Photo Lecture - 6/26/97
I. First newspaper to run a photo
A. The New York Daily Graphic, March 4, 1880
II. Need for photography
A. Our culture is becoming more and more visual
B. Images are strong, text is weak
C. Photos can be as valuable as text in conveying information; if you want to hook passing readers, photos are even more valuable than text
D. Photos are essential for good design, and good design is essential for photos
III. Some photo guidelines
A. Every photo should have a clean, clear center of interest
B. Every photo should get a cutline
C. Every photo should be bordered *1 point is standard -- don't overdo it
D. Every photo should look natural -- shoot real people doing real things
E. Every photo should be relevant -- photos must provide information, not decoration
F. Every face should be at least the size of a dime
IV. Good photos
V. Bad photos
A. How to salvage a really bad photo
1. edit carefully
2. crop aggressively
3. run a sequence
4. reshoot
5. try another photo source
6. use alternative art
7. retouch mistakes
8. bury it
9. mortise one photo over another
10. do without
VI. Cropping
A. Cropping lets you reframe the image, creating a new shape that emphasizes what's important and deletes what's not
B. Crop first, then dummy
C. A good crop
1. adds impact
2. eliminates what's unnecessary
3. leaves air where it's needed
D. A bad crop
1. amputates body parts
2. forces the image into an awkward shape
3. changes the meaning of a photo
4. violates works of art
5. damages the original photo
VII. Sizing photos
A. resize (or scale) photos - enlarge them up or reduce them down
1. measure it's new size as a percentage of the original
2. by distorting proportions, you damage credibility
B. Proportion wheel
VIII. Halftones and screens
A. Photos still need reprocessing after cropping
1. may need scaling
2. contrast or exposure may need fine tuning
3. printing presses cannot print gray. They can only create the illusion of gray by changing the photo into a pattern of dots called a halftone.
4. halftone dots are created by reshooting the original through a halftone screen. Density of a halftone screen is measured by the number of lines per inch.
5. finer the dot screen, the smaller the dots. Smaller are less visible. Less visible, more realistic.
B. Line conversions or line shots
1. all dark tones turn black, all light tones turn white -- used for line art. With photos, should not be used with hard news.
IX. Scanning
A. Scanners digitize images (input device)
X. Stand-Alone Photos
A. photos often run independently
B. Must be packaged in a consistent style that instantly signals to readers that the photo stands alone
XI. Photo spreads
A. Self-contained visual packages that give special photos the big, bold play they deserve
B. Usually used for
1. covering a big event
2. exploring a topic or trend
3. profiling a personality
4. telling a story
5. displaying objects, places
C. Photo spreads are different from standard news layouts
1. bend and break rules
a. use headlines and decks
b. unorthodox widths for cutlines and text
c. text often becomes a minor element, jumped to inside pages
D. Photo spread guidlines
1. talk to the photographer and reporter
2. mix it up
3. design for quality, not quantity
4. position photos carefully
5. make one photo dominant
6. write your headline first
7. use a display headline if appropriate; use decks
8. don't run too much text
9. keep text blocks modular
10. ask for leeway on story sizes
11. give every photo a cutline
12. add flexibility by running cutlines beside or between photos
13. push cutlines to the outside
14. credit photos properly
15. add a little white space
16. use an underlying grid
17. use screens sparingly
XII. Studio shots
A. studio shots let photographers manipulate objects, pose models, create props, and control lighting
B. Used primarily in:
1. fashion
2. food
3. portraits
4. incidental objects
C. Photo illustration
1. photograph where actors or props are posed to make a point
2. express an idea, capture a mood, symbolize a concept, tell a visual joke
3. Good photo illustrations:
a. instantly show what the story is about
b. should never be mistaken for reality
c. work with the headline
d. perform with flair
XIII. Illustrations
A. editorial cartoons -- stand alone, humorous, thoughtful, provocative, tasteful, far-fetched, truthful
B. commentary drawing - usually run on a separate opinion page, not stand alone, not usually as funny
C. caricatures - exaggerates the subject's most distinctive features for comic effect
XIV. Illustrations
XV. Clip Art
A. Copyright free cartoons and drawings
XVI. Finding feature art
XVII. Distortion, "Risky Business"
A. Copyright law
1. Copyrighted art can be used if it accompanies a review or a breaking news story
2. Don't reprint money - complicated
B. Framing
1. photos and art should be bordered with thin, simple rules
C. Flopping
1. never flop news photos
2. flop feature photos or studio shots only as a last resort
D. reshaping
1. don't do it
E. Tilting
1. can be difficult
F. Silhouetting
XVIII. Ethical issues in photojournalism