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With more demands here and there, I have decided to share another great side of photo essays which is, ‘HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN PHOTO ESSAY AS A PHOTOGRAPHER’ I believe this will help you go a long way in this field. One thing about creative photography is that it can be a super fun exposure for you, it can expose the truth about something or restore hopes.
There is no particular way or a pattern to creating your own photo essay, it only requires your artistic touch as a photographer.
WAYS OF CREATING A PHOTO ESSAY
- PICK A TOPIC TO WORK ON: This will actually do you a great deal by having a topic or subject matter at hand because it will guide your work making things easier. In my previous article, so many examples of photo essays were mentioned; picking from any of them gives your work a shape. This will help you narrate and execute your selected topic.
- RESEARCH! RESEARCH!!: Nothing works better than having broad knowledge or idea of any project you want to embark on as an individual or as a photographer because the mental picture you build over time can produce fantastic results at the end of your project. Research helps you have background knowledge of who you want to shoot or where you want to shoot. Whatever your topic is, go back to a time in history and dig deep on how others have done theirs either through books, surfing the internet, or going to the place where you want to shoot.
- DEVELOP A STORYBOARD: Your storyboard builds the shot pattern or story content when you embark on your project. This helps you lay out your ideas shot by shot. Doing rough illustrations of what you’re trying to capture, helps you prepare before you head out to take your photos. This tool is most helpful when you can’t figure out what story you want to capture.
- MAKE USE OF THE BEST IMAGES: First, once you have a mental picture of what you want then you can now take a lot of shots from the leading shoot to the last shutter click. This is because you’re creating a visual story so you need to select the best images, and not too many otherwise you will be diluting the effect or impact your message carries.
- OPEN YOUR MIND: In the long run, you will definitely have different thoughts, and other ideas will start popping up. Sometimes a photo essay evolves organically, and your job as a documentary photographer/ photojournalist is to extract the right narrative from the images you’ve captured—even if it wasn’t the original idea.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR YOUR PHOTO ESSAY
- EXPERIMENT AS YOU WANT: You can experiment with all the different techniques you know ranging from your contrast, filters, colours, exposure settings, angles, etc. This will end up giving you a unique output in your work or images.
- YOU CAN SET SCENES: As it involves storytelling, you can set a scene that captures the message behind your story and you can always manipulate your scene to get the desired shot.
- CAPTURE AND EDIT LATER: When done shooting, editing your images like cropping, adding other artistic effects can bring out the beauty of your story.
- MAKE IT FUN WHILE AT IT: If you want to perform at your best, you need to loosen up and have fun. As a photographer, making compelling images is part art, skill, and performance so in that vein make sure you enjoy the process.
