I don’t know about you but I like to have people stick around spending time looking at my photos. Now, I suppose there are photographers out there that shoot solely for their own gratification and never share their images for whatever reason. However, if we go on the assumption that photographers are artists that have chosen the camera as the medium, then it stands to reason that said photographers like to have people admire their work; I for one as an example.
Having said that, we can’t expect the viewer to spend very much time looking (unless they are wives, mothers, aunts, and sometimes even siblings) unless we give him something that makes it worthwhile; people just don’t have the time anymore.
One of the best ways is to add an editorial slant to your composition, and I talk about this a lot both in my online class with the BPSOP and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place.
Ok, so what do I mean by editorial? The word editorialize means to express or form an opinion; to ask the viewer to pose a question.
If you go to the post, you will see I have added a slide bar so you can go from one photographic thought to another. I shot the swing first by itself, then added one of my grandkids shoe. This concept is predicated on the idea of making the viewer an active participant. In other words keeping him involved will keep him around longer. This is about taking control of how the viewer perceives and processes information we give to him in the form of a photograph.
When you look at the swing by itself, you’re looking at a fairly interesting image mostly as a result of the dramatic way it’s backlit, the texture of the grass, leaves, and the shadow.
When you use your cursor to move the slide from left to right, it reveals an entirely different photograph. Simply by adding a red sneaker, I ask the viewer to raise a question. What question do you think it conjures up?
To me it asks: Why is that one shoe there? Why just one? Who does it belong to? What happened to make him forget or lose one shoe? Was he hurt? Is he going to into trouble? Etc.,etc.
So next time you’re out shooting take some props with you and try to add an editorial element. Remember that you’re an artist whose camera on a tripod is the same as a blank canvas on an easel; you’re a painter, so paint.
-BPSOP Instructor: Joe Baraban
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