116
What makes a photo great? Sara Quinn, The Poynter Institute

Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

 

Citation preview

Page 1: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

What makes a photo great?Sara Quinn, The Poynter Institute

Page 2: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Composition and framing

Quality of light

Perspective

Layering

Moment

Captioning and presentation …

Page 3: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Rule of thirds

Page 4: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 5: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 6: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Leading lines

Page 7: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 8: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 9: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 10: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 11: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Asymmetrical balance

Page 12: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 13: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 14: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 15: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Perspective and viewpoint

Page 16: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 17: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 18: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 19: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 20: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 21: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Motion freeze or blur

Page 22: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 23: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 24: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Foreground, background

Page 25: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 26: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 27: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 28: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 29: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 30: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Layering

Page 31: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 32: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 33: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 34: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Capturing a moment

Page 35: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 36: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 37: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 38: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 39: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 40: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Framing

Page 41: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 42: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 43: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 44: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 45: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Quality of light

Page 46: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 47: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 48: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 49: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Repetition of shape

Page 50: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 51: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 52: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 53: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 54: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 55: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 56: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Silhouette

Page 57: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 58: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 59: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 60: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 61: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 62: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

An exercise: Let’s crop!

Page 63: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 64: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 65: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 66: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 67: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 68: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 69: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 70: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 71: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 72: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 73: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 74: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Writing great captions

Sara Quinn, The Poynter Institute

Page 75: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Captions are often the mostread text in a publication.

Page 76: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Use captions to engage readers.

Page 77: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Yehudi Menuhin began sharing his music at the age of 7, when he astonished a San Francisco audience with his violin genius.

Page 78: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Yehudi Menuhin began sharing his music at the age of 7, when he astonished a San Francisco audience with his violin genius.

(This ran with an obituary mug. We already know from the headline that he had died, so this was a great way to give a reader who might be in a hurry more information, and to possibly draw that reader into the full obituary.)

Page 79: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Check the facts.Be accurate!

Page 80: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 81: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Selling bean pies—and traditionBrian Muhammad, a 42-year-old Nation of Islam member, sells bean pies at the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson in Los Angeles. He has been doing so for 11 years at one of the busiest intersections for those with something to peddle.

Page 82: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 83: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Is his name Bryan or Brian?Muhammed or Muhammad?

Page 84: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Is his name Bryan or Brian?Muhammed or Muhammad?

Does he sell pies on the corner of “Crenshaw and Slauson” or“Crenshaw and Slawson?”

Page 85: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Is his name Bryan or Brian?Muhammed or Muhammad?

Does he sell pies on the corner of “Crenshaw and Slauson” or“Crenshaw and Slawson?”

Or is it one block north at Crenshaw and Ninth Ave?

Page 86: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Don’t make assumptions.

Page 87: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 88: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Don’t editorialize or makeassumptions about what someone in a photo is thinking:

“an unhappy voter …” or“a fortunate survivor …”

Page 89: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Brian Muhammed gleefully sells bean pies at the corner of Crenshawand Slauson in Los Angeles.

Page 90: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Use quotes.

Page 91: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Selling bean pies—and traditionBrian Muhammad, a 42-year-old Nation of Islam member, sells bean pies at the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson in Los Angeles. He has been doing so for 11 years at one of the busiest intersections for those with something to peddle. “If you sell enough bean pies, you learn a little about life, like how to size up a man, if he’s good for a $7 pie,” Muhammad said.

Page 92: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Add supporting information.

Page 93: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Selling bean pies—and traditionBrian Muhammad, a 42-year-old Nation of Islam member, sells bean pies at the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson in Los Angeles. He has been doing so for 11 years at one of the busiest intersections for those with something to peddle. “If you sell enough bean pies, you learn a little about life, like how to size up a man, if he’s good for a $7 pie,” Muhammad said. The Nation of Islam’s tradition of selling bean pies — and copies of the organization’s newspaper, the Final Call — dates back several decades in big cities across the U.S.

Page 94: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Avoid stating the obvious.

Page 95: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Avoid stating the obvious.“Dennis Rodman smiles ashe elbows an opposing playerin the face.”

Page 96: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Make the photo clear.

Page 97: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 98: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Ireland—

Frolicking on glacial ice on a summer’s day? Part illusion, thanks to Edgar Müller’s perspective painting “The Crevasse.” Created over five days on a pier’s pavement in Dún Laoghaire, the faux precipice covers more than 2,000 square feet.

Page 99: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 100: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Avoid using terms like“is shown,” “is pictured”and “looks on.

Page 101: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

A photograph captures a moment in time.

Page 102: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Use present tense to givea sense of immediacy.

Page 103: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 104: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Germany—

A diver polishing glass joins a radiant display of sea life in a giant saltwater tank at Berlin’s Radisson Blu Hotel. The ring-shaped AquaDom, some 80 feet high with an elevator inside, holds about 1,500 tropical fish.

Page 105: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 106: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Descriptions are helpful, like“the person dressed in black,”“holding the water hose,” etc.

Page 107: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 108: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

New York—

For those who don’t want to wear an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dotbikini, Aheda Zenetti has designed the bigsy wigsy sunny screeny crimson plainpolyester burqini.

Page 109: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 110: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 111: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Germany—

A boxy Trabant scoots past other Cold War vestiges at Checkpoint Charlie, where the image of a U.S. soldier looks into former East Berlin. A Russian soldier on the pole’s reverse faces what was the American side of the crossing.

Page 112: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics
Page 113: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Avoid being overly descriptive.

Page 114: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Reader’s will see for themselvesif a scene is dramatic, horrifying, rainy, brightly lit, etc.

Page 115: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Consider the final presentationof your project.

Page 116: Quinn poynter photojournalism_basics

Try not to repeat somethingfrom the headline or story.