The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and Attachment Parenting Blog. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.

Is that photograph really going to work?

Most of us bloggers think in terms of words rather than images. It goes with the territory, I think, given that most of the smart blogs are written, not recorded, videotaped, or even produced in a graphics editor.

If you're working on a marketing campaign, advertisement, or considering adding some photography on your site -- a portrait of either yourself, someone you know or a model -- is the picture going to convey the image and idea you desire, or will it detract from the site?

As a photographer myself (see my portfolio at Colorado Portraits), I think a lot about portrait work myself, which is why when my friend and colleague Don Crowther of 101 Public Relations wrote about this topic, I was darn interested in seeing what he had to say.

In his blog posting Tips for Using People Photos That Get Results, Don offers up the following criteria for the most effective possible images for advertising or publicity campaigns

A picture of a woman
Mid to late 20's
Attractive, though not necessarily sexy
Dressed nicely, but not sexy.
Smiling lightly, though not a toothy grin
Ideally her body should be turned at a bit of an angle to the camera
Her eyes should be looking directly into the camera

The last point, about the eyes, is particularly important. As Don explains "there's something, particularly in men (eye-tracking research) that shows that our eyes are drawn to eyes that are looking at us. So a model looking into the camera ... draws your eye to hers."

There's a lot more detail and some pretty darn interesting theory in Don's original blog entry, so I encourage you to go read it.

Link: Tips for Using People Photos That Get Results

Then come back here and tell us what you think!

Posted by Dave Taylor at July 2, 2006 10:24 AM

Comments

The author says that the photo content marketing tips have "something to do with young childhood experience of wanting mom's approval and later life experiences of getting checked out from across the room."

That could well be true, but we seem to be missing something of people's motivations that probably has a major impact here: most people see themselves as good and certain advertising (especially visual) appeals to that desire for goodness. They do not want to be attracted to blatantly sexy advertising (regardless of whether they actually are or not). Being drawn to the "motherly" type of photo makes many feel wholesome.

As for the eyes, I agree completely. A photographer friend of mine does not like shooting close up face shots showing little but the eyes, because for him it does not say anything, it tells no story. He only takes them because his boss wants them. I disagree, though. We should ask ourselves why eyes and faces have so much appeal (as is shown in the above research). I love reading eyes and faces in photos, and I am probably not the only one out there. Eyes remind us of our own stories, people we know, and certainly tell stories on their own; the eyes are a wonderful communicator of the human condition.

Posted by: Cooper Strange on July 8, 2006 3:25 AM

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