Photojournalism is by far my favorite. I picked up a camera for the first time during November of 2022 for a football game. I remember being extremely nervous, unsure of the settings and it really didn’t help that it was pouring down rain. I don’t know how photography stuck with me after that experience but luckily, it did. As you will tell, I particularly love sports photojournalism, but you will also find some examples that aren’t just sports. I love all kinds of photojournalism (but yes I love sports the most). Below, you will see my processes when doing photojournalism. Hopefully you learn something.
Using composition to create storytelling photos
How do I get my photos? I think of composition. How can I get that angle? How can I use this strategy? How can I use this chair to my advantage? Do I have to sit down to get this photo? These are questions I constantly think when trying to capture photos. Sometimes, I have so many possible ideas, it takes a bit for me to decipher which ones are actually useful. That’s because I’m thinking of the acronym “RRAFFLS”. Each letter represents a different type of composition. Not all compositions are useful in every situation but some come in clutch.
- Rule of thirds. Not having the subject in the center of the frame helps create extra meaning within the photo, which makes it more interesting when done correctly.
- Repetition. Emphasizing the multiple of the same subject in a single photo can mean something beyond the photo.
- Angles. Whether shooting up or down or left or right, having angles within my photo can make it visually appealing.
- Fill the frame. Having the subject take up the whole picture can be useful when I want the subject to have a dominant effect.
- Framing. Playing with the context and the foreground can create some really visually appealing photos.
- Leading lines. Playing with lines within the photo can also help me make visually appealing photos.
- Selective focus. Carefully choosing what is in and out of focus can help me create a deeper level of storytelling for the photo.
I also have used other compositions like motion blur, natural light, contrast, negative space, and depth of field. I’ve used each kind of composition a lot, some more than others. I shoot a lot of sports, and all of these kinds of compositions are useful for any sports. I have found that composition can almost work at any place and at any time, I just think it’s always up to me to make the composition work. Below is a mini collage that displays an example for each kind of composition I listed.
I’ve used every kind of composition to date and I’ve learned so much by using each one. I have found some are harder than others and some are just more fun. I’ve dabbled with natural lighting and blur motion because I just find it enjoyable to test my limits on what I know with photography. I have also used the rule of thirds plenty of times because it can be applicable to almost all kinds of photos and I just really like the look when I can do the rule of thirds effectively. Even when making this collage, I learned more about how composition can really tell its own story. Since I see all of these different photos/stories together, it’s easier for me to digest what makes each photo/story so special because they are all so different in how they are conveyed. Composition can be extremely powerful when there is enough thought about things like RAFFLS and my past experiences.
Want to see how I ultimately create these stories individually? Or how I edit and crop my photos? Or even how I create my photo stories? There is more to explore below.
Always get up close
Through my experience in photojournalism, getting up close is one of the most important parts of photojournalism. Without getting up close, the photographer fails to tell a story that an average viewer can see. As a photographer, you have the power to go to almost any spot on the venue so the photographer must take advantage of that.
So, I love going to sports games and taking photos. That is no secret. After every game, I learn more and more on what it means to tell the whole story. The first thing I learned was to get up close and get personal with the players. This is something that took a while to get comfortable with because it’s not like I’m a player on the team per se. I’m just there to take photos. But after I see the results, it makes all the difference. Be confident with the camera and trust you’re doing the right by laying that camera right by the player to get a unique shot. For example, I played with a fisheye lens a lot during baseball season in my junior year. The most fun part of using it was getting up tight with players and laying the camera under the huddles to get a unique perspective. During the State Championship in June of 2023, I got a celebratory shot featuring the players with the trophy. By getting up close to the players with a wide lens, I was able to capture a story-telling shot that encapsulates the joy of winning a championship. Always make sure to get right next to the action. If you don’t, you will miss out. I didn’t miss out here.
My editing process
After an event, I always edit my photos. I want to make sure a photo reaches its potential so that the viewer can get the whole picture. I want to make sure that my photos are definitive and clear with a proper white balance. I don’t want viewers to see my photos and see something off because this takes away from the photojournalism aspect. They would be too focused on the mistakes in the technical quality rather than the actual story. I never want this to happen.
When editing my photos, I always crop. But before I crop, I edit the blacks and the exposure. I then edit the contrast, clarity, texture, and sharpening a touch. For those last four tools, I don’t want to do those too heavily because I want to make my photos as realistic as I can.
This was a wide bench shot I got from the 2023 Les Schwab Invitational. This is the RAW photo, so there are no edits whatsoever.
As seen above, these were my edits. I put an emphasis on the exposure because the gym was very dark so I had to keep my ISO as low as I could without having to raise the exposure in post-processing too high. I added a bit of contrast to add a little more detail to the photo. Same can be said about the clarity and texture, I just wanted to add a little more detail. For the blacks, I raised it a bit because the gym is naturally pretty dark so I needed to raise them to support my exposure.
Most importantly however, I made some major changes to the color. I think this is the hardest thing to edit because there are about a million ways to adjust the color and making it just right takes a lot of patience and experience. I’ve been doing photography for a while at this point (around two years), so I have had enough experience adjusting color. Since the gym lights created such a yellow shade, the court was way too yellow so I went into the color mixer to adjust the yellow to make sure the court has that regular beige look. Since the gym also has a natural green tint, I had to up the purple tint to combat it. This helped the white balance immensely. When I edit my photos, I always adjust the tints and temperature to make sure my white balance is correct. Below, you can see the final product.
Cropping is essential
I always crop. To me, this is something that is necessary to every image, because an image in its raw form never meets its potential. The cropping will always make or break the photo because there are just so many ways to crop a photo. I also always use the auto straighten feature on Adobe Lightroom to make sure my horizon is straight. Using the bench picture from above, I needed to straighten my horizon and crop tighter. I think cropping tighter is huge for most images because I need to minimize any kind of distractions. I also need to get rid of empty space, and as you can see, I cropped out the left empty space because it’s a useless void that subtracts from the photo. I also cropped out some of the court at the bottom because I want to make sure all the focus is on the players reacting.
Here is another example, this time with a different photo to show how tight cropping is one of the more essential parts of cropping for me. With the photo below, I wanted a tighter crop so I could minimize any distraction. There was too much foreground in the image so that’s why I cut a lot of the bottom part out. Cutting out the fencing and the clutter at the top of the photo was important to take out because it distracts from the main theme of the photo, which is the interaction between the players.
However, I still kept the cement block with the pathway because I wanted to keep a story in the photo. Eventually, the players will walk up that pathway and head onto the field. Since it’s pregame, I think it’s essential to display how the players are almost at the start of the game. By not cutting out the little path on the right, I had a theme within my photo. This wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t crop selectively, which means I don’t always crop very tight. I still want to maintain the photojournalism aspect of the photo always. I’ve learned to crop tight and minimize distractions, but as I’ve gotten more experience, I’ve learned to use cropping to my advantage for storytelling.
How I sequence photos to make a story
I’ve always made photo stories since I started out in wlhsNOW. Yes, it’s always been a ton of sports but through all these photo stories, I kept learning more and more on what makes a meaningful photo story. I have found that sequencing the photos in the photo story is the most important for any photo story because the order dictates what the photo story really means. I find that photo stories are just like articles. They have a lede, content in the middle that gives context and information regarding the point of interest, and then how an issue can be resolved. This is absolutely no different for photo stories; The easiest way for me to sequence my photo stories is to think of it as an article. I find that it’s really just a story with interesting visuals.
During the beginning of my junior year, I went out to capture the essence of Homecoming. I wanted to go above and beyond with this photo story because at this point I was really sick and tired being told I could only do sports. Also, I wanted to stretch myself out. Our school has plenty of events on Homecoming day such as a big assembly, a little club carnival, a football game (yes I included football photos in my story!), and the dance. I set out to go to every event on that day so I could capture the story of Homecoming. There were a lot of photos to sequence there. I was proud of the final product, despite me not knowing a lot about Adobe Lightroom at all, due to my strategy with sequencing my photos.
(order of photos is left to right, then left to right, etc.)
A prideful Homecoming
An event-packed Homecoming brings dancing, football, and royalty
When creating this photo story, I aimed to make my sequencing based on time. The events that happened first will go first. This makes it easier for the reader to take in the story and not make it too confusing to a point where they could miss the point of the story. The point of this story is to share all the aspects of Homecoming and show the community that there are so many ways to be involved during Homecoming. I knew a lot of people went to the Homecoming football game but how many went to the club carnival? When making photo stories like these, I want to make sure all aspects are covered so each event has the same platform. All in all, when sequencing photos for a photo story, I always make sure that all aspects are represented.
Writing practical and eye-catching captions
To me, photos are the cake and the captions are the icing. When I write captions, I want to make sure that I’m giving context to the moment that appears in the photo. Like a cake without icing, a photo is bland without the caption because the viewer doesn’t get to know how special the moment actually is. This is something that I’ve learned throughout photojournalism; a good photo story has to have detailed and thoughtful captions. In our journalism class, our strategy to create practical and eye-catching captions is through the ABCD strategy.
- A — An eye catching phrase that grabs the viewers attention so they can read the rest of the caption. This could be one word or maybe an idiom. There are a lot of ways I go with this part.
- B — Details what exactly is happening in the picture. This one I have the least amount of creative freedom with. My job is to simply describe what is happening in the picture. This part is also written in present tense.
- C — Gives context to the photo. When I’m on this step, I make sure to give the who, what, when, and where in past tense. This helps the viewer contextualize the picture.
- D — A quote from the subject in the picture. This part usually answers the why of the picture and really puts the journalism in photojournalism.
Using these ABCD captions is essential when making photo stories. To provide context and add extra analysis to the photos help me create a practical and seamless story. For example, when I covered a basketball playoff game, referring to ABCD captions helped me create the photo story. Though not every photo uses ABCD captions, this format helped me with each caption.
(Order of photos is left to right, then left to right, etc.)
Men’s team moves past Jesuit Crusaders for quarterfinal spot
the team. Photo by Joseph Murphy.
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