Last week, it was team picture day at the No Brainer offices! The lovely Kat Hannon, a Cheshire based photographer came in and we had great afternoon posing in front of the camera. Although the experience was amazing fun, there was a much more important purpose for the photoshoot.
In a professional or business environment it’s vital to have high-quality, professional images that your business can use, whether it’s for your website or for marketing. A great photograph will tell a story and it is undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools you can use to portray a message.
The importance of understanding what makes a good photo can be the key to ensuring your story is being heard in a world that is flooded with noise.
Social media has an impact on the way we consume information. Recent trends show that our communication is increasingly becoming visual, from emojis to memes and GIF’s, we all use images as a way to communicate.
The science behind it
Most of the information we look at is visual and our brains can consume this much more quickly than text. According to studies, 90% of information that is transmitted to our brain is visual and this information can be processed in the brain 60,000 times faster than text can.
What makes a good photograph?
When deciding if a picture is worth using there are three key things to consider;
- Purpose – The traditional ideas of photography don’t always have a place in modern day media, for example, what may technically be a good image in terms of lighting and composition, might not be fit for purpose. Therefore, it is important to first decide on the intended purpose of your image.
- Platform – Considering where the picture is going to be shown is really important. Different images will be more effective on different platforms. For example, if you were introducing a team member on your own website, a headshot with a white background works best. Whereas, if you were introducing a team member in a news release the image would need to tell more of a story, so you’d need to think about backdrop and branding for example.
- Quality – In general you want to always use the best quality image. The image needs to be in focus and the focal point should always be the person or product you wish to show. Your media represents you and your business, so an unprofessional image may send a negative message about your services.
Professional vs amateur
Photos are more valuable than ever and so the cost of hiring a professional photographer is much more justifiable. As we said earlier, quality is key especially since images are a huge part of your brand identity.
We’re all trained to do our own photography, but we felt it was important to go for that expertise, so as part of her day with us, Kat took some headshots for the website and did a fantastic job. The process was easy and fun, and we have come out with professional looking, high-quality images which we can now use across multiple platforms for the foreseeable future.
With smartphones evolving like they have, we all carry cameras around with us and often the best pictures can’t be planned. A photo taken on your phone can absolutely be used in the right situation so don’t be scared to snap away! It’s really common in journalism, especially for breaking news, for the pictures to have been taken by members of the public on their phones.
Do you agree with the importance of a good photo in today’s digital age? How do you snap your shots? Let us know! @nobraineragency.
