Social Media Impacts Your Reputation As A Photographer

Your sharing habits in social media impacts your reputation as a photographer; how people regard you as a photographer. Most of us aren’t posting only true photography art when posting to social media. Usually, it’s sharing simple photos of family, everyday life or interesting sights and occasionally we try to post true photography art too.

As a result, most of how people regard us as photographer isn’t due to our art masterpieces. Rather it’s the everyday photos that play an over-sized role in determining our reputation. The sheer volume and repetition emphasize our skill level and how serious we are about our photography.

My wife has always reminded our daughters (and me) that through our actions we teach people how to treat us. She’s a very wise woman. This is true to both photography and life in general.  That does not mean that we shouldn’t post “casual” non-art type photos. This type of interaction humanizes us and helps create and keep a connection with others.

The Important Factor In Casual Photos

The issue with casual non-art photos isn’t that they are off-message for us as artists. Rather, it is the message they send about us in regard to how seriously we take our photography. Often, we get caught up in the excitement of immediate posting and put up a photo without really thinking about it. We know it has flaws but don’t think it’s important. It’s only Facebook or Instagram after all. The horizon might not be level, there may be sensor spots but look how sharp the focus is on that bird’s eye. We might think one nice feature overcomes other flaws; but it doesn’t. Unfortunately, flaws can overcome nice features though.

I’m constantly amazed by how little effort people frequently put into making their photographs that they post on social media. I’m not referring to an occasional lapse or a mistake they weren’t aware of, we’ve all done that. What I am talking about is knowingly posting a photo with basic flaws but not caring enough to fix them. It can have such a big impact and the thing is, it’s just so quick and easy to shape how social media impacts your reputation as a photographer.

There Is A Simple Fix

Those of you that have followed me for even a short time know that I believe in slowing down, letting our images “marinate” when making photographs. As I’ve said before, “Photography isn’t a race. Instagram and Facebook will still be there tomorrow.” But what if you just can’t resist the addiction to posting right away to social media there are some simple and quick steps you can take create a decent photo for your audience. In Adobe Lightroom and similar packages, many basic flaws can be corrected in less than a minute. Things like:

• Leveling the horizon with the spirit level tool or the angle adjustment tool (either manual or auto).
• Remove sensor or dust spots with the spot removal tool
• Cropping with the crop tool
• Correcting the overall exposure with the auto-exposure button
• Make a global highlight slider correction to prevent blown highlights

Just to be clear, I’m saying a minute or less to do all of the above, not a minute for each. It doesn’t get much simpler.

If you’re willing to invest a few minutes more you can remove halos and correct building perspectives caused by pointing your camera up at an angle to get the entire building in frame.

Protecting Your Reputation

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating:

Fame, or at least social media attention, is fleeting but the reputation of our work is long standing. Once established, this reputation is easy to destroy but difficult to change in a positive way.

If you’ve trained people to expect flawed and needlessly poorly processed photos from you it’s a bit much to expect them to be enthusiastic about viewing your photos. This can be horribly disappointing when you publish a more serious artistic photo and you don’t get much reaction. With a minimal effort you can create a decent photo every time and everyone, you and your audience, will be happy for it. More importantly, you’ll have trained your audience on what to expect and they’ll be looking forward to seeing your photos.

I know what I’m saying is repetitive and this a bit of a rant. However, I just hate to see squandered opportunity, especially since it is so easy to take advantage of the opportunity rather than squander it.

Leave A Comment And Share

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback on this post. I hope it was helpful. What’s your process for controlling how social media impacts your reputation as a photographer? Please leave a comment in the comment box below.

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