What Makes a Great Eye-catching Photo

Visuals, such as photos, illustrations, and videos, make highly effective memory tools and especially useful for things like brand recognition.

Advertising agencies, magazines and big brands know that their audiences cannot ignore powerful images, that they can have a major impact, or even change our moods and emotions instantly. When creating images, its important to understand this, and in particular, why the market needs them and how we can translate those needs into the photography that we produce.

Whether you are a food photographer wishing to increase your clientele, or a blogger needing to attract and keep more followers, understanding these fundamentals will increase the power behind your imagery.

Images tell a story and help us to get involved. They can also help educate us and can impact our decision making. A variety of studies have shown the importance of this type of storytelling and the impact it can have on us. In fact, one study found that it increases the levels of Oxytocin in the brain, the hormone responsible for raising feelings of trust and empathy.

You also need to know who you are talking to. By understanding your audience, and the images they respond to, you can effectively increase the success of your work. By researching the platforms and social media they are most likely to use, you effectively ensure that you are creating the right message, for the right people, at the right time.

And of course, all this can be achieved through the use of the right imagery for your target audience.

The #1 component of what makes a great eye-catching photo, is, and always will be, content. 

Eye-catching, appealing, delicious, interesting, sought-after, or unusual, in other words, anything that catches the eye ... and senses. Think about all the senses that people use to eat food - sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing (snap, crackle & pop!) and don't forget the last, perception - and try to incorporate these into your final pics. 

People access their senses through memory, so make your images so visually attractive that they cannot help but drool. Include beautiful textures and colors that are true and not yellowy or faded. Remember, you have to catch the eye of fast-scrolling viewers, so don't be afraid of a little bit of intensity. First impressions matter in this case.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to obtain a good photography/video editor if you're truly interested in producing top food imagery.

The aim of final editing is to make your photo stand out in the crowd. And the way to do that is by improving its dynamic range. Throughout my blog, you will probably notice that I will mention dynamic range quite a lot - in fact, I will probably nag you about it! If you want to grab people's attention, that is one of your main priorities.

Dynamic range is the measure between the maximum and minimum light and dark values in a photo. This is what the subconscious eye sees and recognizes as appealing, and the way to improve this is to increase the highlights and shadows of your image. Check your photo's histogram graph before and after, and you will see the marked difference between a flat photo (low dynamic range) and one that has been adjusted.

Your editor, therefore, needs to have the capacity not only to increase/decrease elements such as brightness, contrast, and saturation - but more importantly, the highlights and shadows of your photography.

To produce the most tantalizing food photos and videos that will grab potential followers' attention and stop them from scrolling past your work, you need to stop them dead in their tracks. 

So just remember three things: content, styling and editing. Of the three, content is always king, and the other two should embrace that and add to it, rather than take away from it. 

When planning your shoots, make sure you make these three components a priority even before you start focusing on your recipes because, sometimes, they may entirely change what you make or how you should shoot it.

And lastly, another little nag from me, improving the dynamic range in your photos, whether you are selling photography or adding them to your blogs or social media pages - will grab that often elusive attention and look appealing to the subconscious eye.