Looking at my body of work as a whole, over the past 23 years of shooting, I have one favorite image. One. And it’s not my signature image.

If you’ve ever attended one of my photography workshops, then you know one of my definitions of success for a visual artist is recognition. Recognition can be achieved by having a signature image.

What makes an image a signature image is your use of the image. Your signature should be the first image people see when they visit your site, when they look at your brochure, when they look at your advertising campaigns, when they visit your bridal show booth, when they look at your business card, and it should be the first image seen when a customer enters your studio.

Your signature image should become your logo. Your signature image will become a sent trail for your perspective clients to follow, so when they finally arrive at your studio the first image they see is your signature image and they will know without a doubt that they have arrived at the right place.

But how do you know which image to use as your signature image? Do you get to choose it yourself? If you’re smart, you get other people to tell you which image to use.

The following idea can also be used to chose which images to use in your advertising campaigns to accompany your signature image.

Here’s the idea. Pick out 30 of your favorite images, and submit all of them to Flickr. Then submit these 30 images to groups on Flickr that correlate to the type of photography you do.

After a day or two, see which images people gravitated to most. Which one got the best reviews? Which one did people, other professional photographers, like the best?

With any luck, one or mores of your images will have been accepted into Flickrs elite Explore Category.

This is a great way to find unbiased opinions about your work fast, allowing you to chose which images to use in your advertising, which is what I am doing right now. I’m changing all the images for my web ad on The Knot.

Hope this helps.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers