PHOTO-FEATURE AND PHOTO-EDITING

A photofeature is also called a photo essay. As the name suggests it is a story or an essay on a subject told using photographs. It can be done on anything that is photographed, a place or person etc.

How does a photojournalist work on a photofeature?

A photofeature is generally conceived at the desk of the editor of the magazine or newspaper who will brief the photo editor about it.

Now who is a photo editor? A photo editor is the overall in charge of the photo section in a newspaper or magazine. He chooses the photographer and discusses the topic. He may also choose a reporter who will write the story around the photo essay. It is also the job of the photo editor to decide and select on the best pictures that convey the whole story.

You have already learnt that a single picture is worth a thousand words”. Therefore a good photo essay which comprises of few very nice pictures will have a greater impact on its viewer than the best written essay.

Let us consider the example of a photo feature that will be based on a family and attempts to list five photographs which shall introduce them to others. If there are parents, their daughter, and grandparents in the family, you may have the following photographs:

·         Group photo of the whole family having a meal together.

·         Father leaving for work.

·         Mother preparing food in the kitchen

·         Daughter coming home from school

·         Grandparents watching television.

These are the few photographs that will make a brief photo essay on the above family. Of course there may be many other interesting pictures that could be taken.

Here you will have to be your own photo editor or take the opinion of a senior person to pick up the best photos that make a complete photo essay on the family. “Photojournalism is defined as a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, and in some cases to video used in broadcast journalism. Cartier Bresson is known as the father of modern photojournalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other types of photography (such as documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by the qualities of:

• Timeliness: the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.
• Objectivity: the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.
• Narrative: the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level. There is a story they tell and an emotional content to the images.

Like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter but he or she must often make decisions instantly and carries photographic equipment, sometimes while exposed to significant obstacles (physical danger, weather, crowds).”