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I’ve already mentioned it so often that you may be sick of hearing about simplicity! This is a great time to dig in and really define simplicity – what it is, why it’s important in stock photography, and how to achieve it.

What is it? The World Wide Web has transformed stock photography in ways that we never imagined. Only the most prescient marketing gurus could have foreseen the exodus of advertising imagery away from print media to the web. The result is that stock imagery is now different in several very significant ways, one of them being the necessity of graphic simplicity in an image. Much more than pre-World Wide Web, your photographs need to be very easy to digest when viewed at a small size.

In short, they need to be very simple shots: just a couple of main subject elements in the frame, and one of the elements should be up close and prominent so it jumps out at the viewer.

Why does it matter? Several factors contribute to the need for simple but impactful compositions.

First, computer screens aren’t very big. They’re getting bigger, but many web pages are still designed to utilize only the center-most part of your screen. Compared to a full-color magazine, for example, the “canvas” for viewing an image is smaller on the web. So first, the image may be rendered in a small size on a computer screen and it has to hold up well in that smaller format.

Second, your image has to share that screen with text, graphics, and other content. Whereas a full-page magazine ad is not at all unusual, a full-screen web ad is very rare indeed. So, your image has to get the viewer’s attention when other elements are competing against it.

Third, screen resolution is lower than print resolution. In other words, an image or photograph viewed on a website has very little detail or information embedded in it, since it’s been designed to be viewed at 72 pixels per inch to no more than about 120 pixels per inch. Even though you may have scanned your original piece of film (if you’re still shooting film!) at 3000 or 4000 ppi (pixels per inch), or if it was shot digitally, your camera may have recorded it at 240-300 ppi at about 10x15 inches. The vast majority of that detail is thrown away when the size of the photo is reduced in preparation for web page placement. Smaller photographs load faster and appear on your computer screen more quickly than high-resolution images. This is one of the hallmarks of good web design: pages that load (or draw) quickly on a computer screen so the viewer need not wait too long for the full web page to appear.

All of these factors conspire to shrink your best photos to a size of one inch by one-and-a half inches. Now ask yourself: could someone get the “message” from your shrunken photo in five seconds’ time? That’s the acid test.

A complete stranger who doesn’t know you, doesn’t know the intended subject matter of your photograph, and doesn’t know why you made the photograph, must be able to see the photograph and say in five seconds’ time, “I get it!” If your images can be successfully digested in just a few seconds, even in shrunken form, they’ll sell. Simplicity equals sales!

The next step is to learn how to design your photographs so that you have the best chance of making good sales. Here are some well-designed photos to get you thinking.

Combine a setting or rising sun, a shoreline, and a few kids, and you have the makings of a terrific shot. You won’t have to work hard to keep it simple, and well designed.

This photograph of hay bales on a North Dakota farm is more about a "mood" than it is about any tangible subject. Yet, even when viewed small, it does evoke the feeling of a quiet morning on a farm.

Who can resist a baby? Photographers have known for ages that when shooting people, one should always focus on the eyes. It is through our eyes that humans communicate with one another. Combine a cute baby with a direct look in the eyes and you have a winning image.

The Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada provide the perfect backdrop for a serene moon shot. The ultra-calm waters made the reflective image even more perfect.

Of all the midway rides, the Ferris wheel is most picturesque. In the right light, a shot of the infamous wheel takes on an ethereal feel, and the memories of awe-filled rides fill your mind.

Taking it Further

The Finnish digital media instructor Antti Lehtinen has a very nice website with a number of tutorials on it. Many of these are geared toward the novice and are easy to read, well thought out, and do a nice job of summarizing some of the traditional teachings on photographic composition. Visit www.secondpicture.com/index.html.

Additionally, I highly recommend another website purely for the purpose of looking at examples of incredibly simple but amazing photographs. Richard Hamilton Smith, a long-standing commercial photographer from Minnesota, has a beautiful selection of his commercial, personal and stock images in his web portfolios. He has taken photographs all over the world, using a documentary style and recording what he sees with a captivating sense of image design. Go to www.richardhamiltonsmith.com.