How to title your photographs
Last summer I decided to delve into the world of selling and exhibiting my photographs. However, upon selecting my ‘star’ photos I realised that the title IMG_01496 was not going to cut it when it came to displaying my work. This presented a whole new kind of problem for me. How do you go about titling or naming your photographs and how do you do it well? If you’ve ever been to a gallery or seen the winning photos of competitions you will know that they generally have an amazing title and you read it and just think WOW yes that totally works, but how do you come up with as just as amazing title for your own work? Well in today’s post I’m going to go through a couple of methods for titling your images and discuss how I go about titling mine with a rather unique method.
If you are more of an auditory learner or want to see me speedily walking around the British countryside whilst explaining my titling process, you can check out the YouTube vlog that matches this post here.
Method 1. Description
The first method for titling your images is probably the easiest (and in my opinion the most boring). That is to say you just describe exactly what is in the photo.
Example: You take a lovely photograph of a wildflower meadow you then title your photograph: The Wildflower Meadow.
It’s as simple as that! Although not the most exciting method it does provide a title more thrilling than IMG_01496.
Method 2. Description- but spice it up a bit
The second method for titling your images is almost identical to method one. However, you chuck in a few adjectives and seasonal descriptions to really get the ball rolling.
Example: You take a lovely photograph of a wildflower meadow; you then title your photograph: Spring in the Wildflower meadow or Breezy Meadow of Wildflowers.
Again, this isn’t that exciting but at least it beats the simple description title.
Method 3. Anthropomorphism
This method really only works for photographs of wildlife (although I guess there’s nothing stopping you from trying it with other photos as well) but it relies on anthropomorphism- which is the idea of applying human emotions and thoughts to animals.
Example: You have a photograph of a squirrel alone in the woodland; you then title your photograph: The Lonely Squirrel.
I am not particularly keen on this method as I don’t like anthropomorphism in general as it can harm our perceptions of wildlife in other aspects such as in conservation efforts. It also relies on misconceptions that animal’s express emotions the same way as we do when this is usually incorrect.
Method 4. AKA my unique method
So, back to last summer when I was struggling to title my own images at the same time I was (and remain) a huge fan of the TV show ‘Bones’. Which centres around a forensic anthropologist and a FBI agent solving a different murder every episode. Now, each episode usually has a catchy title describing the plot in some way- For example, The Blackout in the Blizzard, and The Cowboy in the Contest etc. etc. And it was when I was watching these that I suddenly thought if I could title my photographs in a similar way to the episode titles it could work out really well…
So, now my process for titling my photos goes as follows: Look at photo, review what’s going on in it, think back to what was happening at the time. Then consider what it would be if it was a TV show episode. I recognise this sounds slightly bizarre and a bit like I’ve lost my mind slightly trying to title images BUT I have found it generally works! Here’s a real example with my photo :
This photograph is called The Guardian in the Gorse. Which you have to admit does sound like a tv show episode! Let’s go through the process for titling this one by working backwards. I knew I wanted to include ‘gorse’ in the title because (and if you didn’t know this already) the yellow flowery plant you see in the image is gorse- so it makes sense as it is a vital part of the full photograph. Now, part two of the photo (or the first part of the title if you like) was slightly trickier and requires a bit of creative leniency. The Dartmoor pony you see in the photograph was a stallion who at the time of photographing was protecting a group of mares and foals (presumably his foals). So, I thought what would be a good descriptor of his behaviour that also works in the context of the title. Well, after a bit of back and forth; as well as some online thesaurus searching, I landed on ‘Guardian’ which fitted the bill quite nicely and gave this photograph its title: The Guardian in the Gorse.
Whatever, method you choose to title/name your photographs as long as it works for you it’s perfect! But if you do want to go down the TV episode title route do let me know! Or if you have an equally strange or unique method for titling your photographs, I’d be glad to hear all about it! Leave a comment below or find me over on social media!
