The Visual Story: Part Deux

Making a Photo Essay with Original Photographs

Introduction:

• For this second photo essay assignment, you will work alone or in pairs in order to create a photo essay using ONLY photographs you have taken and edited yourselves.

So… What are we supposed to do?

• Your task is to tell a short story using 25-40 photos.

• Your story may be funny or serious but it must make sense (to everyone, not just you).

• You must use a variety of photographs of different shot lengths (requirements will follow).

How to go about compiling your found photo essay:

• Decide on the story you are going to tell. Will it be a serious story? Entertaining? Abstract?

• Search the internet for photos which will eloquently tell your story using limited written words.

• Using PowerPoint, assemble your photos into a cohesive story.

• Add a caption for each photograph, of no more than a few sentences.

Cont’d.

• You may add effects such as transitions, however do not rely on the effects to make the story good. The photos themselves should be enough to do that if you’ve chosen them well.

• Give your photo essay a title and brief description- and add it to the beginning of you PowerPoint presentation.

Finally you must-

SET YOUR PRESENTATION TO MUSIC To set a presentation to music you must

first choose a piece of music that compliments your photo essay.

Save the piece of music as an mp3 in your folder

Go to your first slide and go to Insert>Movies and Sounds>Sound from file, then choose your saved Mp3.

Music Cont’d.

• You should see a small sound symbol on your page now.

• Next you will have to time your presentation to the music. To do this go to “Slide Show”>”Rehearse Timings”

• Your presentation will start and you will see a counter in the top left hand corner

• Read each of your slides slowly and click on the arrow to move to your next slide until the presentation is done.

Things to remember:

• Photos and stories must not contain any offensive material whatsoever. This includes nudity, sexual activity, or anything construed as homophobic, racist or sexist.

• Since the photos are the basis of the story make sure they are well chosen. This means that they should be in focus, clear, and have interesting and varied angles, lighting and colour.

Required Shots

• There are many different types of shots used in the art of photography, each of which is used to show different settings, moods, details and attributes.

• For this project you will be required to have at least one of each of the following shots included in your photo essay:

EWS (Extreme Wide Shot)

• The view is so far from the subject that he isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.

WS (Wide Shot)

• The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible. AKA long shot.

MS (Medium Shot)

• Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

CU (Close Up)

• A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.

ECU (Extreme Close Up)

• The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail.

CA (Cutaway)

• A shot of something other than the subject.