Composition
Lesson 12: Tell a Story
A photo is worth a thousand words
A picture is worth a thousand words
Photography at its essence is the art of story telling
Find the Story
The best photographers in the world are the photographers that are able to telling stories with their photos. The idea that a photo is worth a thousand words is a real thing.
Whenever you are shooting…whatever you are shooting…imagine looking at the photo 50 years from now and asking yourself, “will this photo make sense, will the photo be able to tell a story to the person looking at it in 50 years”.
The Skills Matter
Story telling works because of everything we have done in the first 4 courses. For example, the use of perspective (getting the camera down near the ground) and the use of continuous drive (burst shooting) and the use of servo focusing (continuously focusing) is HOW I am able to get this shot of my son’s first attempt at riding without training wheels.
Pro Tip:
Plan your shot ahead of time. Think about where the light will be. Think about the behaviours that are likely to happen. Imagine the perfect shot and then try to create that.
Use the background as a background
This photo is not a photo of northern lights. Its a photo of a group of people taking photos with a backdrop of aurora. Story telling is the art of using great backdrops to tell important stories. In this photo, we need to know how to shoot at night. Focusing in the dark, working with a tripod, using manual exposure mode and setting the ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed.
Pro Tip:
Sometimes, take a few steps back. Instead of shooting the sunset, aurora, garden, storm or whatever, move back and get the other characters into the scene
Step Back
Step back and include the other characters in the shot. The pretty background is just that, a background. In this shot, the characters are way more important than the tornado. The story here is that the characters in the photo are witnessing their first tornado. This is a much more important story than the actual tornado.
EXERCISE: This exercise is an ongoing project. Find ways to tell stories while you are shooting. Include foreground subjects, move so that backgrounds make sense in your photo, shoot after all the characters think the shooting is done. If your kid enjoys video games, shoot them playing video games. If your spouse hates shovelling the walk, get pics of them shovelling the walk. The key here is thinking about what would make a great story.
Story Telling Samples
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