Titles and themes, they don't mix

Shay Stephens · August 1, 2007

Just a reminder that when choosing a title for your work, choose one that does not have the words of the theme anywhere in it. It is horribly repetitious and shows a lack of creativity in an otherwise wonderful photo.

For example, let's say the theme was Sunshine or Gloom and we wound up with a gallery like this:
Gloomy sunshine
Sunshiny gloom
Gloom is for the birds
Sunshine follies
Sun sun sun
Shiny sun
Gloomy gloom
Glom on to the gloom
Gloom with a bit of sunshine
There is gloom all around but I hope one day sunshine will once again shine on my gloomy path.

Kind of boring because the titles never get past what you are looking at. Ya, we all know the theme, no need to remind us. So put some effort into coming up with a title that adds to the photo. Make it complementary to the theme, not just an obligatory afterthought. Produce the whole package as if the title were gift wrapping for the photo. Would you wrap a gift with paper that spelled out what was inside the package? Would you create a book that told the potential reader "who done it" right on the cover? Why open the book?

Make your title instead the shiny lure to the photo. Get them hooked before they even see the photo. You never know, by contemplating the title, you may also spot a weakness in the photo as you work to give it a meaningful title. That can lead to making the photo better, knowing what you need to do to do it better next, or a way to change direction with the title to give it a better fit.

Tessa HD · August 1, 2007

will those be our next themes?:D

HoofClix · August 1, 2007

Aimed at me, I presume.
But'd you been there to hear her croon
To see in her eyes the pending impugn....
...
So alas, I've changed my tune!
:gone

Shay Stephens · August 1, 2007

HoofClix wrote:

Aimed at me, I presume.

If you had the theme in your title, yes, I saw a few and didn't pay attention to who

Shay Stephens · August 1, 2007

Tessa HD wrote:

will those be our next themes?:D

Hehehe I actually had to try and think of one that would not be used. Had a few idea but rejected them. Then the gloomy gloom popped up and I knew I had a good working example hehehe

HoofClix · August 1, 2007

Shay Stephens wrote:

If you had the theme in your title, yes, I saw a few and didn't pay attention to who

No problem.. I'm just being a [EMAIL="smart@$$"]smart@$$[/EMAIL]!!

BistiArt · August 2, 2007

Emotive Titles

Shay Stephens wrote:

Make your title instead the shiny lure to the photo. Get them hooked before they even see the photo. You never know, by contemplating the title, you may also spot a weakness in the photo as you work to give it a meaningful title. That can lead to making the photo better, knowing what you need to do to do it better next, or a way to change direction with the title to give it a better fit.

I recently had an excellent photographer say of my website that he found my titles "Emotive".

So, I looked Emotive up on Bartleby...

emotional, emotive (adjs.)

"Each adjective refers to the emotions, but differently. Emotional has a general sense of “having to do with the emotions,” but it has unique specialized senses as well, including “displaying emotions strongly or easily, stimulating emotional displays, and appealing directly to people’s emotions,” as in The witness was very emotional, weeping one minute, giggling the next and The first speaker spoke quietly and matter-of-factly, but the second was emotional throughout. Emotive is a more abstract term, referring generally to anything having to do with emotion or the emotions: The emotive use of language is the attempt to use words to appeal to people’s emotions. The terms overlap only in their generic senses."

For me, the last italicized sentence seems to captures Shay's point. Let's try some Texas corral dust
"Put your title into just a few words which capture peoples emotions...!"

What say you?

jdryan3 · August 2, 2007

Shay Stephens wrote:

So put some effort into coming up with a title that adds to the photo. Make it complementary to the theme, not just an obligatory afterthought. Produce the whole package as if the title were gift wrapping for the photo. Would you wrap a gift with paper that spelled out what was inside the package? Would you create a book that told the potential reader "who done it" right on the cover? Why open the book?

Make your title instead the shiny lure to the photo. Get them hooked before they even see the photo.

Funny that you posted this Shay. I hadn't seen it yet when I was reading this current thread in the Whipping Post, and yet the comments in that one made me think about some of the odd titles (not just redundant) in the LPS series. Sometimes they seem like "Hello? Just so you don't miss my point I am going to whack you over the head" with the title.

One problem with that has been well spoken on in other posts in this forum as it relates to geopolitical comments. Another is the emotions & emotive comment above - some posters seem to include their emotional response to the image in the title. OK. But they are indignant when others don't get it or feel the way they do.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying coming up with an appropriate title is easy. And I know my opinion on the issue is colored by the fact I like irony and subtlety in my titles. Or to evoke a strong visceral response. On the football player image in the Whipping Post, the title could have been "Confused", "Pain", "Beat" or many others, depending upon what the OP wanted to convey. And there still would have been the excellent back and forth commentary.

HarlanBear · August 2, 2007

So what do we think about the ubiquitous title:

"Untitled # (whatever)"

I think for the most part this is a product of modern and abstract art. I also think it's lazy.

Perhaps this post belongs in another thread, but I thought it an interesting subject for discussion.

Titles and themes, they don't mix

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