HOW TO HAVE A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY: THE 3 BEST TECHNIQUES - ARTE - 2025

The photographic memory is the ability to remember things you hear or see a very high level of detail. It is a perceptual phenomenon more common in children and rare in adults. It is an image of an object or figure that after being perceived, can be projected and perceived again, in some cases with fidelity of detail, color and shape.

In this article I am going to explain to you how to have photographic memory based on 3 techniques, two of them used by world memory champions. By spending a little time learning these exercises, you can greatly develop and improve your memorization skills.

What is photographic memory?

Photographic memory is an ability to memorize data, events or images quickly and efficiently, remembering this information long after being processed. It can be produced spontaneously, at will on a surface (paper for example) or viewed with the eyes closed.

The capacity of this memory has a great individual variation. That is, there are people who have a great capacity, while the majority have a total lack.

On the other hand, watch out for Hollywood movies. From them, it can be thought that this memory is the ability to save an image of anything you look at, as if your brain were a digital camera. This is not so, not even close.

The correct definition is "the ability to recall information or visual images in great detail."

How can you know if you have this ability?

Put a figure of flowers or a landscape (for example a photo) on a gray paper background. If you have this ability, removing it will allow you to describe the image, even minutes after removing the photo.

Who has this ability? Can it be developed?

This ability is rarely found in young children and even less so in adults. It is believed that if you are not born with it, it cannot develop.

It is possible that it cannot be developed at such a high level of detail as the known cases, but if at another level that, even if it is much less, will already make a big difference compared to the vast majority of people.

Therefore, in my opinion if it can be developed, not to a degree as high as the people who are born with it but to one that already represents a great advance. That is, you may not see the image itself in your mind, as children can. But you will be able to remember objects from images, and your ability to remember details may improve with neural development.

If you have this memory or know other techniques, please comment in the comments section.

Something similar is hyperthymesia or superior autobiographical memory. It is a syndrome / phenomenon that makes the person remember everything they have done during a day with almost perfect accuracy. They are even able to remember what they did on a particular day years ago.

Of course, if you are not born with that condition, you cannot acquire it. What you can develop is memory to a certain degree, but you will have to do it consciously and with effort.

However, people who have it become overwhelmed because they have a continuous stream of memories, so it is better that you can recall memories at will, even if it requires effort and energy expenditure.

How to develop photographic memory?

Next I am going to teach you 3 techniques and an extra one to improve your photographic memory. Keep in mind that you need to dedicate time and effort. It is a psychological skill and you have to train it, just like you have to train a physical skill, like tennis or dancing.

For my part, I began to learn the first one and came to master it somewhat. I learned the last two in a short time and today I can easily memorize objects from pictures, lists or long numbers.

1-The military method

This is the technique, so far known, that will bring you closer to the "superpowers of the mental digital camera."

You need a dark room, a blank sheet of paper, and a light / gooseneck.

It is based on turning off the light and turning it on while looking at the sheet of paper. When the lights go out, you'll have an image of the paper in your mind that will last for seconds. The more you practice, the longer it will last. If you do it 15 minutes a day for a month you will see great progress.

To be successful with this technique, you will have to train a lot, probably more than two months. Just as it is difficult to be fit just a month after hitting the gym, training your mind also takes time.

1-Choose a dark room, free of distractions and with a lamp or light whose switch you have at your fingertips.

2-Sit in a comfortable position where you have easy access to the switch, without having to get up. Cut a rectangular space on your sheet of paper. It will need to be in the center and the size of a paragraph.

3-Put the sheet with the rectangular hole in a book or on what you want to memorize, so that the hole shows only one paragraph (or whatever you want to memorize).

Adjust the distance to the book so that when you open your eyes you automatically focus on the words.

4-Turn off the light and let your eyes adjust to the dark.

Turn on the light for a second and turn it off again.

Then you will have an imprint in your eyes (actually in your brain) of what is in front of you, in this case the paragraph within the rectangle.

It can also be something like this:

5-When that imprint fades, turn on the light for a second, while you look at the paragraph.

6-Repeat this process until you can remember each word in the paragraph / image in the correct order.

It is assumed that if you have done well you will be able to read the paragraph or see the image that was previously in the rectangle. Only this time you will read it from your mind.

If it gives you headaches, quit.

2-The Loci method

This method has been used since the Roman Empire still existed and it works very well because it is based on images, which have much more meaning for the brain than words.

If I say the word "stadium" or "soccer field", you will probably imagine the Bernabeu, Camp Nou, Azteca de México or any other, but I don't think you can imagine the written word.

This technique is based on converting information into images and relating those images to a physical location that you know well. It may be a bit strange to you but if you go through all the steps and practice, you will understand it and it will be easy for you.

1. Choose a place / house

Choose a place that you can easily visualize. It can be a park, your room, your house, a monument, a bar…

It should be a place that you know well, that you visit often and the more details you can visualize the better. For example, for me a place that I can describe my house in detail.

2. Choose a route

Now that you have chosen a place, you have to choose a route.

For example, for my house it would be: I enter through the front door, walk through the living room, go to the kitchen, then to the first room, then to the second, then to my room and end up in the kitchen.

It is necessary that you know the route well and the better you do it the better. It is also necessary that you always do the same route. Choose an entry point and an exit or end point.

3. Write down distinctive details

Close your eyes and visualize your place / house. Imagine you are in it, starting at the entry point.

You can see the front door, you see yourself walking through it, you look left and right. Do you see? In my case, I see a key ring on the right and a shelf on the left.

Walk your route and analyze the details of each room or each place. In the meantime, take note of those details. The more details you can see the better.

4. Begin to relate

You already have your place, your route and you have visualized all the possible details, having finished at the starting point.

Now, you will have to take each detail that you have listed (you could write it down on a sheet) and relate it to something you want to memorize.

Let's say you want to memorize the shopping list and you have: orange juice, bread, chicken, napkins.

In my case, I am going to take the chicken for example and make a relationship with the front door, in this case with the key ring. For example: I imagine that the chicken is hanging on the key ring and is cackling excessively, so much that it draws the attention of the neighbors.

As you can see, the more ridiculous, weird, crazy or exaggerated the relationship, the better because it will be easier for you to remember. If you do something usual or boring, you probably won't remember it. The human being remembers the unusual.

I would then take the orange juice, bread, and napkins and associate them with other objects on my route. It will be very unlikely that I will forget them if I have done them correctly.

5. Go to your place / house

Now you have to pay a visit to your place.

In my case, as soon as I enter I will find the chicken clucking…

Later, as I walk along the route I will see the other objects.

6. Continuous practice

This technique works very well, although you have to practice it continuously.

At the beginning it costs more effort and it will take you more time to memorize objects, images or things but with practice it becomes almost automatic.

The downside is that you are supposed to go the entire route to remember the objects, but with practice you do it in seconds.

3-Memory chain

Like the previous technique, this one will not allow you to have an imprint of an image in your mind, but it will allow you to remember all the objects you want from an image.

This technique has more uses and can be developed in a more complicated way. I learned it from Ramón Campayo, a world champion of memorization.

1-Relate numbers with something.

You simply have to associate a number with something (an object, an animal, a person) that you remember well.

In my case, I related it like this (more than 4 years ago and I still remember it):

1-tea.

2-Gnu.

3.Master (a boss).

4-KAO (one punch).

Wave.

6. Bear.

7.UFO (a UFO).

8. Garlic.

9. Ave.

10. Bull.

Applications:

-If you want to memorize a very long number (20 numbers or more) you can do it in 1-2 minutes. Once you have the numbers associated with things, you imagine or visualize a chain reaction. For example, for the number 67589:

You visualize: a bear caught by a UFO. The UFO is shot down by a giant wave of garlic trying to eat various birds. The more absurd and spectacular the story, the better.

-You can also memorize any list of objects, although in this case you would not need the number-object relationship.

For example, to memorize this list: dog, computer, table, popcorn, car.

You can visualize: a dog that collides with a giant computer, which falls from a table to a floor full of popcorn. In the end he is hit by a car.

-If you want to memorize an image: you simply have to match the objects in the image with your list from 1-10.

1-Tea: you visualize a lemon bathed in tea.

2-Wildebeest: you visualize a wildebeest eating giant tomatoes.

3-Master: you visualize a master of a house throwing apples at people who walk down the street…

…

4-Improving habits

Your memory will not only depend on these techniques, but it will instantly improve if you take care of your diet and habits.

The most important are:

Meditation

Meditation improves memory, even that of dreams.

By meditating you are training the mind, you learn to better perceive and be aware of your surroundings. Ultimately, it gives you more control over your thoughts. In fact, it has been shown to produce changes at the neuronal level.

Sleep

Sleep is essential for you to consolidate what you have learned during the day. In fact it is believed that dreams have such a function.

In various experiments it has been shown that people who did not sleep or did not sleep at all consolidated knowledge considerably worse.

3-Exercise

Yes, exercising is also good for your memory, both directly and indirectly.

When you play sports, you increase blood circulation and this makes more oxygen reach your brain.

One thing you can try is to exercise after studying or trying to memorize something.

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To end

Remember, practice and you will get the best results. Don't give up the first time.

The brain must be trained, just like any muscle.