A Thousand Words is Worth a Good Picture
Do you wish your blog post images were more engaging and drew the reader into the text? Check out my six steps for selecting and composing great images for your writing.
Rather read than watch? Transcript below.
Video Transcript
Hi, this is Justin from Justin Kerr Design. And I'm making this video to talk to you about how I source images for the articles that I write, how I source images for articles that other people write, and how you can do the same just by keeping in mind a few key principles.
Use a Quality Image Source
So to begin with, I want to talk a little bit about where I source my images. My preference is always for my clients to create their own custom images, but that's not always possible either because there's no budget for it or they provide a service that is not easy to produce custom photography for. So stock photography is certainly a viable option.
I have no problem with stock photography, as long as it's quality stock photography. And most importantly, that when you select an image that it's appropriate for the context of the writing, which is why I'm calling this post, “A Thousand Words is Worth a Good Picture.”
So some of my go-to sources are iStockphoto.com, which is a great stock photo resource. It is a subscription-based service, but the selection is really good and the pricing is reasonable. Two other sources that I use: one is Pexels, which is a great resource for stock photography. It's free, for the time being, as well as unsplash.com, another free stock photo resource. Now, the reason I like these sources. other than being free, is that they also provide some imagery that you can't necessarily find on more traditional stock photo sites like I stock or army or Shutterstock. And if you're looking for editorial images or just images that are a little bit outside of the norm, Unsplash and Pexels are great resources.
Read the Text
So talking about how to source an image for a blog that you've written or an article that you've written, the first thing to keep in mind is “what does the text say?” And I think some designers will simply select an image that looks cool and has an interesting visual aspect to it, but it doesn't necessarily tie it to the article or the text. And my philosophy is that the imagery should always reflect the text. The text should reflect the imagery. They should be playing together like musicians in a band.
So, in this example that you're seeing here the text is talking about how to rebrand and specifically how to rebrand your organization if the name of your organization has changed. And the essence of this article is giving you a how-to-do-this, but also trying to alleviate your anxiety about this thing happening because changing the company name, especially a large company, can be complicated.
It can be a complex process, which produces a lot of anxiety, a lot of concerns. And this article talks about how this company can walk you through that process and how you come out successful on the other end.
Select a Keyword or Phrase
Now, the image that was selected here is some Chinese lanterns floating in the water, which is a beautiful image, but it really is not connected to the article in any way. So you want to read the text, you want to know what the article or the blog post is about so that the image can reflect that.
And once you've got the gist of the article, you want to select some keyword, keywords or key phrase to play off of when you're doing your image search.
So in this particular article, I narrowed in on some of the elements in the text, specifically in the headline about this process being a challenge, and if something is a challenge, it could produce some anxiety around the process. And so I decided that I was going to focus on two elements here, the whole idea of a name change, and also the idea of something being rebranded. And I also wanted to play a little bit off of the anxiety. So I did a couple of different image searches. And let me just bring those up.
So the first thing that I focused on was the name change. And so I did some searches for the typical, hello-my-name-is badge that people wear when they go to different events. And I found a great image of this business executive wearing a name badge and zeroed in on just the part of the name badge that you would recognize instantly from across the room, which is the hello-my-name-is.
In a different iteration of this. I focused more on the anxiety that you might feel about going through this process. So I found a great image of someone looking just very anxious.
In the next one. I again, played off the name tag, but found this great image of a baby with the name tag on and, you know, sort of a little bit of play on, “Hey, I'm new here and this is who I am.” So going through a name change, or a rebrand does produce a new brand, you know, a new look. So playing off that aspect of it.
And then the last one, I think it was probably the most arresting image, I'm playing off the idea of a name change and how that's a new identity, something new from the existing or something new from the old. And I found this great illustration that sort of captures that idea.
Know Your Brand Voice
Now, once you have selected your keyword, your key phrase, and you start doing your image search, the other thing that's important to keep in mind is knowing your brand voice, what's the voice of your brand? Is it conservative sort of buttoned-down, very businesslike? Is it more playful? Is it avant-garde? Is it kind of out there? Is it outside the norm? You know, does it even go to the point of where there's a little bit of shock value?
It's important to know what your brand's voice is because the text of the article or your blog post should reflect that voice and the imagery should reflect that voice. So when someone comes here, they understand right away, oh, this is a pretty buttoned down, you know, businesslike site and the imagery isn't going to go too far, a field from that voice.
And so in the examples I have here, you know, this first one is probably the most buttoned down and the voice of the article. while it's conversational it is not what I would call, you know, loud or avant-garde or, you know, outside the norm. So we want to keep the imagery fairly straightforward and fairly conservative in its approach. So, the first two, I think, are within the brand voice. This third one might be maybe a little too playful, a little too tongue in cheek for this particular brand voice.
And unfortunately, as much as I love this image, this one's really outside the brand voice. So it's important to know that personality and that voice of your brand so that you're looking for imagery that'll match that.
Consider the Subject Matter
The other thing is the subject matter. And when I'm looking for imagery and I'm trying to match it up to the content, I often look for the human element. It's not always necessary. Sometimes there's a great abstract or, you know, picture of a natural environment that really nails what you're trying to say in the article. But I happen to like the human element in the imagery that I use only because I feel there's an instant emotional connection there.
And when someone is coming to a landing page or to your blog post for the first time, there's an instant human connection. When they see a human person or a human element in that image, the imagery is the first thing most people see, they'll see it long before they read the headline long before they see anything else on the page.
So it's important to make that connection. And I feel like the human form, especially the face, often makes that instant connection to people. And who doesn't like babies? And, you know, I could have used a puppy in here as well, but there's definitely an emotional hook that you can achieve with an image. And when you do that, now you're drawing the reader in, you're drawing the viewer in and you're able to engage them quicker in the text.
Compose Your Image
The other important thing is composition. So you may find a great image and you think, “Wow, this is the one I want to use,” but think carefully also about how you compose the image and how you crop it, because that can make a difference between an okay image and a really engaging image.
So for example, this one that I used here of the young man, looking a little nervous, a little anxious, I sourced from, iStockphoto. Now here's the original image. And you can see that there are two people in this picture and he's actually in here twice. So he's kind of yelling at himself, but I thought using both people in here was a little too straightforward. And also now I'm personifying the process of the rebrand.
And what I really wanted to do was really just focus in on the face of the person on the left and by eliminating the rest of the image and cropping and very tight. You now have an image that's not only a little bit more intimate because you're now close. This is a closeup, but you also really don't know what he's looking at. You just know that he's concerned, he's anxious about something over to his left and you don't know what that is.
And that actually increases the tension a little bit more because now you don't know what the subject is you do from reading the headline, you know, that the articles about, you know, rebranding and name changing and that whole process, but in the photo, you just know there's something over there that he's very anxious about. So it kind of heightens the tension of the photo.
Final Thoughts
So hopefully that gives you a good idea of the process that I use when I'm sourcing images for a particular piece of content and how you can do it too.
Just keep in mind using a good image source, a good stock photography image source. Even if you have to pay a little bit to get it, it's worth it.
Make sure you read the text, you know, what the text is about so that you can match up an appropriate image, find those keywords or phrases in the text, or even in the headline that will help you do more targeted search and find that right image.
Know your brand voice, make sure that the personality and the voice of the image is matching up with your brand.
Think about the subject matter and how people might respond to it.
And also think about composition and how you want to compose the image, how you want to crop it, how you want to position it.
And if you keep those things in mind, I think you'll be much more successful in finding those kinds of images and using them as a way of drawing in the reader, engaging them in your content and just providing a much better experience for the reader.
Thanks for your time. I'm Justin of Justin Kerr Design and I'll see you later.
