Photography Consumer Insights

Implications - As consumer-generated content continues to reign supreme, a need to refine and personalize content is on the rise. As a result, consumers are turning to platforms and apps that help bring their photos to life. Using features like holographic apps and custom lenses to add dimension and texture to a photo, these added features not only offer customization, but they adhere to the standard of modern, multimedia forms of entertainment.

Implications - Challenging the proliferation of smartphone photography, the camera industry is seeing an overhaul in specialized capabilities that put more power into the hands of the photographer than ever before. Leveraging emerging innovations in popular technology, including VR, auto-following and heat-mapping, the latest cameras offer consumers and professional photographers alike a multitude of futuristic features to experiment with.

Implications - With the increase of video bloggers and social media influencers turning their visual platforms into full-time careers, there is an increasing demand for accessible high tech camera equipment that can be taken on the go. Professional quality lenses, stabilizers and mounts are being reformatted as portable phone and camera attachments that can be easily carried around, ready to be whipped out at a moment’s notice. This shift towards minimized equipment denotes a desire for more niche products that perform specialized tasks rather than heavy duty do-it-all machinery.

Implications - With a plethora of photo editing apps at their fingertips, everyday consumers are able to teach themselves advanced image enhancing techniques previously reserved for licensed photographers. Quickly mastering the use of picture editing features and customizable alterations, often using multiple apps to perfect a single image, today’s amateur photographers are producing professional quality portfolios that suit their personal aesthetic preferences.

Implications - As content creation becomes commonplace, consumers search for professional cameras that are not only user-friendly, but come with Wi-Fi and photo-sharing capabilities. Social platforms such as Instagram have made photography easier than ever, but they've also cultivated a more serious hobbyist photographer, making the DSLR market ripe with potential. This progression indicates the rise of the "professional" social sharer.

Implications - Consumers are searching for devices that are able to capture high-quality action photos without necessarily splurging on a full-fleged DSLR camera. Whether it's an enhanced smartphone or specially engineered wearables, these products cater to a desire to create quality content at a rapid rate. In today's social media climate, user-generated content is not only a form of personal branding; it's also a commodity.

Implications - Taking into account the growing desire for collaboration, photo services and apps are turning to customized tools that allow for more communal engagement. Redefining how users edit, upload and share images, these services allow for a real-time interaction by offering platforms that allow multiple users to access, create and alter content as they see fit. Such interactive platforms suggest an increasing desire for peer-to-peer engagement, especially when it comes to content creation.

Implications - As consumers look for new ways to share their images online, many are embracing GPS-powered social platforms that use geotagging to provide more condensed selections of content. Often involving geotagged locations at which users will "drop" digital photographs for others to "find," such innovative photography-based social networks suggest an interest in organic interaction with other users as mainstream alternatives continue to become more saturated. This progression suggests a consumer interest in mobile applications that highlight curated selections of user-generated content as a means to cultivating community around shared interests.

Implications - The rise in adventure tourism has collided with the social media generation; consumers are not only more willing to take risks, they also expect to document and share them with their social following. As a result, many adventure-focused photography devices have begun popping on the market. Whether it's autonomous function or flying drones, these devices mark a distinct change in consumer entertainment.

Implications - The widespread applications of virtual reality technology are made more apparent to mainstream consumers through its integration into journalism and entertainment. While VR is still a seemingly inaccessible technology, innovative business-to-business partnerships have the potential to spur on a wider set of applications that can enrich daily life for the average consumer.