Make a Digital Photo Story

A photograph has the ability to convey emotion, mood, narrative, ideas and messages - all of which are important elements of story telling.

Stories come in all shapes and sizes. Some are long (novels or even trilogies of novels) but others are short. Thinking photographically, these short stories might be one, or maybe two, images.

Most newspaper photography fits into this category of story telling - one image that attempts to capture the essence of an accompanying written story. They don’t have the luxury of multiple frames to introduce, explore and conclude so almost always tell the story of a single event rather than a longer one.

Such shots need to have something in them that grabs the attention of a viewer. They also will usually have visual and/or narrative focal points that lead the viewer into the photo.

Short Stories photos are often shots that leave the viewer of the photograph wondering about what they are looking at - not because they don’t understand it but because they intrigue and leave people imagining what is going on behind the image and what other future images of the scene might look like. In a sense these single image stories are often just as powerful because of what they don’t include in the shot as to what they do include.

Introduce Relationship

When telling a story through a single image think about including more than one person in the shot - when you do this you introduce ‘relationship’ into a photo which will conjure up all types of thoughts in the viewers of your shots.

Having said that, sometimes carefully framing a second person OUT of your shot can add to the story you’re trying to tell. Leaving evidence in the shot of a second unseen person can add questions to your viewers minds (ie a shot of a person alone at a table with two cups of coffee in front of them - or a shot of someone talking animatedly to an unseen person). Unseen elements of a photo can add a lot.

Think about context

what’s going on around your subject? What’s in the background? What does the other elements of the photo say about your subject and what’s going on in their lives? Of course you don’t want to be too obvious about setting your background up - doing so could lead to cliched shots.

A common multiple image story that many of us will be familiar with will be the photography we do on a vacation, weddings, parties, conferences etc.

Before you start photographing your story consider what type of shots you might need to tell it. Basic stories will usually include the elements of introduction, plot/body and conclusion:

1. Introduction
   Shots that put the rest of the images into context. These shots introduce important characters that will follow, give information about the place where the story is happening, set the tone that the story will be told in and introduce the themes that the story will meander through (see below for more on themes). Introductory shots need to lead viewers into the body of the story. If you think about a good novel, it’s often the first few paragraphs that determine whether people will buy and read the book in full or not - the same is true with visual stories. Introductory shots should give people a reason to go deeper into the story.
2. Plot
   Good stories are more than just empty words. They explore ideas, feelings, experiences etc on a deeper level. Plot shots will probably make up the majority of your photographic story. They show what happens but also explore themes and ideas.

Types of photo story themes might include:

• Visual themes - perhaps colors or shapes that come up again and again
• Stylistic themes - repetition of photographic techniques and styles.
• Locational themes - reoccurring photos from similar types of places.
• Relational themes - shots that focus upon a person or people over time.

And the last, good story tellers are quite intentional about the way they end their stories. Last impressions count and it’s worth considering what lasting image/s you want to leave with the viewer of your photos.