Photojournalism uses photography as the primary storytelling device. A photojournalist uses a camera to capture newsworthy visual events and other happenings. It is different from other photography types, including street photography and documentary photography. While these other types have no strict rules, photojournalism must adhere to ethical standards like any other form of journalism. A photojournalist must take photos that accurately depict an event or happening and not exploit their subjects.
Photojournalism follows five fundamental photography elements. These help a photojournalist focus on a scene’s varying components, which they merge to create a message-conveying photograph. The first element is light. Light illuminates the subject, brings emphasis, and creates depth, whether natural or artificial. Also, the direction of light and its quality can enhance a photo. Notably, light is the most important of the five aspects as it helps capture quality images.
Color helps bring out a scene’s emotion and mood. In turn, such feelings can transfer to the audience, which aids in understanding the photojournalist’s message. Color also makes an image mysterious and exciting and brings out the contrast.
A moment is an element that highlights a particular scene’s subject. A photojournalist creates moments by capturing various interacting aspects of a scene in one frame to tell a captivating story. Composition is an element related to the moment, which helps emphasize part of the interacting aspects and make them stand out. Composition turns an ordinary photo into one that demands instant attention.
The last component is distance. Here, the photojournalist chooses how far they want their subject to be. Distance dictates a photo’s feeling and overall impact. It also helps determine the focal length for different shots that must or not include other scene parts.
Importantly, photojournalism is all about quality shots. Various shots serve varying purposes. The cover shot is meant to capture a reader’s attention. It determines if the reader will read the rest of the story or jump to other sections. Thus, a cover shot should elicit emotion.
A detailed shot gets close to the subject and emphasizes specific aspects. For instance, when telling a story about an earthquake, a close enough photo of the cracks, it leaves in the ground aids the reader in creating a mental picture.
A closing shot is the most difficult to conceptualize since it doesn’t necessarily show an image of what happens last. It should, however, tell the reader what happens in the end. For instance, when telling the story of two lovers, instead of taking a photo of their wedding, an image showing the couple together with their children helps bring a happy ending.
Filler shots help to develop different ideas about a subject. They bring together other parts that explain the subject or scene. For example, when giving a biography, additional images of the subject at various life stages, say in school, at home, and work, aid in unfolding their story.
Newsworthy shots depict happenings or events relating to a subject or scene. They must not necessarily be exciting but must qualify as worthy of talking about. An example is a photo of a criminal’s apprehension when telling a story about a crime. Other elements include emotion, intimacy, and unusual happenings. A good photojournalist can capture emotion, for instance, by taking an image of someone who’s just won the lottery. They can also capture intimacy by taking a photo of a couple holding hands.
