Lecture Four: Picture Stories

While last week's lecture focused on text, this week we looked at how images can communicate a story. Only in modern history have we relied predominantly on text to communicate what we want, however before that images were the primary method of story telling. Reading was an exclusive skill, not something most of the population had access to. Images were displayed in the stained glass windows of churches to illustrate scenes from religious texts, cave paintings told folk tales and reliefs and carvings brought legends to life. More recently, photographs have become an important part of story telling, however it is usually in conjunction with text that it is most effective.

Photography is a very common medium in today's news stories. It's almost obligatory to include an image with an article. This is to do with the advent of digital photography and the internet; together, a photograph can be taken at an event, uploaded to an iPad soon after then immediately emailed using mobile internet to the newsroom, where text is added and the whole lot is posted on a news site, which can happen in minutes.

But what makes a good photograph? We looked at several examples, but the best were ones that communicated an emotion clearly, even with little context. The method used to capture the moment is almost irrelevant these days (many would argue the opposite, but that's another article); the photograph that won News Photo of the Year in 2009 was shot on an iPhone (which might not be that great of a shock, the iPhone's camera outclasses a lot of point-and-shoot cameras on the market). The reasoning behind the win would have been that they photograph was well framed and emotive, and clearly communicated a story without need for words.

Framing, focus, point of view and exposure all contribute to a good photograph. The key to a great photograph, however, would be "capturing the moment". That shot where grieving family members embrace, a girl is being caught by a fireman as she leaps from a burning building or the bursting of joy is displayed on a winner's face for that fleeting moment as victory is realised; these all make great photos.

If you want to get technical, you also should have a working knowledge of how to operate a SLR camera with manual controls, so that way you can have a precise grip on how the shot is taken, and not just when. It's all well and good to take a photo of a great moment, but if your exposure is too high or low, the focus is wrong or shutter speed is too slow, the image could change from perfection to a blurry blob of colour.

In summary, I feel very fortunate to have experience in photography and I hope that will work to my advantage when it comes to finding a job in this field of journalism. I just have to learn how to operate a camera without shaking it all over the place as well...