Equipment
I have always had a love for photography equipment. I love buttons and gadgets and all kinds of technology. When starting the project, I thought it would be all about the equipment. You must have the right stuff to get the right image. What I learned is that a simple story is more effective than a complicated one. That goes the same for the equipment you use. Although I have many fully manual cameras that I could work with, I chose for this project to use a Nikon 1 J1 camera with a NIKKOR VR Telephoto Zoom Lense 30mm-110mm - F/3.8-5.6. This camera is completely automatic and shoots clear clean images. I chose simplicity so that I did not get caught up in the dynamic of shooting, but stayed focused on the story I was telling.
The best camera is the one you have with you.
What aspects of a photo tell a story?
- Color: Color contributes to the story being told in a photograph. What mood is set from the color? A photo that is in black and white, or is lacking of color, directs your attention to the person or object of the shot. This is done intentionally to tell the viewer that the story is not in the color, but in the surroundings, or the subject. It causes the an admirer to see the whole photo, there is no color distraction. Within the editing process, a photograph that is black and white, can be tweaked in many different ways, adding tonal ranges to black and white photography as well, giving you more control over where the viewer's attention falls.
The photo above was taken by Dorothy Lang in 1936. Back then most photographs were taken in black and white. Recently, many artists have gone back and hand colored many photos from the past, thinking that it would somehow change the way that the photos are viewed. However, they found that, while some people visually preferred the colored image, it did not change the way that people were perceiving the photo. When people were asked what they saw in this picture, they replied with worry or anxiety, she's middle aged, it is not posed, etc. The woman in this photo is really 32 years old with 7 kids, and she has been said to be a woman who would never 'exist' outside of her family. But in this photo, she feels important because someone bothered to take her picture, therefore she is existing. Unless the color is specifically a part of your story, black and white is always a better way to edit.
- Setting: Similar to how a setting will affect a written story, it can greatly affect a photographic story. What is shown in the picture determines not only where the subject is, but it could also determine what they are doing, how they feel, who they're with, etc. That being said, the setting that is not shown in the photographs can also change the story that a photo is telling.
While editing, it is easy to crop a picture, which means take something out, or only show part of the photo. The image above could be perceived differently depending on the crop. On the left, it looks like an execution. On the right it looks like a soldier helping a poor man. When you see the full image it is of course the latter, but without all the information, it can be hard to understand the full story.
- Emotion: The emotion of the subject can decide the story a photograph greatly. Emotion makes you wonder why said person feels the way that they do. It makes them think about all of the other elements of the photograph. Emotion also has the ability to immediately make a viewer feel a certain way, which can also affect the way they look at the image.
When I first saw the image above, I thought it was a very powerful photo of emotion. It made me think and wonder why the boy was sad. I looked up the photo and did some research into when, where, and why it was taken. It is an image of a young 12 year old boy, who was playing violin at his teacher's funeral. It was said that his teacher helped him escape poverty and the violence of his childhood through music.