Creating a Photo Essay
Photo essay is a very interesting type of work assigned to students who study art in colleges and universities. If in traditional essays we use words to tell the story, in a photo essay we use pictures. This is either a collage or a succession of photos that tell a particular story. Photo essays can also contain text that accompanies photos. Photo essays can be purely photographic, or with insertions of text. It depends on requirements to a particular essay or your own choice.
Naturally, it is very difficult to imagine what a photo essay will look like, especially for those who have never seen one. Thus, photo essay examples play a very important role in making preparations to composing an impressive photo essay. Just google this keyword and you will get hundreds of results. Of course, you should use only reliable sources and essay examples that received the highest grades. As already said above, photo essay examples may contain photos only or include text commentaries to complete the story. These commentaries may contain simple descriptive text, as well as some serious abstracts. It depends on what story you are going to tell. For example, if your story concerns nature and philosophy, you need to create some interesting commentaries. If you are commenting a picture with sunrise then “Rising sun” would be a bad commentary. But if you are offering photos of child’s play, some funny and simple comment are certainly welcome.
Photo Essays on any Topic
Out of the various types of essays, photo essays are the most illustrious.Photo essays are a simply an anthology of imagery that are arranged in a particular order to portray a series of events, feelings, and thoughts. It is an album of pictures that tell a tale. Like other essay follow an essay writing format, a photo essay too follows a format to depict and tell a story.
Research
Conducting research on choosing a subject for the photo essay is the foremost step. One must list a few ideas and research to see which one of them would be most feasible and impacting on the audience.
Building a story
Like in an essay it is important to know how to write an essay outline similarly; in photo essays one must craft a story around the subject too. Of the various interesting research paper topics in mind, one also has to build a story around those topics or a documentary and decide which one is more interesting and, which one would appeal to the audiences or viewers.
Permissions
If the topic is related to photographing an event like a wedding, a party, or a person one must obtain prior permission from the subjects to avoid any hitches and confusion during the course of photography.
Shot planning
Before selecting from the various photo essay topics one must plan the shots which are required to be taken for the essay. One must envisage each shot of the story; one should create a shot list as each photograph of a photo essay works as a paragraph. Before finalizing the photo essay topic one must list the types of shots that would be required to weave the story for the essay. This helps one in determining the viability of the topics.
Creativity, Originality, and Emotion
Like while writing an essay the emotions of the writer reflect in the flow of the essay in the same way in the photo essay one should keep in mind that the emotions and feeling of the subject need to be portrayed excellently to maintain the flow of the essay.
Photo Essays
Photo essays are interesting by themselves and as an assignment for students with Arts as their major. Those who study photography usually love this art, so, students are eager to perform such tasks. However, photo essays seem easy and funny only at a first glance. If you deeper investigate the issue, you will learn that there are very strict requirements to photo essays, similar to other essay types. Photo essays may include pictures only, as well as pictures with commentaries. Sometimes, commentaries can change reader’s/view’s attitude towards photos. If you are willing to tell a romantic story, think of some warm and creative words to accompany the photo. In case, you depict elements of the nature, some harsh commentaries are certainly welcome. As a rule, your photos should come in a certain order, but various options are available
Photo Essay Ideas
Where can you find photo essay ideas? The simplest answer is “in your head.” As a rule, inspiration comes all of a sudden. You cannot control it. However, you may look for some of the possible ideas online. You can take shots in your own style and make your own photo essay. What photo essay ideas can you find? Go to your friend’s wedding. Go to the local pub. Go to the seashore. Ask your friends to act as models to act out your own idea. You can create your own detective story in pictures if you have a couple of friends who would like to act a little bit. Of course, you have to carefully select every shot. Just gathering all photos that you have made is not enough. Every photo should be like an abstract of the text that’s telling readers something. You can also attend some sports events and concerts. There are so many ideas. Of course, you can use the power of the Internet to look for some creative ideas. Sure stealing someone’s ideas is not good, so use these examples as a basis for your own works. If you are assigned a particular topic, think of the ways to develop it. The topic may give you freedom. For example, “Hot Sunday Morning” may concern typical morning or suburban areas as well as fishermen’s morning or wake-up time in a summer camp.
Photo Essay Techniques
It goes without saying that in order to succeed in making of an effective photo essay you need to have skills and knowledge. Photo essays techniques are very important. You can either make a collage or a succession of photos. You can place photos without comments or add some text. For example, you place a photo and then write something about how you took this shot or just comment on it. The total number of photos is usually limited, so be very careful when making a choice.
Photo essay is a very interesting type of work assigned to students who study art in colleges and universities. If in traditional essays we use words to tell the story, in a photo essay we use pictures. This is either a collage or a succession of photos that tell a particular story. Photo essays can also contain text that accompanies photos. Photo essays can be purely photographic, or with insertions of text. It depends on requirements to a particular essay or your own choice.
Naturally, it is very difficult to imagine what a photo essay will look like, especially for those who have never seen one. Thus, photo essay examples play a very important role in making preparations to composing an impressive photo essay. Just google this keyword and you will get hundreds of results. Of course, you should use only reliable sources and essay examples that received the highest grades. As already said above, photo essay examples may contain photos only or include text commentaries to complete the story. These commentaries may contain simple descriptive text, as well as some serious abstracts. It depends on what story you are going to tell. For example, if your story concerns nature and philosophy, you need to create some interesting commentaries. If you are commenting a picture with sunrise then “Rising sun” would be a bad commentary. But if you are offering photos of child’s play, some funny and simple comment are certainly welcome.
Photo Essays on any Topic
Out of the various types of essays, photo essays are the most illustrious.Photo essays are a simply an anthology of imagery that are arranged in a particular order to portray a series of events, feelings, and thoughts. It is an album of pictures that tell a tale. Like other essay follow an essay writing format, a photo essay too follows a format to depict and tell a story.
Research
Conducting research on choosing a subject for the photo essay is the foremost step. One must list a few ideas and research to see which one of them would be most feasible and impacting on the audience.
Building a story
Like in an essay it is important to know how to write an essay outline similarly; in photo essays one must craft a story around the subject too. Of the various interesting research paper topics in mind, one also has to build a story around those topics or a documentary and decide which one is more interesting and, which one would appeal to the audiences or viewers.
Permissions
If the topic is related to photographing an event like a wedding, a party, or a person one must obtain prior permission from the subjects to avoid any hitches and confusion during the course of photography.
Shot planning
Before selecting from the various photo essay topics one must plan the shots which are required to be taken for the essay. One must envisage each shot of the story; one should create a shot list as each photograph of a photo essay works as a paragraph. Before finalizing the photo essay topic one must list the types of shots that would be required to weave the story for the essay. This helps one in determining the viability of the topics.
Creativity, Originality, and Emotion
Like while writing an essay the emotions of the writer reflect in the flow of the essay in the same way in the photo essay one should keep in mind that the emotions and feeling of the subject need to be portrayed excellently to maintain the flow of the essay.
Photo Essays
Photo essays are interesting by themselves and as an assignment for students with Arts as their major. Those who study photography usually love this art, so, students are eager to perform such tasks. However, photo essays seem easy and funny only at a first glance. If you deeper investigate the issue, you will learn that there are very strict requirements to photo essays, similar to other essay types. Photo essays may include pictures only, as well as pictures with commentaries. Sometimes, commentaries can change reader’s/view’s attitude towards photos. If you are willing to tell a romantic story, think of some warm and creative words to accompany the photo. In case, you depict elements of the nature, some harsh commentaries are certainly welcome. As a rule, your photos should come in a certain order, but various options are available
Photo Essay Ideas
Where can you find photo essay ideas? The simplest answer is “in your head.” As a rule, inspiration comes all of a sudden. You cannot control it. However, you may look for some of the possible ideas online. You can take shots in your own style and make your own photo essay. What photo essay ideas can you find? Go to your friend’s wedding. Go to the local pub. Go to the seashore. Ask your friends to act as models to act out your own idea. You can create your own detective story in pictures if you have a couple of friends who would like to act a little bit. Of course, you have to carefully select every shot. Just gathering all photos that you have made is not enough. Every photo should be like an abstract of the text that’s telling readers something. You can also attend some sports events and concerts. There are so many ideas. Of course, you can use the power of the Internet to look for some creative ideas. Sure stealing someone’s ideas is not good, so use these examples as a basis for your own works. If you are assigned a particular topic, think of the ways to develop it. The topic may give you freedom. For example, “Hot Sunday Morning” may concern typical morning or suburban areas as well as fishermen’s morning or wake-up time in a summer camp.
Photo Essay Techniques
It goes without saying that in order to succeed in making of an effective photo essay you need to have skills and knowledge. Photo essays techniques are very important. You can either make a collage or a succession of photos. You can place photos without comments or add some text. For example, you place a photo and then write something about how you took this shot or just comment on it. The total number of photos is usually limited, so be very careful when making a choice.
- Come up with several ideas and discuss them with the teacher or other students
- Next write down what 10 of those images might look like, and what kind of impact you are hoping to make.
- Decide whether there will be text or not and how you will present (as a collage, a slide show, a comic series, etc.) All final essays will be presented digitally.
- Take at least 35 sample photos to work from for your essay. Have examples of the rule of thirds, leading lines, balance, Depth of Field, and Dramatic point of view as you will be required to have an example of each one in your essay.
- Next we will work with them in Photoshop to crop and adjust, and add text before printing a contact sheet.
- Using the images from the contact sheet, cut them apart and select 10-15 for your essay. Determine their placement in the essay.
- Compile them into a program for presentation.
- Present to the class.