Five Ways to Make Your Photos More Compelling

Learning photography is a never-ending quest. Most of us are hoping to make our photos appealing to our audience. So what follows are five approaches we can employ to help achieve that.

1. Being Formulaic Isn’t a Bad Thing

The term “formulaic” typically refers to compositions that follow predictable patterns, structures, or tropes. Consequently, one of the significant criticisms of every art form comes when it is formulaic.

Formulaic photos often prioritize popular or commercial appeal over originality. For example, almost every county here in the UK, and probably where you live, will have photographers producing pretty landscape photos that are for sale on the walls in coffee shops and hotels. The images are not psychologically challenging and will end up brightening a corner of a living room and remind the visitor of their happy visit.

Although some people turn their nose up at it, I argue that there’s nothing at all wrong with pleasing a mass audience. After all, pop music is often formulaic. But, by definition, it is popular because people like it. It is easy to listen to and dance along with.

Similarly, many novels and movies follow the same basic pattern. They feature an underdog who faces a series of traumatic events, sometimes including the death of their mentor. They attempt to fight against the malevolence that threatens them, with the worst crisis happening just before the end, when a dramatic last-minute turn of events saves the hero.

Formulas also apply to reality TV, talent shows, comedy sketch programmes, and even the news. It makes them easy to watch because they are familiar and meet the viewer’s expectations.

Likewise, those café-wall photos will have a formula. They feature some well-known landscapes, are nicely composed, usually cohere with the Rule of Thirds, and have strong lead-in lines. Furthermore, they often feature the warm lighting of dawn or sunset and either have intense, striking colours or gentler pastel shades. People like them because they make the viewer feel good. Furthermore, photographing them will have brought joy to the photographer. Who can argue with that?

2. Show the World Differently from How Others See It

Position your camera’s lens in a spot where the human eye doesn’t typically look. The famous war photographer, Robert Capa, famously said that if your photos are not good enough, you weren’t close enough. That is very true.

An exercise I often do with my clients is to use a wide-angle lens and photograph a wall light from twenty paces. Then I ask them to halve the distance and shoot again. They then repeat that, halving the distance each time, until they are close to the lamp and it nearly fills the frame. Although it is not the most exciting of photos, the final image is much more interesting than any of the earlier shots. Please give it a go.

I also walk them up the pier and instruct them to shoot the scene at various heights. Invariably, they prefer the images that were shot close to the ground and not at eye level.

For the same reason, telephoto and macro photos hold our interest because they reveal details that our eyes can’t see.

It’s one of the reasons why sunrise photos work. Apart from the beautiful, low-angled golden light, sunrise happens when most people are not outside.

3. Find Unusual Subjects

Just as we are trying to put the lens away from its usual position, finding unusual subjects makes the photo more interesting.

It’s not as challenging to do as you may think. The thing to remember is that, thanks to social media, your audience is likely to be worldwide. Therefore, where you are is unusual to people who live far away.

I live in a small town on the coast in the Northeast of England. The population here is primarily white, and the rows of Victorian buildings are made from sandstone. Therefore, I get a kick out of seeing photos of towering cityscapes, diverse skin colors and cultures, and mountains, because they are all uncommon to me.

Equally, just down the road from me is a nearly 900-year-old castle. I see it every day. For me, it is something I take for granted, whereas a friend in the US was amazed that I could visit it and walk around inside. Likewise, the island just off the coast from me, which is filled with puffins and terns in the summer, is alien to my friends in Nebraska.

4. Chase the Light

Light quality is probably the most crucial element in photography. There are numerous books written about this topic, and it is worth researching. It directly affects how a scene is perceived and how effectively a photographer can convey mood, texture, and depth.

Various qualities of light evoke different emotions. For example, soft light (like you will get on an overcast day) suggests a gentle, calm mood. On the other hand, a harsh light (like midday sun) feels intense or dramatic. Meanwhile, the golden hour light (just after sunrise or before sunset) suggests warmth and romance,  making scenes feel cozy or nostalgic. On the other hand, cool light can feel clinical or serene.

A direct, undiffuse side light adds contrast and shadow, helping to separate subjects from backgrounds and giving a three-dimensional feel to a two-dimensional image. Thus, side lighting can enhance textures and reveal surface details, which is excellent for landscapes, architecture, and portraits. In the meantime, flat light (like front lighting) minimizes shadows, which may help reduce blemishes in portraits; however, it can make scenes look less dynamic.

Light can be used to guide the viewer’s eye and add emphasis, with bright areas usually attracting more attention. Then, shadows can hide distractions or add mystery. Spot lighting can be used to accentuate both highlights and shadows, as it isolates a subject from its surroundings.

5. Tell a Story

It’s one of the most complex concepts for many novice photographers to grasp. Telling a story through photography is so much more than just capturing a moment. It’s about conveying emotion, context, and narrative.

Decide what story you want to tell. For example, it could be a personal journey, a cultural event, a mood or emotion, or a series of images all on the same theme. Having a clear idea of your intention helps guide your choices in composition, lighting, and the subject matter.

Using composition, you can guide the viewer to the essential parts of your image. You could use frames within the image, such as trees, windows, or arches, to isolate your subject. Leading lines draw the viewer’s eye through the image, and choosing where you place key elements within the frame can affect how the viewer perceives them. Furthermore, you can add juxtaposition by contrasting elements to add tension, depth, or scale.

Furthermore, people’s expressions, reactions, gestures, movements, and body language can capture emotions and interaction, and are all possible storytelling tools.

Creating a sequence of photos can also increase narrative flow. A collection of related photos is stronger than the sum of its parts. You can think like a cinematographer and shoot wide, mid-range, and then close. Alternatively, you can create a set of photos of similar but subtly different images.

Finally, if you edit your photos, do so with intent, adjusting tones to match the mood you are trying to convey, and crop the images to draw attention.

A Bonus Approach

This brief overview suggests ways to make your images more compelling. It’s intended to serve as a starting point and a reference for researching the topics. All of those can be expanded significantly beyond a 1300-word article. As with every skill, they need practice.

However, there is something important to remember: however compelling your photos become, there will always be those who don’t appreciate your work. The internet has more than its fair share of those who will be ready to cast aspersions on your work with uninvited and uninformed critiques. It’s widely recognised that they are invariably those with delusions of mediocrity, trying to make up for their failings and lack of talent. Nevertheless, there is a lesson you can learn from them: you will never make your photography compelling for everyone. Consequently, my bonus approach is that your most important audience is you. If you like what you are doing, that is all that matters. If someone else likes it, well, that’s a bonus.