Monday, April 22, 2013

Life Photo Essay formula

Some examples of Life photo essays:

Nurse Midwife
Country Doctor
One Ride with Yankee Papa 13

LIFE was a famous magazine a generation ago. People don’t really read it today, but it used to be a great source of photos and history. A lot of families read LIFE together to learn about the world.

As you might guess, LIFE employed a lot of photographers.When the photographer would go out, he or she made sure to come back with certain pictures. This was the formula that the magazine makers wanted photographers to use:

1) Introductory picture – a wide angle or aerial shot that establishes the scene.
2) Medium – a picture that focuses on one activity or group.
3) Close up – zeroes in on one element, like a person’s hands, or an intricate detail.
4) Interaction – people conversing or in action, doing something.
5) Signature – a picture that summarizes the situation with all the key story telling elements in one photo – often called the decisive moment.
6) Portrait – usually a dramatic, well-focused picture of the subject’s head so you can see it clearly, or the person in his or her “natural” setting.
7) Sequence – can be a how-to series of pictures, a before or after, or a series with a beginning, middle and end. Gives the photo essay a sense of action.
8) Clincher – a closing picture that feels like the end of the story.

Go to life.time.com, click through the different decades, or go to life.time.com/history.
Find a slideshow that really connects with you. 

Identify the best picture from each of the 8 categories. Copy and paste them onto a Word Doc file.

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