to putting a good collection together is by working in a team rather than just by yourself. Sure, it may take more time and effort initially to get everyone together. But, photography and visual content can be tricky as they are very subjective, creatives and marketers can’t make all their audiences like everything they post all the time. The audience decides sub-consciously what they like and what they want to buy. You might have gone through all of the steps to increase the likelihood that your audience likes your visual content, but you may not have all the answers. In such a scenario, getting your team in the meeting room is not a bad idea. You will get different perspectives and they will help you decide if the photos you curated are good to go. Your team can have different comments on what works and what doesn’t, and they may spot things that you missed.
BEFORE AND AFTER EDITING
Hatred by Kireev – Download here
If you are a creative or marketer, you might get a little too caught up with how editing can transform an ordinary photo into a really beautiful one. But, remember to not go overboard. Too much editing or poor retouching of a photo can make your picture incredibly hard to look at. One simple tip is to compare the before-and-after editing frequently, to check if your editing is realistic and natural. Additionally, consistency is also key in professional content creating. If you have one photograph that is edited very differently compared to the rest of the project, you could destroy the mood and style or twist the original concept of the project.
So, all in all, if you ever feel stuck while curating your photos, give these tips a try! We at Klaud9 will be happy if these tips were helpful for you. We have been helping many clients to curate in several ways – we hand-select stock photos that are submitted by our contributors to ensure clients only get quality photos, and we create mood boards for clients to review and organise their stock photos.
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