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Photojournalism
The document discusses key aspects of photojournalism, emphasizing the importance of storytelling, composition, and ethics in photography. It highlights techniques to capture impactful images by getting closer to subjects, anticipating moments, and utilizing layered information. Additionally, it stresses the importance of mastering light and composition to enhance photo quality while maintaining the integrity of the scene captured.
Photojournalism
- 1. Photojournalism Are we using1,000 words where a picture should be? - Matt Thompson, Journalism Next
- 4. Goals Connect storytellingwith taking a photo Learn some rules of composition when taking photos Learn the basics of Photoshop to prepare your photos Understand ethics when it comes to manipulating your photos Learn how to display your photo story in a gallery or slideshow
- 5. Show, Don’t Tell Thereare a lot of fountains in Rome. In Rome, for the first time in my life, I felt surrounded by speaking water. What trees are to Paris, fountains are to Rome. They are the vertical or angled jets, wreathing, bubbling, full of life, which give measure to the city. In other places fountains are special events, but in Rome they are simply part of the vernacular of civic life; you notice them, you see them as exceptions to the surfaces of stone or brick, but it seems that they are there to be breathed, not just seen. In the center of the great city one is always aware, if only subliminally, of the presence of water.
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- 7. Capture a moment Get closer. Get close to your subject. The old Robert Capa saying: “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Anticipation/Seeing. Look for the “magic moment.” Be ready to push the shutter before the moment happens. Pre-visualize. Ask yourself “what could happen” Watch body language and facial expressions. Perspective. Get on your knees or climb a tree. Most people see the world from eye level. Take the viewer of your photograph someplace where they’ve never been. It will make your pictures instantly more interesting. Shoot layers of information. By layering your pictures with info they become more powerful and the message is stronger. They have an instant wow factor. Use foreground and background elements to create a message. This is the tough to master. It is mature seeing. From Mastering Multimedia blog: 10 ways to take a better photo
- 8. Utah Capture the Moment Layersof Information Perspective
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- 10. What do youwant to communicate? Or, someone does something because….
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- 12. Choose your story Choose a story with people, action, motivations Write a headline – subject, verb, direct object Look for the story arc Capture the moment of reflection Spend time with the subject, the story Be ready for that “moment”
- 13. Photojournalism Shooting reallife No set-ups or direction Don’t tell people what to do- change fact to fiction Any reasonable assumption a viewer would make must be true. When we see a portrait, we assume it was posed. When we see someone jumping, falling, or raising a flag, we do not assume it was a re-enactment.
- 14. Photojournalism Ethics UnethicalPhotojournalism
- 15. Great Photojournalism The Weekin Pictures Boston Globe's The Big Picture
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- 17. Composition Read thelight. Photography is all about light. Learn to see it; Understand how light can set a mood in a photo. Even when you are not photographing something look at the quality of the light around you. Is it warm, cool, side lit? Four corners. As you compose a photograph run your eyes around the outside edges of the viewfinder, checking to make sure your not cropping someone’s head off or that there is not some unwanted element coming into your picture. From Mastering Multimedia blog: 10 ways to take a better photo
- 18. What’s in thephoto?
- 19. Composition Simplicity The Rule ofThirds Lines Balance Framing Avoiding Mergers
- 20. Take lots ofphotos Many angles Remember to be bold and get close Take many photos – only use the best
- 21. Close up makesa great photo!
- 22. Move around alot!
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Editor's Notes
- #2 Digital Photography – everyone is a photographer, from Instagram to SnapChat to uploading your vacation photos on Facebook - but not everyone is a photojournalist – that is someone who is documenting life. A picture is worth 1,000 words.
- #3 Iconic photos – last in your memory, can change the world – this photo resulted in an upsurge of demonstrations against the Vietnam War;
- #5 In our next two classes, we will: Connect storytelling with taking a photo Learn some rules of composition when taking photos Learn the basics of Photoshop to prepare your photos Understand ethics when it comes to manipulating your photos Learn how to display your photo story in a gallery or slideshow
- #6 In journalism, reporters and photographers are told to Show, don’t tell. What does that mean? Let me give you an example: Robert Jones, an art critic for the Wall Street Journal, wrote about his first visit to Rome. In this essay, The Forever City, he didn’t say: He showed his readers about fountains in Rome. He did it by Observation.
- #7 You may look at a scene and understand what is happening: a bunch of college students are eating lunch outside of the cafeteria. But when you OBSERVE – you will notice details, sounds, action & emotions. (there’s the lacrosse team together, there’s a person sitting alone with her head in a book, there’s a table that is arguing in Chinese, there’s a couple kissing on the grass.) The best photographers are the good observers. I’ve worked with many, many photographers over the years, and the best ones have two characteristics: They have an “eye” which sees what’s going on. 5 photogs will go to the same event, but this photographer catches a detail, or an action that tells the story. President Clinton visited Incline several years ago, and a large crowd waiting on the Village Green for him to show up – he kept us waiting a couple of hours. When he arrived, the photo everyone would take is of Clinton talking to this large crowd, but the photo an observant photographer would take is Clinton talking, but in the background there’s an attentive dad holding a sleeping child who passed out during the long wait. Secondly, they have the boldness to get close, to move around, to get the photo.
- #8 These photographers are ready to capture a moment. Get closer. Get close to your subject. The old Robert Capa saying: “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Anticipation/Seeing. Look for the “magic moment.” Be ready to push the shutter before the moment happens. Pre-visualize. Ask yourself “what could happen” Watch body language and facial expressions. Perspective. Get on your knees or climb a tree. Most people see the world from eye level. Take the viewer of your photograph someplace where they’ve never been. It will make your pictures instantly more interesting. Shoot layers of information. By layering your pictures with info they become more powerful and the message is stronger. They have an instant wow factor. Use foreground and background elements to create a message. This is the tough to master. It is mature seeing.
- #10 When you are telling a story with your photos, it can be one photo, or a series of photos. You have an assignment due that I will pass out soon to shoot a photo gallery or slideshow, but it won’t be impactful unless it tells a story. Otherwise, it will be a series of flat photos. You’ve been taught to write stories with beginning, middle and end. But these aren’t always interesting.
- #11 You’ve been taught to write stories with beginning, middle and end. But these aren’t always interesting. You need to start with “What do you want to communicate?” When you choose a subject for your photo gallery think about what do you want to communicate? I’m going to communicate the eagerness of the Lacrosse team going on the field for its first game. I’m going to communicate the body language and reactions of students when Dan O’Bryan makes someone sing a song for being late in senior ethics. I’m going to communicate the wildness of someone surfing on Lake Tahoe in a storm. If you think about these, they all have people in them, action of those people, and the motivations of those people. Sarah Stuteville of the Common Language Project says start a story with: Someone does something because…. Joe Blow surfs on Lake Tahoe because a storm is coming in. Joe Blow surfs on Lake Tahoe because he grew up in Hawaii and misses surfing. Joe Blow surfs on Lake Tahoe because a friend bet him $100 he can’t do it.
- #12 Then you can have an opening to your story, the photo that sets the scene, you provide photos that will give you details about the motivation and leads up to the climax. Each photo can pose a question that the following photos answer. The climax isn’t the end, however, because after you capture that guy on the surf board, the end is his moment of reflection – the smile of triumph coming out of the water or the dazed look after he got knocked down, or the chattering teeth in the ice cold water. The moment of reflection is what was learned, how did the motivation end up.
- #13 So you choose an event, or a person, or a scene to tell a story. You observe the details so you can truly capture a story. Write a headline: Have a subject, verb, direct object to your story. – Girl climbs up a cliff. Headline due to me on Feb. 11 – tomorrow, just email it.
- #14 Remember this is photojournalism – you are shooting the truth. Whether the camera is shooting video or stills, the journalist behind the camera must not direct. As soon as you tell people what to do, you’ve changed the scene from fact to fiction. Portraits are the exception; they usually require some direction from the photographer. Rule 1: Include basic factual details as needed for credibility. These might appear at the end of a linear presentation (video or animation), or below or beside a still image or graphic. Get caption information – names, spelled correctly, date, time and place. Rule 2: Any reasonable assumption a viewer would make must be true. When we see a portrait, we assume it was posed. When we see someone jumping, falling, or raising a flag, we do not assume it was a re-enactment. It’s all worthless if you can’t take a good photo.
- #17 Learn your camera first. Smartphone, point and shoot, DSLR Set it on high resolution, but not raw (unless you know how to deal with raw) Know how to zoom, optical zoom vs. digital zoom, don’t use digital zoom Understand when to flash or not – take it off unless you have to, to fill in when backlighting leaves shadows on a subject’s face Learn your focus, be able to focus on something that is not in the center of the frame. Know your camera intimately. Too many good photos are lost to poor exposures and out of focus negatives. Get a feel for how your camera meters a scene. Use manual exposure when the lighting is contrasty or subject is backlit. Practice focusing on moving cars and people. Think “focus, focus, focus” as you’re hitting the shutter. Your photography can’t improve until you feel comfortable with your camera.
- #18 Four corners. As you compose a photograph run your eyes around the outside edges of the viewfinder, checking to make sure your not cropping someone’s head off or that there is not some unwanted element coming into your picture. Read the light. Photography is all about light. Learn to see it; Understand how light can set a mood in a photo. Even when you are not photographing something look at the quality of the light around you. Is it warm, cool, side lit? Composition. Look for angles and camera placement that adds drama to the photo. Don’t just put your subject in the center of the frame. Think left or right of center. Will negative space help your photo, or will getting closer be better? Look for leading lines into subject.
- #21 Take lots of photos – shoot several of the same thing Move around, get different angles, close up, far away, wide shot, unique shot, shot from ground level, shot from above,
- #24 Danny or Alex? Take a half hour to find something interesting, take different angles, come back and we will learn how to edit them in Photoshop.