If a picture is worth a thousand words then a well conceived photo essay is worth millions. Alfonso Calero and James Ostinga share five tips to help you start shooting engaging photo essays.
The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines a photo essay as: “a group of photographs…arranged to explore a theme or tell a story”. One of the most exciting things about a photo essay is its potential to convey a message that is far greater than the sum of its parts. While each image in a series may have some small story to tell, together the images can create something bigger and more meaningful. Shooting a photo essay can be a challenging and highly rewarding exercise. It can also be a great way to improve your photography. Here are five simple steps to help you get started.
01 SUBJECT Half the challenge of shooting a photo essay is finding an interesting subject to shoot. Look for something simple to start out – something that interests you and also offers relatively easy access. The images in this article were taken at St John's Boys Orphanage in Goulburn, New South Wales. The building was abandoned in 1978, and while it was once home to children of all ages, it is now a place of illegal dumping, graffiti and parties. Photographers struggle to make sense of this eerie backdrop; morbid messages in a blood-like substance and dried pigeon faeces showcase the visits of its present unofficial keepers.
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
02 THEME When you’re shooting a photo essay it’s important that your images are related by a consistent idea or theme. Each image should help convey the theme and push the story forward. If a photo doesn’t add to the story, get rid of it. One of the advantages of shooting a photo essay, rather than a single image, is that you can tell a bigger, and hopefully more compelling story. By shooting multiple images you can cover the subject from a range of viewpoints and record the story over a longer period of time.
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
03 VISUAL STYLE Use a consistent visual style to help tie your images together. It may help to shoot some test shots and think about the way the photos work together visually. Your style may be as simple as using the same lens focal length for every photo or cropping each image to the same format, say square or panorama. Post-production can also be used to create a consistent aesthetic – some of the options include converting colour images to black and white, reducing or increasing colour saturation, or adding a subtle vignette.
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
04 SHOT LIST Creating a shot list is a good way to help you plan your photo essay. What images would you like to capture and what do you need to do to get them? You may not be able to get all the shots on your list, but if you have a plan it will increase your chances of capturing the key moments when they arise.
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
05 INFLUENCES You can learn plenty by studying the work of other photographers. Analyse the photo essays that resonate with you and ask yourself what makes them successful. Try to isolate the elements that work so you can apply them to your own images. Just as there are rules of grammar in written language, visual storytelling has its own conventions. The more you study the work of other photographers, the better your visual literacy will be. Following is a ‘reading list’ of sorts, with links to just some of Australia's multi-talented photo ‘essayists’. It’s not a comprehensive list by any means (so apologies in advance to the many great photographers who are not listed), just a stepping off point!
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Alfonso Calero moved to Australia at the age of 15. He graduated from the Sydney Institute of Technology with an Associate Diploma in Photography in 2001 and has been professionally photographing food, portraits, landscapes and travel subjects ever since. He started a travel education and tours company four years ago delivering workshops every Saturday morning in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle. He also takes groups of four people to Japan, Philippines, Spain and Tasmania once a year for 10-14 day photography workshops. For more information about his tours and workshops go to www.alfonso.com.au or www.photographytravel.net.au
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
St John's Boys Orphanage, Goulburn, NSW. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70 mm f2.8 @ 50mm, f8, ISO 100, flash and tripod. Photo by Alfonso Calero.
