Photo Tip Of The Day - Make Sure Your Photographs Tell A Story!

Jun 13
07:57

2012

Dan Eitreim

Dan Eitreim

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If you want an award winning photograph, one major factor has to be "The Story." Here is a project that will help you.

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Today's photo tip… make sure all of your photos tell a story - is easy to understand - but not so easy to put into practice.

The good news is that like anything else,Photo Tip Of The Day - Make Sure Your Photographs Tell A Story! Articles it gets easier and better with practice.
 
In an interview, military photographer of the year MSgt Jeremy Lock said that he looks for two things in a photograph. A face and a story.

Admittedly, anyone can stumble on a lucky shot where everything falls into place and they win a bunch of awards - but MSgt Lock has won the military photographer of the year SIX years in a row - he obviously KNOWS what it takes!

Today, we will discuss the story telling aspect of an award winning photo. This concept is so important 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 a story. 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 a story 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 had to take a picture of this - only one - what would be the ideal way to communicate exactly what is happening?"

Once you've decided the best way to communicate what is happening, ask yourself, "What is the 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 extraneous details.

Do it while at home, at work, driving to and from work, walking the dog... whenever you think of it.

Eventually, looking for the story - and just as importantly, finding the best way to visually tell the 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 more advanced concepts. So, of course we're assuming you know how to get your concepts into the camera - correct aperture, exposure, composition and so on. It may seem basic, but art can't happen if you are struggling with the technical details - they have to be almost second nature. And "art" will NEVER happen with the camera set on automatic. Take your camera off automatic 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 your camera. 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 you could best tell that story - in one photograph. For more information, check out the resource box!