For Customers

The Science of Business Portraits

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If you’re reluctant to get a new business portrait because you think you don’t have the looks of a movie star, then science is on your side.

A 2013 Princeton University study (link to PDF) found that a person with average facial appearance is perceived to be more trustworthy than someone with above-average looks. In fact, the perceived trustworthiness of a less than average-looking person was found to be about the same as for a very attractive person.

. . . we found consistent evidence for the notion that face typicality is an important determinant of perceived trustworthiness . . .

We’re also more attracted to average-looking faces. Many thousands of years of evolution have hardwired us to prefer average looks. Remember that most actors and models are only average looking (link to PDF) and they just have better stylists than the rest of us :-)
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Working with news photographers at your event

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If you’re planning a corporate event or any other type of event that you hope will attract the news media, then you may need some tips on how to work with the news or press photographers who will attend.

While the six media relations tips provided in that linked article may sound obvious, many companies, both big and small, can get it very wrong. It was no secret that Canada’s previous federal Conservative government was horrendously bad at running press conferences and photo ops.

“Photojournalists are not there to make your client look bad or good. We are there to represent the truth to the best of our ability and strive to maintain objectivity at all costs,” advised [Amber] Bracken [President of the News Photographers Association of Canada]. “At the same time, we also strive to capture the world beautifully, your client included.”

You need non-partisan press photographers to cover your event or photo opportunity so your company might earn the media blessing. Editorial photography published by news outlets is the most credible type of information. People trust what they see in a newspaper or magazine.

Similarly, most public relations photography and press release photography should also be editorial in nature and contain human interest. The best way to achieve this is to hire a photographer who has a journalism background and who has worked for a news publication.

 

Creating Memorable Photos For Marketing

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Researchers at MIT recently published a study and online demo about trying to understand and predict image memorability. The study used 60,000 images and a few thousand participants.

A goal of this research was “[u]nderstanding why certain things are memorable…” so that it might someday be possible to create better images thereby “allowing people to consume information more efficiently.” (If you’re a photographer, please stop laughing.)

Researchers found that the most memorable pictures usually included – wait for it – faces or other human body parts. The least memorable pictures were those of generic scenes, especially landscapes and other types of nature. The researchers called their results a “trend.” Most photographers know that this “trend” has been around for 170 years.
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Optimism Bias

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Almost everyone exhibits some degree of “optimism bias.” This means we tend to underestimate the time, cost and effort needed to complete a certain task and we overestimate our chances of success.

 

Optimism is great, it helps us move forward. But optimism doesn’t wait for all the facts to come in. So sometimes you need to be aware of possible optimism bias.
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Platform Photography

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Canada’s 2015 federal election is days away and each party has released its platform. Let’s compare them from a photographer’s point of view.

The Obvious

• Green Party platform is 44 pages and 5.8 MB in file size.

• NDP brochure is 81 pages and 5.1 MB in size.

• Liberal Party platform is 88 pages and 10.6 MB.

• Conservative Party brochure is 159 pages and 37.4 MB.

That alone might be very telling.
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Prize-winning News Coverage

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Yesterday at 5:50am (Eastern Time), it was announced that a Canadian scientist from Queen’s University, in Ontario, had co-won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics. By 6:20am, or maybe even earlier, news media were calling Queen’s University media relations people to request handout pictures of the new Nobel Laureate.

Queen’s University was prepared and news media around the world had a portrait of the university professor emeritus on their web sites shortly thereafter.

The Nobel Prize-winning professor did his research at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Sudbury, Ontario. News media called the lab early in the morning for handout pictures of the scientist and of its research facilities.
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