Mastering Photography: Techniques, Types, and Essays

Types of News

• International
• National
• Regional
• Local
• Personal

Four Things to Describe a Photo

• Place
• Time
• Event
• Circumstances/Background

Standard and Non-Standard Questions

Standard: Questions that you can ask everyone.

Non-standard: Questions that are specific to some people.

Types of Photos and Definitions

• Snaps: When a person takes a photo of another.
• Selfies: When you take a photo of yourself.
• Re-touch: Photoshop.
• Collage: Many photos in a single photo.
• Blow-up: Enlarge the photo.
• Profile Picture: A photo representing a person in a digital profile.
• Shots: Photos.
• Shooting: The act of taking photos.

How to Take Good Photos

1. Shoot level with your subject.
2. Keep your subject away from complicated, detailed, and distracting backgrounds.
3. Don’t be afraid to move in close.
4. Take some vertical shots.
5. Lock the focus on your subject.
6. Move the subject away from the middle.
7. Frame your photo with something in the foreground.
8. Watch your light and keep your subject out of the extremes.
9. Tell your subjects where to move and where to stand.
10. Take lots of pictures.
11. Don’t stop after every shot to check the digital image.

Essential Shots for a Photo Essay

1. The Hook Shot

The hook shot is the principal photo.

2. The Establishing Shot

The establishing shot gives information about the place.

3. The Medium Shot

The medium shot is a shot that gives information about who the characters are and what they are doing.

4. The Detail Shot

As the name implies, the shot has to do with the details. These shots add flavor to the story.

5. The Portrait Shot

Give a face to the characters.

6. The Gesture

This can be someone shooting basketballs or running. But it is often an interaction between two subjects in the story. There’s usually movement involved in some sort of action or dialogue between the subjects. By having this shot in the essay, we stop the essay from becoming a series of too many portraits.

7. The Closure

The hook and the establishing shot usually come in the first section of the photo essay. The only other shot that has a definite place within the essay is the one called ‘the closure’. The closure, as the name implies, is the parting shot. It draws things to an end. This shot provides a resolution for the story.

How to Create a Photo Essay

Steps:

1. First, we have to find a person that works without getting paid.
2. Later, we have to take photos.
3. Finally, we have to have a conversation with the person that we are interested in.

What We Have to Do

Make our own news, finding someone interesting.

Where Are You Going to Publish?

Work alone or in groups?