Photography Tips

This week on 5 we’re going to look at a few tips for creating photo essays. Humans are naturally drawn to stories and with a little planning, you can create your own photo essay that will wow family, friends and strangers. A photoessay is simply a series of photographs put together that tell a story. So let’s look at creating one.

1. Choose A Topic

The first step is to decide what it is you want to present to the world. A photoessay doesn’t need to be hard-hitting news stories, or documentary photos of the rich and famous. It can be anything, from some local history, to a travel feature, to a relatives birthday, to a trip to a new restaurant. The key is that is has to be interesting to you.

Photoessays will typically fall within one of two categories - narrative or thematic. Narrative photoessays present a series of images in chronological order showcasing a person or activity over time, whereas thematic essays focus on a theme and show photographs relative to that theme. The following image is from a thematic type photo essay “Cambodia’s Forgotten Kingdom“.

2. Research

Once you’ve decided on your topic and its style, it’s time to do some research. Talk to some local historians if you’re focusing on local history, interview family members if the story is about them, read articles and guidebooks if you are doing a travel essay, talk to the chef and waiters if you’re looking at restaurants. Anything that’s related to your topic can be used as a point of research. In my look at Cosplay, I took a single cosplay event and looked into the history of the subculture to give me some extra ideas.

3. The Real Story

After you’ve done some research, you’re now ready to start planning out your photoessay. Go beyond the basics and look for an angle to draw the viewer in. Is there some connection between your hometown and the exotic travel destination you’ve decided to shoot? Does the new restaurant use locally produced produce? Is your family member celebrating a successful achievement or battling a disease? Looking further into the story can help broaden its appeal and make it speak on a deeper level.

4. Find The Emotion

Successful photo essays have one thing in common - emotion. They provoke an emotional response in the viewer. Fear. Joy. Anger. Sorrow. Conveying the emotion in the first images is essential in order to hook the viewer and make them want to keep looking. This is often the most difficult part of the essay, as everyone will react differently. In the photo below, KMT supporters celebrate as their candidate Ma Ying-jeou is declared winner of the 2008 presidential elections in Taiwan.

5. Plan Your Shots And Presentation.

The final point relates to both the shots you take and the way you lay the essay out. Before shooting, walk around the area, pre-visualize any shots you might want to include and look around for both small details and large, mood-setting type images. When laying out the essay, aim to start with a powerful lead photo that draws the viewer in, a second photo that describes the general scene or theme, portrait and action shots if people are present should come next, followed by finer details, closeups and the like. Finally, use a summing up type photo as the penultimate image to wrap the story up, and finish with a clincher photo, designed to leave your viewer with the emotion you want them to walk away with such as the following one from the pod village at San-zhr.