[Two white women wearing sweatshirts looking at a laptop and a tablet. There are stock photos on the screens of both devices.]
How to choose good images and connect with your target audience
Knowing how to choose good images for an advertising campaign, blog or social network, is one of the most important steps. Regardless of whether the image will be used as part of a design, or as the first photo in a media article, it will be one of the items to draw attention to your narrative.
To achieve this goal, it is not enough to simply pick a high definition picture – it is necessary to choose suitable photos that connect with your target audience, attract their attention and transmit the narratives aligned with your goals.
See below seven of our tips on how to choose good images and enrich your campaign’s visuals:
1. High definition matters
There’s nothing like a low-definition image to convey a lack of professionalism. Therefore, while it isn’t the only important thing to consider when choosing a good image, high definition is key. The only exception to this would be if the objective of your campaign calls for the use of low-definition images – a specific and rarely-encountered scenario.
2. The image should be relatable to the target audience
When selling a service, product or story, your target audience needs to see it as something that fits into their life. A good way to do this is to use images that display familiar elements. These elements can be faces with local features, clothes, climates, decoration items… When considering how to choose good images, keep in mind that every detail matters and helps towards creating this connection.
3. Remember diversity
Here on the Sherlock Communications Blog, we have already talked a few times about the importance of diversity in campaigns. Creating campaigns using images of exclusively white-skinned people in ethnically diverse countries such as Brazil can reduce the identification factor, and lead to other problems.
4. Good images convey the appropriate narrative
An image is not made up of text, but it can be read. The position of the characters, their facial expressions, the positioning of objects – everything conveys a narrative, and it needs to be a cohesive one. So before you settle on an image, take the time to analyze what story it is telling, and whether this narrative aligns with your goals.
5. Pick the right orientation
Although it is possible to adjust and crop images to the required format, in general, it pays to choose images with the appropriate orientation (vertical or horizontal). This way, important elements won’t be left out and the image will seem complete.
6. Beware of overediting
As a rule, when we think about how to choose good images, highly-saturated images with strong or unnatural colors are not recommended. Of course, depending on the purpose and thrust of the campaign, this can vary. But in general, photos that have been edited with balanced saturation and contrast are your best and safest option.
7. Pay attention to people's expressions
[A white man wearing a beige blazer. He holds a phone in his hand and appears to be yelling into it. His expression is exaggerated and unnatural.]
Forced facial expressions and exaggerated body language in photos can come across as strange. In addition, they can make people laugh, so it’s totally understandable if you have an adverse reaction to the image above. When used in a serious context, images of people with exaggerated reactions can damage the way a target audience will view your brand. A safer choice is to opt for photos of people with facial expressions that really seem sincere.
Extra Tip 1: be careful with the laws of the target country
The concept of “fair use” that exists in the United States does not apply in many countries. In Brazil, for example, using a copyrighted photo, even in a journalistic context, can result in a lawsuit. It is important to get to grips with the copyright laws in effect in the country where the image will be displayed, to avoid any problems.
If you need images that are cleared for commercial use, but don’t have a large budget, you can rely on sites like Pexels to source the right images.
Extra Tip 2: make use of available image description resources
Images can also be used to communicate with the members of your audience who have some kind of visual impairment, such as reduced vision or complete blindness. For the content of the image to reach these people, it is necessary to use image description resources, such as hashtagss or additional resources on social media. In addition, inserting alt-tags in images on websites can also be beneficial for SEO.
These tips on how to choose good images for your campaign will make it easier to filter the best options from the thousands of stock images available to you. In the end, attention to detail will make all the difference.
