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Sandra
Sandra

21\06\174 min

5 Types of Photographs that Will Evoke Emotions from Your Audience

Basic research will tell you that your customers are very impressionate when you include personalized and emotional images. Things like storytelling and visuals all help create a first impression on your customers. For instance, the booming e-commerce market was able to flourish thanks to the use of visuals as one of the factors. Visual content helped establish trust and an emotional connection of users to new products and services.

According to research, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than words. The average customer’s attention span is 8 seconds which has gone down since 2000 when it was 12 seconds. This means our focus is shifting. We’re looking for the quick, efficient and effective mode of communication. This means that the initial impression is much more valuable than whatever you have to offer to your clients. You have mere seconds to engage your customers.

If you can reach out to your clients and leave an impression, you can be sure that they’ll come back again and again. What you should be asking yourself is what types of images can you use to achieve this goal. How do you best promote your product or services using just visuals? We have an answer for you.

5 types of photographs that evoke emotions

1. Candid moments

These are the images where the photographer is a silent observer. It’s a well captured image that shows us something personal, quick and a bit snappy. It’s a moment in time where the subjects are unaware of being photographed. It makes the images relatable because we know they are not staged.

This type of photography is reminiscent to mobile photography that dictates current trends. These are the images that are taken on the move, snapped quickly and made presentable on our feed. We see these images and immediately interpret this is ‘friendly’ content.

5 Types of Photographs that Will Evoke Emotions from Your Audience

2. Sincere emotions

One of the hardest things (that is also a part of a photographer’s job) is to translate the emotions of people in a relatable way. Look for images that aren’t staged and translate a message that is a little bit more human. This type of photograph is directly linked to the previous one. Emotions that aren’t forced immediately give us a familiar reference and in turn we respond in a positive way.

5 Types of Photographs that Will Evoke Emotions from Your Audience

3. Creative compositions

Photographers are very familiar with the fundamentals of photography. It is those who successfully break the rules and show us something new and unusual that achieve the impossible. An unusual and creative composition gives us a sense of awe – it is something we haven’t seen before and something we’ll remember for a long time to come. Choose images that are unconventional because chances are, your clients will respond well to the creative twist.

5 Types of Photographs that Will Evoke Emotions from Your Audience

4. Babies and kids

There are a select few people that might be thrown off by images of kids and  babies. Majority, however, pick up on the characteristics of the tiny humans (an innate response that his also universal across many cultures), and process those images, radiating positivity. We can all relate to kids, to the carefree times in our life and this understanding certainly puts a smile on many people’s faces. They’re also funny and unpredictable, which is part of the charm.

5 Types of Photographs that Will Evoke Emotions from Your Audience

5. Baby animals

Now, if you happen to have a segment of the population that doesn’t respond well to kids and babies, your next best weapon is to shower them with the cuteness of baby animals. There are several explanations to this, one is similar to the reasoning of #4, and the other is that we have a deep-rooted instinct of nurturing. Either way, it’s an embedded response that you can tap into.

5 Types of Photographs that Will Evoke Emotions from Your Audience

These are all psychological theories and some assumptions. Science suggests that there are a few categories of images that are more likely than others to evoke an emotional response.  In an effort to brighten your day with this small collection of photographs, we hope it’ll help you in your next marketing campaign.

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    Sandra
    Sandra

    Sandra is a former student at the University of Arts London with a distinctive passion for art and design. Currently a writer and editor at Depositphotos covering all the latest topics on photography, design and marketing.