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STORIES
Yearbooks depend on photojournalism—the art of telling meaningful stories with action images
Photos show who, what, when, where, why and how. CONFLICT OR CHALLENGE: The photographer anticipates the moment, place or interaction that illustrates the struggle or pain or determination important to the story. CHARACTERS: The people who are important to the story are introduced. SETTING: The photographer takes the reader to where the story happened. DETAILS: Photos show the details that would be difficult to explain in writing. EMOTION: Photos show expressive body language, close-ups of eyes and mouth, interaction between people.
Photos show energy. Action: Photos capture the action; they stop it close-up. Reaction: Photos show expressions and include subjects that tell the story. Sometimes a reaction is more interesting than the action just before it. Relationship: Photos show the interaction between subjects. The photographer looks for eye contact.
A variety of shots all contribute information to a story. PERSPECTIVE: A wide shot shows an overall picture of an event or scene. It introduces the reader to the story. A medium shot brings readers closer to the action and tells more of the story. A close-up or detail shot focuses on a single, interesting subject. FORMAT: A variety of both horizontal and vertical photos covers a story more effectively. SUBJECTS: Varying the number of people in the photos tells different stories. A photo might show a single person, a couple, a small group or a large group. SEQUENCE: A complete visual story results by shooting before, during and after the event or activity.
Photojournalism CENTER OF INTEREST | Primary subject that catches readers’ attention first. Should be the focal point or dominant element within the photo.
RULE OF THIRDS | Dividing
COMPOSITION | Position or arrangement of the elements in a photo; content of a photo.
frame. Where the lines intersect,
CROPPING | Editing the image area to be reproduced. Cropping enhances a photo’s visual impact by removing dead space from the sides, top or bottom.
fall in a hot spot, a more dynamic
FRAMING | Composing a photo so that the subject is surrounded (framed) by content—sky, ground, people—that highlights the subject. LEADING LINES | A photo composition technique in which real or imaginary lines in a photo lead the eye to the dominant element, primary subject or center of interest. NOISE | An undesirable electronic pattern in the dark areas of a digital photo. PHOTOJOURNALISTIC PHOTOS | Tell stories, show action and reaction, provide a variety of subjects and points of view. PHOTO EDITING | Brings together photographer and designer and involves selection, cropping, sizing and the display of photos to optimize storytelling. REFERENCE PHOTOS | Group shots and portraits that provide a record of the school population and the membership of organizations and teams. REPETITION OF PATTERNS | A photo composition technique in which texture, lines or other visual repeats in the photo. RULE OF THIRDS | A method of dividing the photograph into thirds vertically and horizontally creating four intersection points. The main subject falls into one of the intersecting points, a little off-center in the photo.
the image into thirds vertically and horizontally guides the placement of the subject in the visual “hot spots” are created. By striving to have the subject photo results. Avoid centering a subject in the center boxes of the grid. [Megan Rountree, Westlake High School, TX]
FRAMING | Shooting from inside the object the student works on allows the photographer to dramatically frame the subject through the opening. The subject is positioned with the rule of thirds in mind and occupies the left points of the grid. [Gareth Patterson, Bryant High School, AR]
FILL THE FRAME | Sharing earbuds and smiles, the photographer got close so the subjects fill the frame and a distracting background is minimized. The intensity between their shared expressions keeps the viewer’s attention focused on the subjects. [Jordan Guttenberg, The Birch Wathen School, NY]
EMOTION IN MOTION | This image captures the strong disappointment of the players. The placement of the two most intense players on the right rule of thirds grid frames the rest of the team and provides entrance into the image’s focal point. [Rachel English, Shawnee Mission East High School, KS]