How to Get Extra Viewing Time for Your Photo - Interesting Characters, Eye Contact and Gaze, Layers and Good Graphic Design
There is good news and bad news for photographers about getting viewer attention for their work. Really, anyone at any level of competence can get their photos on a platform that will give them viewer attention opportunities. Photographers no longer have to depend on Gallery showings, book sales or magazine articles to show their work. So the good news is that the playing field for photographers is huge. The bad news is that how much time a viewer spends looking at a photo posted on social media is dramatically less than the time they would spend looking at a hard copy print.
I believe a ball park estimate for how long a viewer looks at an image on social media, in the absence of something that has attracted their attention, is about 2 to 5 seconds. As an Administrator for the Facebook group, Inspired Street Photography (ISP), I estimate I look at approximately 200 photos a day. If 5 seconds is spent on each one, that is two hours per week just looking at photos. The question of what does attract my attention enough to give a photo extra viewing time is something of interest to me, Time is of the essence. What will I give extra time to?
Interesting Characters
Photo by Monica Lord. Used with permission. You can see her photos on Facebook at Monica Lord and on her Instagram gallery at @almostgreennyc .
Naturally a character that is interesting to me, may or may not be interesting to you. But we could probably set up a focus group and come to some agreement about what makes characters interesting. For me, it is how they look, how they dress, and what activities they are engaged in. Beards, for example, are interesting. So are motorcycle folks. When Monica Lord posted this two-fer photo on ISP, she got extra viewing time from me. That is how I came to appreciate the reflections of the street on the motorcycle. Also, I noticed small details like the fact that her hero had earrings on. Then I got to thinking just how hard it is to take a good picture of a motorcycle rider. Where do you think she was standing when she took this? It is not clear to me how much time I blew through, but it sure was more than 5 seconds.
Eye Contact and Gaze
Eye contact is one of those controversial issues in street photography. The purists maintain that the moment the photographer gets eye contact with a subject is the moment when the photo is no longer candid. Here is the thing. There is a transitive property of eye contact at work when a viewer is looking at a photo. If the photographer has eye contact, the viewer feels like they have eye contact. That will inevitably cause most viewers to stop and look a little longer. My pragmatic advice is to get eye contact when you can. But wait! Eye contact is so powerful that even eye contact between subjects in a photo tends to arrest attention, as does an intent gaze. The more people gazing in the same direction, whether or not it is clear what they are gazing at, the more interest your image will generate.
Layers
Photo by Susan Schiffer. Used with permission. You can see Susan’s Instagram gallery at @susan.schiffer.
A layered street photography image has multiple subjects or elements across different depths of field in one frame. Layering is considered to be an advanced compositional technique. In order to have layers you have to shoot fairly wide. You have to have good depth of field so that everything in the frame is in focus. You have to have superb ground/figure separation, which means your subjects are separated from each other and the background. Susan Schiffer has mastered this technique. Her picture above was in the December Women’s Street Photography Exhibition in New York City.
Good Graphic Design
Photo by Carlos Antonorsi. Used with permission. You can see Carlos’ Instagram gallery at @c.antonorsi and on his website at www.CarlosAntonorsi.com.
I do think that graphic design appeals to a more limited audience. But for those of us who enjoy it, it is a big draw. Jim Goldstein defines graphic design in his blog, 5 Tips to Create Graphic Photographs, written for Digital Photography School, as “an image style that utilizes shape, geometry and color to resemble something that might be drawn or designed.” The photographer that I know who most consistently produces street photography with good graphic design is Carlos Antonorsi.
Next week, the blog will be on other aspects of a street photo that have the potential to get extra viewer attention
If you have a minute, check out the new Gallery, Grandpas on Duty.