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Photo Tip Of The Day – Make Sure Your Photographs Tell AStory!
Photo Tip Of The Day – Make Sure Your Photographs Tell AStory!
Today’s photo tip… make sure all of your photos tell a story – is easy to understand – but not soeasy to put into practice.
The good news is that like anything else, it gets easier and better with practice.
In an interview, military photographer of the year MSgt Jeremy Lock said that he looks for twothings in a photograph. A face and a story.
Admittedly, anyone can stumble on a lucky shot where everything falls into place and they win abunch of awards – but MSgt Lock has won the military photographer of the year SIX years in arow – he obviously KNOWS what it takes!
Today, we will discuss the story telling aspect of an award winning photo. This concept is soimportant that I wanted to talk about it a bit and give you a photo training project.
Award winning Images need more than good Exposure, sharp focus and so on… they need astory. Something that will engage the viewer and make them want to keep looking at the photo –and possibly even get some personal meaning from it.
The problem is… it’s difficult to get this quality into your art. It takes; first – being aware that astory is needed and second – you need the ability to find “the story”.
Here’s a project that may help you put the story telling concept into your photography.
For the next few weeks, every time you think about it, look around yourself and think… “If I hadto take a Picture of this – only one – what would be the ideal way to communicate exactly whatis happening?”
Once you’ve decided the best way to communicate what is happening, ask yourself, “What isthe least I could show that would clearly indicate what is happening?”
In other words, first try to find the defining image, then strengthen it by eliminating extraneousdetails.
Do it while at home, at work, driving to and from work, walking the dog… whenever you think ofit.
Eventually, looking for the story – and just as importantly, finding the best way to visually tell the
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story – will become a habit and start to show up in your art.
Try it, what have you get to lose?
However, without a thorough grounding in the basics, you cannot hope to master the moreadvanced concepts. So, of course we’re assuming you know how to get your concepts intothe Camera – correct Aperture, exposure, Composition and so on. It may seem basic, but artcan’t happen if you are struggling with the technical details – they have to be almost secondnature. And “art” will NEVER happen with the camera set on automatic. Take your camera offautomatic right now – and vow never to put it back!
If you feel you are weak in these basic areas do whatever you can to learn to control yourcamera. Practice, take courses, get a friend to help you out… whatever.
In the meantime start looking at everything around you as a photo story, then decide how youcould best tell that story – in one photograph.
If this daily tip was a nice review of what you already knew – GREAT! If it taught you something– you need my “On Target Photo Training” course. All of it, right now!
http://ontargetphototraining.com/KinOrder1
P.S. I can open the door, but YOU have to walk through!
http://ontargetphototraining.com/KinOrder1
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