1. Get in close.
Your photos will often be published on low-quality newsprint for a jaded audience
easily distracted. Detail gets lost. Photos strong enough to break through the
media competition focus on a single, frame-filling center of interest. Generally
no more than two or three people. No more than a few objects. A clean, contrasting
background. Sometimes photojournalists call this the "poster effect." This is
why telephoto or zoom lenses are the workhorses of photojournalism: many photographers
don't even use a normal (50 mm) lens. If you can't get in close, crop ruthlessly. "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."--Robert
Capa, one of the century's top war photographers (killed by land mine while
trying to get in close).
2. Find unusual
angles.
If you're sitting or standing like everyone else, you're probably going to take
back some blah photos. Kneel. Climb on a chair. Crouch. Lie down. Shoot down
a stairway. Get off your butt. Good photojournalists are always moving.
Corollary to this rule: If forced to take photos of, say, a speaker at a podium (not an attractive option, but too often necessary), never sit in the chairs with the rest of the audience. Think you'll be too noticeable? Everyone already knows you're taking pictures--so what? If you're too shy to move around in front of an audience, become a copy editor.
3. Get idents.
All subjects easily identifiable must be named. Journalism is about people,
not abstract art. Most editors will reject photos without idents, unless they
are used as generic illustrations. Beginners are intimidated by walking up to
strangers, but it's not really very hard. Simply say some variation of, "Hi,
my name is Irving Nern, with the Spectrum. I just took your picture, and I wonder
if I can have your name? Can you spell that, please?" Write names in your Reporters'
Notebook. Few people will turn you down: Americans love to be in pictures.
4. Burn pixels.
Move in, move out, move high, move low, and keep on clicking. You'll have more
to choose from, and you'll more likely have a strong image. Unlike studio photographers,
photojournalists have to nab action as it's unfolding, so at least to some extent
are forced to trust on luck to bring back good pictures. The old general rule used to be to shoot
one roll (24 ex.) minimum at any event you're asked to cover, even a speaker
at a podium. You can interpret this in the digital age. Half a football game should bag you 75 photos at least.
How are you going to have any choice at all if you return to the office with
a mere four shots? Film is pretty cheap--and pixels are free!
5. Go beyond the
cliche.
How many photos have you seen showing people talking on the phone? At a desk
with books in the background? In a mugshot? Shaking hands ("grip n' grin")?
Making a lay-up to a basketball hoop? For goodness' sake, promise yourself NEVER
to take a photo like this again! Assigned a mugshot of a faculty member? Ask
the person to meet at the lab, engage her in her research for a photo. Supposed
to shoot a basketball game? Dump the standard "armpit shot," look for interesting
floor action. Make your shot stand out from the ruck!
6. Avoid obvious
posing.
Okay, sometimes you have to ask people to stand someplace or do something, but
that still doesn't mean they have to grin into the camera. Try to make the scene
appear natural, as if the subject were involved in something and the photographer
just happened to come by. Photojournalism aims to cover people doing things,
not people posing. That's for the studio photographers.
7. Add light,
but don't make it obvious.
Available light is ideal, but usually its quality is hardly that. Especially
when you're shooting color, you need to control the color balance of garish
green florescent, or difficult combinations of artificial and natural light.
In some cases, light comes from ugly angles (such as nearly every standard classroom
or office), or is so weak you can't even get close to stopping the action.
The normal approach is to carry a portable electronic flash, but NEVER to merely attach it to the hot shoe and blast away. That looks 'way too artificial. Solution: bounce. Aim your electronic flash straight up. Tape a piece of white cardboard at an angle so the light bounces up and off the cardboard. Adjust for your available light exposure, perhaps underexposing a stop. The added flash will fill in the ugly shadows, but still maintain a feeling of natural light.
This is harder if your light is primarily florescent, as your bluish flash will clash with the greenish ambient light, but you should be able to adjust most color cast problems fairly easily in Photoshop. When all else fails, at least take your flash off your camera, hold it a few inches away, and shoot directly.
As an added note, good photojournalists carefully analyze the light falling on their subject, and find an angle which best enhances the scene. For instance, if a subject is bending over, the face may be in shadow. Wait until he stands. If a subject is seated next to a window, wait until she turns toward this attractive light source.
8. Focus faithfully,
stay steady.
You just cannot use a blurry photo in a publication: any slight fuzziness will
be enhanced by poor quality paper and fast reproduction. Most fuzzy photos can
be blamed on camera movement. If you're naturally jittery, get help: buy a mini
tripod and lean it on your chest, or buy a monopod and lean it on the ground.
In a pinch, lean against a tree or wall. Rule of thumb: any shutter speed more
than one stop lower than the size of your lens will produce a fuzzy picture,
unless you use a mechanical aid. This means If you're shooting at normal
50 mm or equivalent ("normal perspective"), you can't hand-hold anything slower than 1/30 second. If you're
shooting with a zoom set at 200 mm, 1/125 is the limit. And this really is the
limit: you must make like a rock to get sharp images even at this speed. (The
older you get the harder that gets, by the way. I used to hand-hold 1/15 second.
Not anymore....) Photoshop's blur filter can sharpen pixels, but can do only so much (or usually not so much) with pictures that were originally blurry.
Note: automatic cameras are wonderful devices, but you need to be aware of your settings.
9. Dump poorly
exposed photos.
Got a great shot, but the guy's face is in shadow? Got a great expression on
that cute kid, but a telephone pole is growing out of her head? What about that
nice little washed out photo of the sorority sisters' car wash? DO NOT submit
poorly exposed photos for publication, no matter how much you like the image.
On the other hand, BE CAREFUL to expose correctly. Automatic cameras are usually
smarter than we are, but not always. Study principles of proper exposure. It's
still hard to fix up poorly-exposed images, even with Photoshop software: you
can't add detail when nothing's there to begin with.
10. Have guts.
Walk up to 10 people on the street, snap their picture, ask for their name,
write it down. Get a floor pass to a rock concert (and wear earplugs!). Walk
as close to the sports action as you dare--get a press pass if you need one.
Look for interesting expressions after the posed shots are done. Get out there
and shoot! Photojournalists are to a person not to be counted among the timid.
Sure, you can overdo this--harassing paparazzi spring to mind--but a courteous,
assertive demeanor is nothing to be ashamed of.
Copyright 2004 by Ross F. Collins <www.ndsu.edu/communication/collins>