INTRODUCTION
Photojournalism is one of the mass communication courses that you need to have full information on. We see pictures with news captions on newspapers, on the internet and on television almost everyday of our lives but yet didn’t ask questions.
who are the people responsible for posting those pictures or capturing those pictures?
Always remember that before you get a very important information there is always someone or some people on the field working hard to make sure you get the information you want. This brings us down to photojournalism.
WHAT IS PHOTOJOURNALISM
Photojournalism can simply Be defined as the act or process of using still images to tell news stories. This revolves around passing out information or sending messages through pictures meaningful pictures and self-explanatory pictures.
This is done not just by anyone but professionals, people that have been trained and lectured on how to take still pictures most especially in the aspect of disseminating news information to a large number of people out there.
The quality and nature of every picture really matters in photojournalism, it must be clean and comprehensible by the viewers.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOJOURNALISM
Since photojournalism deals with pictures there are some certain photography skills which a photojournalist must acquire in order to be a professional on the field.
- First of all, in the aspect of photography. A photojournalist must understand perfectly his or her camera settings and picture composition.
- This camera settings includes the iso setting, shutter speed settings, aperture settings which oil deals with the exposure in the camera.
- A photojournalist must understand how to control the amount of light that enters the camera when snapping a newsworthy picture in order to get a good image.
- Good photojournalist must understand different types of camera shots and camera angles in order to add meaning to each and every news worthy picture he or she is capturing.
- It is compulsory for photojournalist to understand camera composition and camera distance to the subject or character
- It is very important for the photojournalist to capture images. Especially newsworthy images.
QUALITIES OF A PHOTOJOURNALIST
- A good photojournalist must have curiosity. (In order to understand everything in details)
- A photojournalist must be courageous. ( not being afraid of going to places that will be worth it)
- Being compassionate is one of the most important things that makes a photojournalist. (Compassion)
- Smartness and fastness is compulsory
- Photojournalist must always look presentable and be ready to go extra miles where there is news.
TYPES OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
- General news photojournalism
- Spot news photojournalism
- Personality/ portrait photojournalism
- Sports action photojournalism
- Illustration photojournalism
- Feature photojournalism
- Pictorial photojournalism
GENERAL NEWS PHOTOJOURNALISM
This is the type of photojournalism that involves taking newsworthy pictures of planned events or meetings of different kinds, such as;
- Ceremonies that involves high personalities
- Press conference involves high personalities
- Fund raising
- Inaugurations
- Product or brand launch
- Lunch or dinner that involves our personalities.
The general news photojournalism basically deals with events that are planned ahead of time and events that involve people of interest.
SPOT NEWS PHOTOJOURNALISM
Spot news photojournalism is a type of photojournalism that involves the capturing of unplanned newsworthy events at that particular spot.
This unplanned newsworthy events can happen anytime anywhere, there are incidents you don’t know will happen such type of unplanned events are;
- A gas explosion in the centre of the market
- A car accident
- A school or any building on fire
This usually revolves around the type of news that affects the people at that spot. It is at a spot because it is very important to be recorded at that moment.
PERSONALITY/ PORTRAIT PHOTOJOURNALISM
This type of photojournalism deals with giving reports or capturing storytelling images of personalities, people of high profile, examining their emotions and mood at that moment. This is the type of photojournalism that tells more about the feeling, reaction or look of a particular person depending on the situation that affects the person either positively or negatively. Example;
- The head of security portrait pictures smiling because of the success of capturing bandits.
- University students sad over the loss of their schoolmates lives
- The new elected governor smiling after being sworn in and confirmed.
This portrait all personality pictures are mostly captured in a medium shot, which is from the waist to the head of the subject of character and close up shot which show closely the face of the subject or character
SPORTS ACTION PHOTOJOURNALISM
This deals with capturing the activities happening during any type of sport, such as football, table tennis, basketball, badminton and other sports.
This is done to capture the best moments of the players or to capture the fans in order to give people news stories. The story revolves around sports and it requires a very fast high quality camera and a very long-distance camera lens.
ILLUSTRATION PHOTOJOURNALISM
Illustration photojournalism deals with mixing and editing different pictures in order to produce one particular image that will portray the message of what has been photographed. This is mostly the work of art and photo manipulation, it creates images that support any news story.
FEATURE PHOTOJOURNALISM
This photojournalism involves capturing steel pictures that are not related to the new story but are used to support the new stories for entertainment purposes. The feature images are just there for people to see.
PICTORIAL PHOTOJOURNALISM
This is the type of photojournalism that is done to portrait styles; it is done to show the beauty of the subject matter, tone and picture composition rather than the reality. It involves fashion one way or the other.
This photojournalism is applicable to any person of high-profile, especially the models and politicians.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
- Timeless; photojournalism must always deal with current, hot and interesting issues.
- Relivancy; photojournalism deals with facts so it must capture meaningful images that will properly tell a story, images that will be comprehensible by the audience.
- Photo Narration; there must be written lines or little captions that explains the captured newsworthy images to best give the viewers information. Some people misunderstand images that have been posted in news reports.
- Interesting photos; the pictures must have nice colours, must be Sharp and must not be blurred. The quality of the picture is what captures the attention of the viewers.
- Fairness; a photojournalism should not take sides, all images should be truthfully shown as they are without any editing or manipulation that will favour one group against the other or one person against.
