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How to Do Storytelling With Your Images: 8 Useful Tips

25 May

The post How to Do Storytelling With Your Images: 8 Useful Tips appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ben McKechnie.

how to do storytelling with your images

As a photographer of people and cultures, I spend a lot of time thinking about storytelling with my images – how I can convey emotions and narratives through a few simple frames.

Beginners often fail to think about the storytelling aspect of photography, and that’s okay. When you’re just starting out, it’s important to focus on lighting, composition, and camera settings. But once you’ve familiarized yourself with those key concepts, what’s the next logical step? How do you hook people for more than just a few seconds?

Storytelling.

How to do storytelling With Your Images

In this article, I share eight tips to get you started with storytelling in photography, accompanied by my own images to help illustrate the points. The photos may be taken in far-flung locations, but I promise you: the tips I offer can be applied anywhere on Earth.

1. Include small details to tell a story in a single frame

Imagine your task is to tell the story of a person. A parent, or even yourself.

How would you do it?

A standard portrait wouldn’t tell the full story. A person’s full story is often in the details: a picture of their desk, travel books strewn across a bedroom floor, a close-up of their hands dirty from working in the garden, a wide-angle portrait of them surrounded by a few of their favorite things.

So the next time you’re photographing a person, try to include small details that add to their story.

How to do storytelling With Your Images

I didn’t visit India to focus my lens on poverty alone. However, when trying to tell the story of Mumbai, it would have been dishonest of me not to include it. Confronted with the scene above, I saw the gap between the rich and poor. The small details here are my subject’s plastic bag, the skin condition on his arm, and his frail body. A big (and still important) detail is his juxtaposition with a backdrop of expensive high-rise buildings.

2. Aim for variety in a series of shots

This storytelling tip is related to the last point:

You must take a variety of different images of a single situation. Whether you want to photograph a camel market in India, a farmers’ market in a Chicago suburb, or your niece’s birthday party, just creating one type of photo won’t tell the whole story.

Instead, you need portraits, wide-angle shots, shots from up high, shots from down low, action shots, zoomed-in details, and more. All of these perspectives combined tell the whole story.

In the image series below, I tried to tell the story of a sunrise hot air balloon flight over the ancient, temple-strewn plain of Bagan, Myanmar. Capturing a variety of images was key to my success.

do storytelling images
do storytelling images
do storytelling images

3. Take control of the entire frame

Now that you’re thinking about telling stories, you’re not just a photographer; you’re a storyteller, too. And that role involves taking control of the whole frame.

In other words:

Don’t just think about your subject, their lighting, their positioning. Be aware of the whole scene in front of you, including surrounding details, backdrops, shadows, bright areas, etc.

Sometimes, I lie flat on the ground with my camera. Why? I want to include environmental details in the frame that improve the shot through storytelling. I get strange looks, but I don’t care; it’s the price of telling the real story.

do storytelling images
The Holy Man of Umananda Island (Assam, India).
Here, I wasn’t just thinking about the position of this gentleman’s face. I was also aware of his three-headed Hindu spear – a key detail in his story – and the flowers on its tips.
do storytelling images riverfront barges
I tried to tell the whole story of this chaotic riverfront by zooming out and including multiple subjects (Dhaka, Bangladesh).

4. Plan ahead with a shot list

Whether you’re heading out into your hometown for some street photography or to the Eiffel Tower for some vacation photography, why not create a shot list? I’m talking about ideas for specific shots, angles you want to try, and people you might include in the frame.

Research the kind of shots that other photographers have taken at your destination. Seek out new angles that’ll produce fresh storytelling even at well-known locations.

do storytelling images taj mahal
A traditional Taj Mahal composition that I just had to include on my shot list. I focused on capturing beautiful light and clean lines instead of a brand-new angle.
do storytelling images dog taj mahal
Sometimes seeking out fresh angles is a real pain in the neck, especially when you’re photographing buildings like the Taj Mahal. I jumped for joy when I saw this dog showing the Taj some serious love at sunset. I’d like to think even animals can appreciate how awesome this building is.

5. Learn to narrow down, trim, and exclude

Uploading a hundred photos to Facebook, all of a similar setting and taken from the same few angles, is a surefire way to lose people’s attention. Those 100 photos could easily be narrowed down to the 10 essential storytelling shots.

So learn to be selective! Start sharing only your best images.

Loktak Lake (pictured below) was so spectacular that I wandered around a single hilltop taking hundreds of images. It was bliss. A lot of the results were great, but would I really want to dump them all online for friends, family, and followers to sift through? No, I would not!

Instead, it’s important to find a few favorites that tell your subject’s story:

How to do Storytelling With Your Images
Manipur, India
How to do Storytelling With Your Images
Manipur, India

6. Emotions are an important part of storytelling

To capture emotions, you’ll primarily need people and faces. Emotion can also be communicated through body language, so capturing whole bodies works sometimes, too.

How to do Storytelling With Your Images

At the marvelous Mother’s Market in Manipur, India, I met these lovely ladies (above) animatedly playing a board game. I broke the ice by asking if I could join in. They said “No,” but it made them laugh and I got permission to shoot away. The best photos came after they’d forgotten about me; their natural expressions returned and I was able to capture their emotions.

7. Don’t forget about the basics

In your bid to learn storytelling, don’t forget about settings, composition, and lighting. It’s all too easy to fall out of touch with photography basics, especially when you’re first learning to tell a story with pictures.

After all, when you’re thinking about storytelling, you might start to drift away from photographic fundamentals.

So instead of replacing composition, settings, and lighting with storytelling, make sure everything works together. A shot with beautiful light, excellent composition, perfect exposure, and a great story? That’s how you capture people’s attention!

How to do Storytelling With Your Images
A lady on a train in Shan State, Myanmar.

8. Use narrative structure

How does a traditional novel or movie work? Novels and movies are stories, so they contain beginnings, middles, and ends.

You can do the same with your photos!

If you’re just starting out taking a series of storytelling pictures, try creating a chronological narrative. It’s by no means the only or even recommended narrative structure to follow, but it’s a fun and easy way to practice.

You might tell the story of a single day in a place you know well. Start with sunrise, then take photos throughout the day as the light changes. Conclude the series with sunset and night shots.

Here, I attempted to tell the story of day and night on the rivers running through the cities of Chittagong and Dhaka:

How to do Storytelling With Your Images
How to do Storytelling With Your Images
How to do Storytelling With Your Images
How to do Storytelling With Your Images

Telling a story with pictures: final words

Now that you’ve finished this article, you’re ready to begin telling stories with your photos!

So remember these tips, get out there with your camera, and have fun.

Now over to you:

Have you tried doing storytelling photography? What was it like? Did you enjoy it? Share your thoughts and storytelling images in the comments below!

The post How to Do Storytelling With Your Images: 8 Useful Tips appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ben McKechnie.


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Fujifilm Will Award $90,000 in Gear as Part of “Students of Storytelling” Initiative

13 Apr

The post Fujifilm Will Award $ 90,000 in Gear as Part of “Students of Storytelling” Initiative appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Fujifilm Contest

If you’re a university student, or you’re interested in following the work of student photographers and videographers around the US, then I have good news:

Fujifilm is launching its Students of Storytelling contest, which awards 30 students up to $ 3000 USD in Fujifilm gear.

Its purpose?

To help students tell their own stories through photography and videography.

As Fujifilm explains, ” We are passionate about stories and truly believe that the future of storytelling rests in the hands of today’s college students. This is why the Students of Storytelling contest will award up to $ 3,000 of Fujifilm gear to a select group of winners to help bring their creative stories out into the light.”

Note that you don’t have to be an accomplished artist to take part; all current part-time and full-time college students are eligible, excepting Florida residents.

students of storytelling contest page

Fujifilm does offer entry guidelines, stating that the ideal proposal “should be designed to tell a cohesive ‘story’ of a human, or life-related experience, event, challenge, objective, relationship(s), approach, passion, and/or interest that may be depicted and effectively communicated through photographic images or video.”

Fujifilm also notes that participants will need to adhere to the CDC’s COVID-19 social distancing guidelines when carrying out their project.

The submission period goes until May 31st, during which eligible students can submit their proposed stories in written, video, or photographic format. The first half of June will be spent judging the entries, and students will be notified of their success at the end of June.

At that point, winners will be given the opportunity to choose Fujifilm equipment totaling up to $ 3000 USD. Winners will then have 90 days to complete and submit their stories, which are to be shared via social media, as well as on Fujifilm’s Create Forever website.

So if you’re an eligible student, head on over to Fujifilm’s website, where you can submit your own proposal to be considered for the Students of Storytelling contest.

And for everyone else:

If you’re interested in following the contest and all the winners, be sure to check Create-Forever.com for updates.

The post Fujifilm Will Award $ 90,000 in Gear as Part of “Students of Storytelling” Initiative appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


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Storytelling Newborn Photography Shoot Tips

05 Mar

Storytelling photography for newborn babies is all about capturing the real life memories of the newborn days for families in a beautiful way, and it’s quickly becoming the most popular style of photography for capturing the newborn stage of life. Not only does it bring out the personalities of everyone and provide specific memories of what life was like during Continue Reading

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Storytelling in Photography: What It Is and How You Can Improve It

08 Nov

The post Storytelling in Photography: What It Is and How You Can Improve It appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

storytelling-in-photography

From photography contests to job offerings, the term storytelling is becoming more and more popular. But, do you know what storytelling in photography is? In this article, I’ll share with you some facts that help you understand what it is; and some tips on how you can improve it in your photography.

What is storytelling in photography?

I’ve heard many definitions of storytelling in photography from an explanation that compared it to a bowl of ice cream, to the classic “an image is worth a thousand words.” What I got from all of them is that you need to portray a message and convey a feeling.

Storytelling in Photography: What It Is and How You Can Improve It

Let’s get started by clarifying some of the most common doubts.

Types of photography

So, what type of photography uses storytelling? The truth is, if you want to improve your photography, you have to tell a story regardless of the type of photography you do. A wedding photographer tells the story of a couple as much as a documentarian reports an event. Here are some ideas:

  • How to Create a Documentary Photography Project.
  • How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos – 4 Steps.
  • 5 Steps to Creative Storytelling in Pictures with Your Kids.

Single photos vs. multi-image projects

Think about it this way: in magazines, sometimes you have an entire article spanning pages, and other times just a cover image. Storytelling in photography can be about an entire project, but it also refers to single images. For example, this image was picked as the cover for a compilation of short stories centered around women’s sensuality.

storytelling in photography

Perhaps it’s easier to think about storytelling when you refer to a series of images. This is because we can associate it with a narrative that has a beginning, middle with a climax, and an ending. If you’re not feeling confident about it yet, learn How to Shoot a Sequence of Photos That Capture a Story.

How to tell a story?

Research

First of all, you need to do your research. Each type of photography will have different needs and it’s harder to tell a story that you don’t know. For example, once I was invited to visit a beekeeping farm “whenever I wanted.” At that moment, the extent of my knowledge about honey was simply where to buy it and how much I like to put in my tea.

Storytelling in Photography: What It Is and How You Can Improve It

To make the most of my visit, I had to pick the right time to be there. I learned about the process of honey harvesting and extraction, and the time of the year it happens. Then I learned how it depended on the weather and the type of flowers in the area. Thanks to this research, I was able to capture an image of a fully-capped honeycomb ready for harvesting.

Technique

It’s a given that being a photographer means you know how to take a well-exposed photograph, but this isn’t enough when it comes to telling a story. The technique needs to work in your favor, so it’s not just about which settings but why those settings.

Storytelling in Photography: What It Is and How You Can Improve It

Every decision you make changes the final result. A warmer or cooler light gives a different type of atmosphere. Where you put the focus point and how deep you set the depth of field directs your viewer’s eye, and so on.  It’s not only about having a technically perfect photo, but it’s also about making the perfect photo to tell the perfect story.

 

How to improve your storytelling in photography

Ask for help

Always ask others what they ‘read’ in your photographic images. This will help you understand if the message you want to portray is being received. This scene I witnessed in a local park really moved me, so I decided to photograph it. I later found out that I didn’t manage to capture the feeling of the moment, as the photo wasn’t much appreciated when I asked for opinions.

[Editor’s comment: I don’t agree here – I think this photo says a lot about the connection of a child and their favorite toy that they love to include in everything they do. To me, the child is treating the toy as a friend who is playing on the see-saw with them. Also, while there is a level cuteness, there is also a sense of sadness at perhaps having no one else to play with but a stuffed toy.]

storytelling in photography

Passion

Your work will always be more effective if you are passionate about what you’re doing. Find out what interests you and what your style is. If you’re having trouble finding your way, I suggest reading To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography.

storytelling in photography

Training

Keep your eye trained by looking at how the professionals tackle storytelling. Browse through magazines, go to exhibitions, check the winning images in contests, and follow them on Instagram. While you do this, also start doing your own and keep on practicing. Remember, it’s okay to fail, as long as you learn from it and keep trying.

Conclusion

Storytelling in photography is the ability to transport the viewers into a particular scene and atmosphere. While in there, you convey the message in a way that gets your audience involved, interested and leaves them wanting more. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing a single photo or a full project, a documentary or advertising, tell your story so that you can portray exactly what you want your viewer to know, or leave them to ponder multiple possibilities.

Do you have other tips for doing storytelling in photography? If so, share with us in the comments, along with any images you’d like to share.

The post Storytelling in Photography: What It Is and How You Can Improve It appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.


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SkyPixel Reveals Winners of its 2018 Storytelling Drone Photography Contest

27 Mar

SkyPixel Contest 2018 Winners

DJI’s SkyPixel, one of the world’s largest photography and videography communities, has announced the winners of its 2018 Aerial Storytelling Contest. Over 30,000 entries were submitted by professional videographers, photographers, and hobbyists from 141 countries.

The grand prize-winning entry in the photo category, pictured above, was taken in Northern France by Deryk Baumgartner. He used a Mavic Pro to capture the sunbathed Mont Saint Michel monastery, shrouded in a thin layer of fog, and framed with snaking ribbons of water.

“I was sitting on a rock fighting with stubborn wind and thick rain for the whole morning. The sun came up when I was just about to stand up and go home,” Baumgartner said. “This photo tells a simple story of you and me. Stick to it for a little longer in life when you are just about to fold, the silver lining would often unveil itself.”

In addition to the Grand Prize, First, Second, and Third prizes were awarded to images spanning four categories: Nature, Fun, Architecture, and Sport. A panel of six judges including Ben Nott, ACS, an award-winning cinematographer and Josh Raab, the Director of Instagram at National Geographic, selected the winners with the exception of People’s Choice Prize.

To view all the winners, nominees, and People’s Choice, for both photography and videography, visit the official SkyPixel Contest 2018 hub.

Hungry hippos

‘First Prize’ category winner, Nature: Hungry Hippos by Martin Sanchez (@zekedrone)

About the photo: “There’s no party like a hippo party” said photographer Martin Sanchez about this top-down perspective, taken in Tanzania, of a group of hippos convening in a small body of water. Sanchez used a DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

Alien footprints

‘Second Prize’ category winner, Nature: ????” by ? ??

About this photo: Snow in the Taklimakan desert, located between two mountain ranges in Northwest China, combined with ice formed a unique texture on the lake during the winter. The photographer captured this image at 400 meters AGL with a Mavic 2 Zoom and likened the patterns as “alien footprints.”

Nature Engraving

‘Third Prize’ category winner, Nature: “Nature Engraving” by ???

About this photo: Using a Phantom 4 Pro in the Utah desert, the photographer used golden hour light, the texture of the badlands, and the icy hues resulting from shadows cast against patches of snow to his advantage.

Flowers on the water

‘First Prize’ category winner, Fun: “Flowers on the Water” by Khánh Phan

About the photo: Using a Phantom 4 Pro V2.0, Phan created an aerial perspective of three women methodically cleaning gun flowers, arranged in a circle, for bundling to sell in the markets.

Salt harvest

‘Second Prize’ category winner, Fun: “Burden Salt Harvest” by Tu?n Nguy?n

About the photo: Hon Khoi is the largest salt field in Vietnam. Using a Phantom 4 Pro, this nadir perspective fixates on the shadows of workers carrying buckets of salt on one of their daily shifts that range from 3:00 to 7:00 am.

Ducks in black and white

‘Third Prize’ category winner, Fun: ???” by ? ??

About the photo: A Phantom 4 Pro was used to capture this black and white image containing dozens of white peking ducks clustering around piles of food.

Hong Kong small planet

‘First Prize’ category winner, Architecture: “Not a Small HK Island” by Panvelvet

About the photo: Panvelvet used a Phantom 4 Pro to create 43 images of Hong Kong. They were stitched together into a tiny planet sphere, and inverted for a visual effect of a city circling toward a bright orb.

Myanmar temples

‘Second Prize’ category winner, Architecture: “Bagan” by Witold Ziomek

About the photo: Bagan used a Mavic Pro to capture the sunrise reflecting off a temple in Bagan, Myanmar.

Golden hour in Macau

Third Prize’ category winner, Architecture:?????” by ??

About the photo: Golden hour light brightens up the Grand Lisboa hotel in Macau, China. The photographer used a Phantom 4 Pro.

Running through sand dunes

‘First Prize’ category winner, Sport: “Running Through the Sand Dunes” by Trung Pham

About the photo: Pham used a Mavic 2 Pro to get an aerial perspective of children running through sand dunes in Phan Rang, Vietnam, early in the morning. The black and white image accentuates the vastness of the dunes in relation to the children.

Shadow skier

‘Second Prize’ category winner, sport: “Shadow Skier #5” by Christoph Oberschneider

About the photo: A Mavic 2 Pro was used to capture a lone skier gliding down a slope in Austria.

Hammer throwing

‘Third Prize’ category winner, Sport: “Throwing IT to the Moon” by Taavi Purtsak

About the photo: Purtsak used a Mavic Pro and set the shutter speed at 1/2500s to freeze the motion of Estonian hammer throw champion Kati Ojaloo mid rotation.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to do Visual Storytelling with Photos

29 May

The old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, essentially means that what you can see in one image would take many words to describe the contents, the action, the emotion, what it’s about, and so on. It’s visual storytelling. One powerful picture can evoke an instant response and connection. It allows people to shape what they see, tell its story to them in their words.

Think of some of the most iconic images in history – the sailor kissing the girl in a crowded street by Alfred Eisenstaedt, the Migrant Mother holding her children during the depression by Dorothea Lange, Clearing Winter Storm by Ansel Adams. They are all powerful images that tell a story with impact.

lady in an American flag outfit at a festival - How to do Visual Storytelling with Photos

Sometimes we want to tell more of a story of a place or an event, where we can take many images and tell much more of the story. This allows us to include extra detail elements, wider scene-setting shots, and have the action covered from different angles or points of view.

Doing this provides new challenges. The overall story needs to make sense, have a beginning/middle/end sequence, as well as have some action or conflict and possibly resolution. So the challenge is not just to take enough images to cover what is happening, but to then blend them into a coherent story which makes sense to the viewer.

What does it take to do visual storytelling with photos?

Here are some tips to help you increase the visual storytelling elements of your images.

Example images below

A 90-minute drive from where I live is a small village called Akaroa. It was settled in the 1840s by French settlers and later other Europeans, who shared it with the local Maori tribes. The history of the area is very important and celebrated every year with a weekend festival, starting with a parade featuring descendants of original settlers. I went along with my camera a couple of years ago and spent the weekend wandering around.

This is a context statement (see #4 below) and comments have been added to some images to provide further context.

1. Answer the five key questions

  1. What is happening?
  2. Who is there?
  3. Why is it happening?
  4. Where is it happening?
  5. When is it happening?

In relation to the festival. first I needed some scenery shots – this is the where.

How to do Visual Storytelling with Photos - Akaroa harbour in NZ with boats and a hill

Looking back up Akaroa Harbour to the Village, with Banks Peninsula hills in the background.

bridge over a stream - How to do Visual Storytelling with Photos

How to do Visual Storytelling with Photos - main wharf in Akaroa

Akaroa main wharf.

Include any well-known landmarks in the area – things that will easily visually identify it to anyone who has been there or seen them before. This helps give a sense of place and tells more of the where story.


2. Framing a sequence of events

Instead of trying to cram everything into one big image, where it can be confusing, shoot a series of more specific shots that relate to each other and tell the story that way.

Sequencing – is there a group of images you can put together that tell their own story?

3. Story structure

Your visual storytelling needs certain elements included to help it make sense, tell the story you want it to, and engage the viewer. This is called narrative. Essential elements of story structure include:

  • Introduction  – Sets the scene, introduces important characters, sets the tone and theme.
  • Plot – What is happening, who is it happening to, what are the outcomes?

What about the event? where is all the color and excitement? This is the What and the Who and the Why – which are all part of the plot.

I liked the contrast of the Maori woman and child in their native dress, against the bold red of the brass band.

Children in native Maori dress followed up by the descendants of French and German settlers in period style clothing.

Everyone enjoying the beautiful day out.

  • Themes – Your images should be linked in obvious, but subtle ways, to each other and this can be done in different ways:
    • Visual – Repeating elements (e.g. street signs), color (have a limited color palette or always show an element of a single color in each image).
    • Style – Have a consistent style in the way the images are shot or are processed, using a specific focal length or lens.
    • Consistency – Shooting the same subject but in different places or situations (e.g. interesting doorways, statues, manhole covers, all in different cities or countries) or shooting the same subject over time (a pregnancy story, or engagement to wedding day story).
    • Relationships – Between people or elements in an environment.

And as is traditional in Akaroa, dinner at the end of the day is fish and chips from the local shop by the beach, and ever-present seagulls fighting over a chip.

Note this isn’t the story as I would necessarily tell it visually, but examples of different shots of a place and an event to give you an idea of the things to look out for.

One of the things I did do is provide some consistency with the way they are edited, so tonally they are all the same, other than the variations in color temperature of the sun at different times of the day.

4. Context

The relationship of all the images to each other provide the overall context for the story to be structured within and therefore viewed. So when you are building your visual story you need to have an idea of the context to frame it all within. Otherwise, it could appear to be a group of random images that may or may not be visually related in some way.

It may be that a short textual description or explanation sets the scene and provides the viewer with enough context to assimilate the images within. However, that option may not always be available so plan your story so that it can stand alone on its own visual merits.

Final examples

Are there any local characters you should include? This is part of the Who.

Is there any interesting architecture that helps tell the story – like in this instance, some historical buildings?

This older building has been modernised but the date gives testament to its origins. The decorative street lamps add extra flavor.

Akaroa embraces its French history with red/white/blue featuring strongly, and many places and streets are French names.

Detail shots are also nice to include, they can add flavor to the series, and interest with different points of view. Use them to tell parts of the story.

This guy was clearly important but I didn’t catch his name.

A confession

I have a confession to make. The reality is that these images are actually sourced from about three different trips. They were not all shot in one weekend for the purpose of illustrating my point, and to a certain extent, that shows in the coherence of them.

While a story could be cobbled together from these images (or other ones in my archive) they were not all shot with the idea of craft and doing visual storytelling. That shows the importance of thinking about this beforehand and shooting with intent. It means your final outcome should be the better for it.

Summary

Event or travel photography has its own challenges, and it may not always be possible for you to think about doing visual storytelling when you are in the midst of things. Maybe you don’t have to cover the whole event or trip – maybe, just a special portion of it catches your interest.  Visual stories can be small and intimate too, they don’t have to be grand scale every time. A family birthday, the local school fair or market, a day out the beach, a walk in the park on a nice evening – three images, five more shots, and a few pairs of sequences.

Hopefully, this will give you enough of an idea to start thinking about telling a story with your images, it is not something I do enough myself, and if you have any tips, feel free to comment below.

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How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

08 Jan

Drawing the viewer’s attention to the main subject in your photographs will help them understand your story more clearly. If you have a busy scene with no clear focus point it will possibly give your viewers an overall idea of what you were photographing, but they may not scrutinize it for long. Adding a clear center of attention will help you create better storytelling images.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Particularly when you are photographing a locality with a lot going on you can seek to isolate or draw the viewer’s eye to one main subject within your composition. By using this technique, you can develop a style which may become easily recognizable in your photographs.

Lessons from documentary photography

I first learned to make photographs like this while working as a newspaper photographer. My task was to illustrate and support the journalist’s story with my pictures. Making photos that compelled people to stop and look was always my priority. We wanted people to take notice, look at the photo, and read the story.

Photos of broad, general scenes will not achieve this so well as people will typically just flick past them.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Creating a photo essay to tell of your travel experience, an event you attended, a parade, etc., you will be aiming to convey what you saw and how you felt to best engage your audience. By creating a series of images where you have focused in on one main subject in each image you can build an overall illustration communicating to the viewer what it was like to be there. That is storytelling at its best.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Techniques

There are various techniques you can use to draw attention to one part of your composition. Using a shallow depth of field to isolate is one method. Using the contrast in light between your subject and the background, and various composition methods you can obtain pleasing results.

Play with the background

All of the photos I am using to illustrate this article are from a street parade in Chiang Mai, Thailand. With a lot of people, often cluttered backgrounds, and no real control or means of setting up photos, it’s a challenging situation in which to shoot.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Finding a dark background to help isolate your subject is not always so easy, but when you can it will produce some great photos. In this photo of the boy playing a large drum, I positioned myself so the background was totally in shadow and therefore underexposed.

This has achieved isolation of my main subject and you easily focus your attention on him. My timing to capture a smile and interesting positioning of his drumstick also helped. On its own though, this photograph does not do much to illustrate the parade and environment.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Coming in close to the French horn player (with a 35mm lens on a full frame camera and a wide aperture) I was able to isolate him and at the same time convey more information about his activity and location. Making him the center of attention and at the same time leaving him in context helps tell the story.

Had I used a longer lens it would have included less background and it may have been even more blurred, further distorting the detail and therefore the context of the story would be lost.

Using compositional elements

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Using different composition methods such as framing or converging lines you can help draw your viewer’s attention to your chosen subject.

Often during our workshops, I find people want to include too much in their photos. I encourage them to include less and take more photos build up a story that way.

While it is good practice to create a photo essay which has a varied selection of wide, medium and close-up photos, trying to capture too much of what’s in front of you can often produce rather uninteresting photographs. Bringing one part of your composition to the foreground as the center of attention is a more effective means of holding a viewer’s focus.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

Single or multiple photos

At the newspaper most often each story was accompanied by a single photograph. So the challenge was to produce one image supporting the narrative of the story. Not always so easy, especially with an event like a parade.

I often encourage people to photograph as if they are shooting to cover a story for a magazine. The aim being to come away with a series of photographs that together will tell the story of their experience. To finish up with 6-10 photos having a clear center of interest in each one and conveying the overall experience of the day.

How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images

If you produce a small collection of photos most social media and photo sharing sites have means to display them together in an album or gallery so it’s a great way for you to share your stories and your experiences.

Your turn

You can see some of these tips in action in the video below. Please share your tips and thoughs on creating more storytelling images by having a center of attention in the comments below.

The post How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images by Kevin Landwer-Johan appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos – 4 Steps

07 Jan

When we think of storytelling images, we immediately think of people doing something in a documentary type of photograph. After all, people make the most interesting stories. But landscapes have stories too.

As a landscape photographer, you can create a collection of images that tell a story about a place without having people as the main focal point in the image.

Salton Sea, California by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos

The following steps will help you pull the story out of the landscape and convey it to your viewers.

1. What is the story?

The first thing you need to do is to spend some time thinking about what exactly is the story. Often we go to a place and start making images based on compositional elements in the scene without thinking about what is important to the story first.

Salton Sea California by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

When I go to a new place, I often do a scouting trip first just to have a general look around and get a feel for it. Then I do some research to find an interesting story. If the place is a park, why is it a park? Who made it a park? What is the history? What interesting things happen there now and in the past? Do any animals live there, and if so which ones?

Once you have some background, you can pick a story to wrap your photographs around.

Egret at Salton Sea, California by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

2. The first photo shoot – using different focal lengths

Your first photo shoot will help you bring your plan together. Go back to the places that had the most photographic potential from your scouting trip and while there look for elements in the scene that relate to the story you have chosen.

I usually start out with a wide-angle image that takes in the whole scene. Often I don’t end up using this photo in the final collection, but it helps me in my process of making the collection. When you have your photo that takes in everything, think about what are the most interesting things in the scene. Try to pick at least three things and then get closer to each one of them in turn.

Gulls Flying over Pelicans by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

White pelicans by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

Example

For example, when I went to the Salton Sea in California (a stunningly beautiful location that was created as a result of a man-made disaster) one feature that is most interesting is a layer of dead fish. But how do you make a good photograph of dead fish?

I started by making an image that took in the whole scene. Then I changed lenses to use a mid-range focal length and then a long focal length from where I was standing. Then I started to get closer and closer to the dead fish looking for elements of design such as lines and shapes along the way.

Salton Sea Tilapia by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

Dead Tilapia at Salton Sea, California by Anne McKinnell - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

When I found something interesting, again I tried to use different focal lengths to see how I could convey the feeling of the place in an image.

Make sure you photograph the details of the scene as well as the overall feeling. Finally, when you find a really interesting detail, get really close to it using your wide-angle lens so you have an image with an interesting detail in the foreground that also takes the whole scene into the frame.

3. The second shoot – using the best light

The next step is to pick out your favorite images from your first shoot and think about what kind of light could make them better. Is there a subject with a great shape that would make an interesting silhouette? Is it transparent and might glow with some backlight?

Would it create interesting shadows at a certain time of day? Would it look best with warm light during the golden hour? Does it need a dramatic sky?

Sunset at Corvina Beach, Salton Sea, California - How to Make Storytelling Landscape Photos - 4 Steps

Whatever it is, plan to revisit the location when you have the best chance of getting the conditions you need to make your ideal shot. You may need to go back a number of times, if possible before you get all the shots you want.

4. Putting it together

Whether you are putting the images into a collection display on your wall, using them in a blog post, displaying them on your website, selling them to a magazine (along with your story of course), or simply showing your friends. Having an interesting set of images that are storytelling will always create a larger impact than random photos of a place that are not connected.

Salton Sea Collage by Anne McKinnell

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How to Use the Background to Create More Storytelling Images

24 Nov

Sometimes you’re so focused on capturing the moment that you forget to pay attention to what’s in the background of your photo. When you look at your photos later, you realize that there are all sorts of distractions in the background. One way to overcome these distractions is to use the background to help with storytelling in your photo.

Even though “the moment” is likely the most important part of your photo, good moments always happen in a place. Use the background to show where your moment or story takes place.

Think of People as Characters

The first thing I recommend is thinking of the people in your photo as characters. When you’re going to take a picture of somebody ask, “Who is this character and what are they doing?” When you answer these questions you’ll be able to choose a good background to help tell that story.

Storytelling background 15

This is a photo of my son. I wasn’t thinking of him merely as my son, but rather as a “hiker.” Thinking of him as a hiker helped me choose a background that portrayed the story of a hiker.

Two Ways to Choose a Background

There are two ways to choose a background for your photo.

  1. You can begin with your character and then choose the right background for them.
  2. Or, you can begin with a good background and then look for a character to put into the scene.

Finding a Background that Matches Your Character

Keep in mind the two questions to ask yourself; “Who is this character and what are they doing?”

In this photo, the character is my infant son and he is sleeping in a carrier on my wife’s back. It’s a cute picture, but there is no way to tell from the background where we were when this took place.

Storytelling background 01

This is a nice photo, but the background doesn’t add to the story.

We were on a camping trip and I knew I wanted a collection of photos that would show that. So I repositioned myself to find a better perspective and show the camp trailer in the background. This added a sense of place to the photo.

Storytelling background 02

The camp trailer in the background adds context to the photo of the sleeping infant.

Later on that summer it came time to chop wood for the winter. My little guy wanted to help daddy!

Naturally, I wanted a photo of him trying to chop wood. Depending on the perspective I chose there could have been trees, water, or a wood pile in the background. Since this is a photo about chopping wood, I chose to have the woodpile in the background.

There is even some wood in the foreground, reminding me of what a big job we had that summer!

Storytelling background 03

The huge pile of wood is a natural background for the little wood chopper. Plus it emphasizes how small he is comparatively.

Next time you’re about to snap a photo of somebody, stop and consider your background. Can you move around in order to get a good background to help with storytelling?

Finding a Character to Fit the Background

There may be times when you want to photograph an interesting scene but feel that there is something missing. Perhaps it is the character that is missing. When you come across an interesting scene, go ahead and photograph it. But also wait and allow that scene to become a background for some interesting characters.

When we visited Halls Harbour in Nova Scotia, the rugged shoreline was an obvious feature to photograph. I experimented with different angles and perspectives, but I knew I needed some good characters in the scene. Finally, a couple with their dog came walking down the shoreline. When the man began skipping stones out into the water I knew that these were the characters I was awaiting.

Storytelling background 04

These people and their dog were the perfect additions to the rugged shoreline.

Instead of just a photo of a beautiful landscape, this has become a story about a family on an adventure. To me, skipping stones into the water is a nostalgic sort of moment, so I decided this story looked best in black and white.

Make a story

When the tide was low we could walk out into the harbor amongst the ships that were now resting on the ground. Again, this was an interesting scene that just seemed to be missing a character. Then my son came tip-toeing through the mud and became the perfect character to fit the scene.

Storytelling background 05

When I let my imagination carry me away, I pretend that my son has pulled the plug in the harbor and all the water has drained out. He better sneak away before he gets caught!

Using framing

On a trip to Niagara Falls, we ducked into a building to get some relief from the cold wind and mist from the falls. Through the windows, we could see the falls and a rainbow that was produced through the mist. I wanted to take a photo but waited until my kids went and stood in the window. This allows the falls and rainbow to make up the background while my kids are the characters in the scene.

Storytelling background 06

The characters in the foreground allow the viewer’s attention to be drawn to the falls and rainbow in the background.

Plan ahead

In these next two examples, I used our house as a background for the photo. We were getting ready to move in the spring and I knew we needed a few more photos, by which to remember this old house. So I was determined to use our house as a setting and photograph more scenes with it in the background.

That winter, we built a snow hill nearly as tall as the house itself. That was a perfect opportunity to photograph an exciting event with our home in the background.

Storytelling background 07

A low angle helped to capture this epic moment right in our front yard. The snow hill towers in front of the house in the background.

Storytelling background 08

Our kids will always remember their first childhood home (and the fun they had there) when they look back on these photos.

Next time you come across a nice scene, go ahead and photograph the scene by itself. Once you have done this, you can look for a character to add to the scene, allowing it to become a background for their story. This is a perfect approach for both landscape and street photography. Choose the background and then wait for the character to come along.

Symbolic Backgrounds

So far, all of the backgrounds in these photos have been literal scenes. But you can use a background to give your story some symbolic meaning as well. You do this by finding a background that makes you think deeper than the literal object itself. For example, a sunset in the background isn’t just about the sun, perhaps it’s about “romance” or “a happy ending.”

In this example, my wife is tying up vines in a vineyard. This is a job that needs to be done in the spring before any green actually appears on the vines. There really wasn’t anything nice near her to use as a background, except golden light from the setting sun.

To me, vineyards are about long days of outdoor work, and the romance of shared wine. The warm setting sun was the perfect symbolic background to express these feelings.

Storytelling background 09

The golden sun in the background of this photo is symbolic of the day’s end, and the romance of wine and vineyards.

When you’re photographing a character doing something interesting, ask yourself if there is anything in the background that adds symbolic meaning to what they’re doing.

I have lots of photos of my kids reading books. The following photo is an example of a very boring background that does not help to tell a story.

Storytelling background 10

This background is distracting. The bed leg is growing out of their shoulders and pulls our attention away from what the kids are doing.

You can come up with some great backgrounds for people reading books. A library or a coffee shop would be two good choices for your background. But these are obvious choices and perhaps you could choose a symbolic background instead. Think about the nature of reading and how a person grows as they learn.

Storytelling background 11

This is exactly the sort of place that many people would sit and read a book. There is something about old leather chairs that invite you to nestle in and read. Behind the chair is a wood grain wall. Wood is something that grows. Wood is symbolic of the “growth” that happens when a child learns and reads.

Keep your eye open for backgrounds that are symbolic of the story you want to tell.

Using the Background to Tell a Story in Multiple Photos

When you find a good background, go ahead and use it in different ways to expand on your story.

The following photos are all from Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick. Every tourist who has ever been there, walks away with the same photos from the same perspectives, so I challenged myself to come away with something different. I wanted photos of the rocks, so I used them as the background for the scene and then waited for interesting characters to come along.

The first thing I noticed was lots of tourists rushing around snapping pictures of the rocks. They were always getting in the way of the photo I was taking, so I gave up and took pictures of them instead.

Storytelling background 12

I like how this tourist blends into the rocks. As they reached out their arms to take a photo, their arms mimicked the circle shapes in the rocks.

Two-year-olds are notoriously difficult to photograph. I wanted to take a photo of my daughter with the rocks in the background. But all she wanted to do was chew on saltwater stones. She had been doing this on our entire trip. We were constantly telling her to get the rocks out of her mouth.

Storytelling background 13

If you’re going to photograph a two-year-old, you might just as well photograph her doing what she loves. And what better background for her photo than the massive rocks?

The tide was rising quickly and would soon cover the massive rock formations. In our last moments there something spectacular happened. A park ranger made his own rock formation by balancing several odd shaped rocks on each other.

Storytelling background 14

What a contrast between the massive Hopewell Rocks and the man-made formation. The force of the tide eroded one set of rocks over a long period of time and will quickly topple the rocks that have been so carefully balanced by the ranger.

When you stick with a scene long enough wonderful things happen and your mind will find symbolic meaning that you otherwise might have missed.

You’ll Enjoy Your Photos More When Your Background Adds to the Story

Don’t let your backgrounds be a disappointing afterthought. Instead, consider how the background in your photo can add storytelling elements to your character.

Remember the steps:

  • When you’re going to take a picture of somebody, first ask yourself, “Who is this character and what are they doing?” When you answer these questions you’ll be able to choose a good background for storytelling.
  • You can choose a background for your character, or find a good background and wait for the perfect character to come along.
  • Try using backgrounds to give symbolic meaning to your photos.
  • Use the background in different ways over several photos.

When you pay attention to the background your photos will become less sloppy and more meaningful. Please share some of your images with storytelling backgrounds in the comments below.

The post How to Use the Background to Create More Storytelling Images by Mat Coker appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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GoPro launches QuikStories feature for automated story-telling

27 Jul

GoPro’s Quik app for making short and shareable videos from your GoPro footage has been available for a while. Now the new QuikStories feature is taking things one step further by generating clips automatically and making them as easy as possible to share on social media and get them off your GoPro’s memory card.

QuickStories is integrated into the latest version of the GoPro app. After a day of shooting video with your GoPro the app will search your camera for new clips and automatically create a shareable version, complete with edits and music. It’ll also picks brief elements from longer clips and you can still interfere manually though and change the order of clips or the music. You can also add other media from your phone into the mix if you want to.

As you would expect, QuikStories integrates with most social networks you already have on your phone but you can also export the finalized video to use it in any way you want. The video below gives you a pretty good idea of how the feature works.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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