6 Ways to Come Up with Attention-Grabbing Social Media Photos

Social media users normally scroll through their timeline rapidly and skim over most content. It is only if they notice something interesting that they may click on it to check it out and decide whether or not it interests them.

That is why above and beyond anything else it is important that your social media photos are able to grab attention. That can be tricky considering the amount of competition you’re up against, but it must be done.

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If you want to start to come up with social media photos that are able to draw peoples’ attention, there are a few ways that you can go about it.

1. Use Vibrant and Bold Colors

People can’t help but be drawn to photos that look vibrant and have splashes of bold colors. It will make your photos stand out in general, and can help you to draw attention to specific elements.

If possible you should try to plan for this when you are capturing photos, and look for shots that contain vibrant and bold colors naturally. On top of that you may want to adjust the saturation levels during post-production to amplify the effect.

The only downside is that the attention your photos get due to their bold colors can be fleeting. In other words this is a good way to draw attention, but your photo will need to have more going on if it wants to keep the attention it receives.

2. Create a Strong Focal Point Using Contrast

All of your social media photos need to have a strong focal point that practically demands viewers give it attention. The easiest way to create one is by using contrast to make an element (or area) visually different from the rest of the photo.

It is important to note that contrast does not refer to color alone. Instead there are other types of contrast such as tone, size, shape, and texture. In fact you could even use conceptual contrast – but it is a bit difficult to pull off.

Ultimately your goal should be to make an element in your photo (normally the subject) really stand out and act as a strong focal point that draws eyes to itself.

3. Offer a Different Perspective

Have you ever noticed that a lot of the photos on your social media feeds look very similar? People nowadays are so exposed to photos that after a while many start to look very mundane, and they automatically ignore and skim past them.

That is why you should try to come up with photos that offer a different perspective. Think outside the box, be creative, and try to find unique ways to capture photos from different angles that will offer a more striking view.

Keep in mind that the majority of photos are captured from the eye-level of photographers and a frontal view. As such you should make it a point to do something different to that at very least - and capture photos from below or above eye-level.

4. Tell a Story

Interesting photos of interesting subjects are all well and good, but if you want your photos to really capture and hold attention you should try to use visual storytelling.

To start snapping photos that tell a story, you should consider a few areas when you decide on the shots you want to take:

What is happening?
Where is it happening?
When is it taking place?
Who does it involve?
Why is it happening?
What happens next?

If your photos are able to answer those questions (or most of them), they can establish a narrative and plot – which is the foundation of storytelling. As you can imagine it won’t be easy to pull it off, but it is definitely worth trying.

At the end of the day if you’re able to tell a story with your social media photos, it will make your photos look more unique, evoke emotional responses, and have a much bigger impact on the people who see them.

5. Add Text to the Photo

It may seem like a cheap trick, but adding text to your photos is an effective way to draw attention to them. People tend to automatically read text they encounter, even while they’re skimming over photos.

For this to be effective however, the text that you add should ideally consist of short captions. If you add a wall of text to your photos it could hurt it more than it helps.

On top of that the placement and contrast of the text needs to be good to allow it to stand out. That will allow it to be noticed as people skim through their social media feeds, and it can then grab their attention.

6. Establish a Consistent Visual Style

One of the best ways to come up with attention-grabbing social media photos in the long term is by establishing a consistent visual style. If you do, people will be more likely to spot your photos as they skim through their social media.

To put it simply the visual style of your photos should be part of your overall brand, and you should try to give it a consistent aesthetic. That starts by defining the style that you want your photos to have, and should encompass aspects such as their genre, environments, subjects, lighting, composition, color palette, and more.

It is best to come up with a photography style guide that contains all of these details and can act as a reference point when you are producing photos in the future.

Conclusion

Although it is best to snap photos that are designed to stand out from the get go, sometimes a bit of post-production wizardry can do the trick too. For example you could change photo background using Movavi Photo Editor to make your photos look truly unique.

Overall you should find that coming up with attention-grabbing photos for social media isn’t that difficult using the ways outlined above. In fact you can build on them further and explore other ways of making your photos stand out from the crowd.

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Jacqueline

Community manager at Visual Contenting. Jacqueline loves to talk about social media trends, new technology and how they help businesses accelerate their marketing efforts.

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