Telling Photo Story

If you believe the old saying that one picture is worth 1,000 words, then you probably believe in the power of a photo essay. A properly composed photo essay, also called a photo narrative, can be a powerful tool for telling a story. Use these tips to help your photo essay be worth far more than 1,000 words.

• First, figure out the story you want to tell. If you cannot verbalize the "story" within a sentence or two, you're going to have a very difficult time being able to make your photography tell the story. Take your time with this step, as it will guide you through the entire process.

• Don't think that your story is too simplistic to work as a photo essay. Although some photographers will tackle highly controversial issues, such as the interaction between two groups of protestors, a photo essay for your family can be as simplistic as your son's first basketball game. As long as an event or an issue means something to you, it can work as a photo essay.

• Once you have the basic plan down, consider how you want to approach the story. Do you want to simply record the event? Are you looking for a particular emotion or reaction? Is the event going to be secondary to some beautiful location in the background? Deciding how to approach the photo essay will help you determine which shots you simply must have.

• Think about the location where you'll shoot the photos and the event itself. Will you have any limitations on the types of photos you can shoot, on the locations where you can shoot, or on the amount of time you'll have to shoot? If so, plan ahead to make sure you'll get the photos you must have.

• As you're ready to put together the photo essay, you have a few options, depending on the medium you'll use. If you'll publish the photo essay on the Internet, for example, a photo essay that follows a timeline might be best, as viewers will probably be clicking on the photos in a chronological order. When printing the photo essay, you have a little more leeway in terms of using different sizes of photos, where the most important photo could be the largest, and supporting photos could be smaller.

• If possible, decide ahead of time whether you're going to try to tell the story with one photo or several photos. If you want one photo to capture the story, you may want to think about looking for key relationships and emotion in the single shot. If you have several photos to capture the story, you can perhaps shoot a set of photos that follows a timeline of events or development of a relationship. Your photography approach to storytelling will change, based on the plan you have.

• Rather than just snapping random photos of numerous subjects at an event, think about ways you can capture emotion and mood. You might get lucky and capture an expressive photo just by shooting dozens of shots, but you'll have better results by watching an event unfold and then finding a specific subject to tell the story, shooting most of your photos there.

• A photograph can showcase the relationship between two people -- or even between a child and a pet or a toy -- when framed correctly. The mood of the relationship can be expressed with a hug or just a shared smile. Even a photo of a child playing with a favorite toy or sleeping next to a puppy can reveal the mood of the relationship. Make sure both subjects of the relationship are in focus and aren't cut off at the edge of the frame.

• Consider focusing on one person or object to help you tell the story. For example, if you're shooting at a birthday party, your theme may revolve around the person celebrating the birthday and how they spent the day, who they interacted with and what types of gifts they received.

• Try a recurring photography theme in all of the photos involved in the story. For example, perhaps each photo involves shooting photos with off-center subjects, allowing you to include interesting buildings or flowers in the background of the images.

• Be careful about trying to "stage" photos to tell a story. There are occasions where a staged photo is exactly what you want. However, if you're trying to shoot an expressive photo, faked emotion and staged scenes nearly always are obvious to those viewing the photo.

• Finally, even if you have not planned ahead for your photo essay, you probably can still put one together after a photo shoot. It still pays to follow the tip about figuring out the story you want to tell, though. Once you have the story topic figured out, then make selections from your collection of photos from the event that fit the topic.