Page 118 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

DIGITAL STILL PHOTOGRAPHY

If the photographer is unsure of the intended final use of a set of
pictures, then he or she must shoot for the broadest edit. All of the
bases must be covered in a variety of ways. Shooting still pictures for
linear stories is a bit like shooting for video in that there should be
different views of the same subject so that the editor can create the
visual variety needed to make the production interesting.
Here is an example that might help to illustrate what we mean. In
television news, you’ll notice that when the camera moves from one
view of a person to another view of that same person, you sometimes
see an intervening shot called a “cutaway.” The camera might start
with a tight profile shot of a speaker. The editor wants use a shot
of the same speaker from head-on to get a good look at a dramatic
hand gesture. The editor will usually select a transitional shot like a
member of the audience listening before the camera cuts to the new
view of the speaker. Still photographers who work in multimedia or
shoot for Web site products must also get into the habit of shooting
transitions.
A good exercise for photographers and editors to help them in
108 the planning stages of their projects is to make a storyboard of the
shots or the concepts that must be included in the final presentation.
A storyboard is simply a sketchbook of the planned story. Works of fic-
tion like movies are heavily storyboarded. Every scene and most shots
are sketched out in advance.
To better understand how storyboards work, take a look at the con-
struction and organization of a good graphic novel or a comic book.
The story text flows from scene to scene, but the artists use a variety
of cinematic effects to enhance the story. Good photographers also use
a variety of shots and perspectives to move their stories along. Wide
shots, close-ups, detail shots, medium shots, and portraits all work
together to visually tell the story in an interesting fashion. If all of the
pictures look the same, it does not matter that the content is different.
The viewer will get bored and move on to something else.
News photographers who shoot still images use a modified story-
board technique called the “throw down.” The photographer makes
a broad rough edit that includes different pictures that have similar
information into work-prints or computer printouts and spreads them
out on a table or on the floor. Then the editing team goes through the
story concept by concept and point by point to select the best package
of pictures to tell the story. Sometimes an excellent picture will not