80% of consumers think their photography is “Excellent” and pet photography is more popular than selfies
May 12, 2016
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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It turns out that May is National Photography Month and to celebrate, Canon USA have revealed a few current consumer trends in the world of photography.
Consumers are showing more confidence behind the camera than ever, claiming that 80% of them rate their photography skills as “good to excellent”. It certainly goes some way towards explaining why the general public tend to undervalue professional photographers.
As more and more images are being uploaded to social media, the desire to capture, share and save memories is clearly on the rise with 24% of consumers saying that they shoot up to around 300 photos per month.
64% of those surveyed indicated that they are either “likely” or “somewhat likely” to print their photos after taking them. Personally, I think that particular number is a bit optimistic, with many probably having the intent to print, but just never getting around to it.
32% say that are using the images to create scrapbooks or photo books, and a quarter are using their prints to decorate their homes.
America is definitely a nation of animal lovers, with over 59% of respondents taking more photographs of their pets than they are selfies, and almost two-thirds (64%) report taking photos of their family and special occasions more than anything else.
Interestingly, photos taken at the gym only account for a mere 16% of consumers. I’m sure the number of gym-selfies I see scrolling up my Facebook feed is higher than that.
The old classic that never seems to go away, especially when it comes to sites like Instagram is #food photography, and with more than 194 million images hailing that particular tag it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. More than half (55%) of consumers take food photos to show off a personal creation or new recipe, and 27% admit they share photos of food to brag to friends and family.
The Canon 2016 Photography Trends Study was conducted online with 1,004 adult U.S. general population respondents. The survey was conducted by Toluna, between the dates of April 21 – 26, 2016.
As for that 80%… well, you know what they say…
A result I thought was particularly interesting was that 62% of respondents said that they believe their photography has gotten better over the last two to five years. Well, one would certainly hope so.
I’d be more worried about the 38% who’ve been snapping their “up to 300 images a month” for the last two to five years and not seen a single bit of improvement, but maybe that’s just me.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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6 responses to “80% of consumers think their photography is “Excellent” and pet photography is more popular than selfies”
Am i the only one that think that my photography are not so excellent even if some professional photographer said me that were?
This is exactly the famous four stages of competence applied
to photography:
1. Unconscious incompetence
The photographer does not understand or know how bad they are. This is 80% of people
2. Conscious incompetence
The photographer starts learning the art, he/she knows that he/she sucks – This is 10%
3. Conscious competence
The photographer starts making some good images but they are inconsistent and far between – This is 7%
4. Unconscious competence
The photographer produces consistent, good quality images – This is3%
I would say that 79% are wrong!
“The Canon 2016 Photography Trends Study was conducted online with 1,004 adult U.S. general population respondents.”
Probably best not to read too much into these results.
if my photos make me happy thats all that counts.
Sure but if your a professional you are not doing it to be happy.