Art Education Blog: Photojournalism Techniques

Below are some photographs that I took to display several compositional and photojournalism techniques. These photographs were taken with my smartphone as I was around town and one was even taken in Charleston, SC. Besides the simple techniques, such as, Rule of Thirds, Golden Triangle, and Golden Spiral, these photojournalism techniques focus on making the image tell a story or to put the viewer inside the photograph.

Disturbance

This technique tries to put the viewer within the photograph by placing a frame within a frame, which, in this case, places the viewer inside of the room. The point of this is to make the viewer feel as if they are experiencing one environment while viewing another.

Place

Place is another technique that puts the viewer into the photograph. In this case, the subject is the room, but another subject is the table in which the photographer appears to be sitting. By doing this, the viewer gets a stronger sense of perspective and can feel how large or small the room is. This technique is used quite often in photojournalism for it's way of letting the viewer experience what the photographer experienced at the time of taking the photograph.

Proximity

Proximity is used most often with portraiture, but can be used with inanimate objects as well. The purpose of this technique is to reach a level of intimacy with the subject. The viewer will be forced to notice the subject and examine it, more so than the rest of the image. This technique is a powerful tool when photographing faces for it's effectiveness is showing emotion.

Vantage Point

This technique is achieved by placing the camera in a place where your eyes would not normally go. Disturbance and Place are commonly used at eye level, whereas with vantage point the viewer views the subject from an angle that they likely have never experienced before. This can make the subject appear larger than life, or even distorted.

In The Classroom

Most students today will likely own a smartphone, and it will likely have a sophisticated camera. Chances are, they are decently skilled with their device, and are capable of taking some good quality photographs.

This photography assignment will include the students taking photographs with their phones, and they will have to take shots using the 4 techniques described earlier. This will be a good starting point, so that the students will feel comfortable using their device and will be able to think more about the composition of the image instead of worrying about how to properly use the camera.

Once the students have taken the 4 four photographs, and each image successfully exemplifies the techniques above, it is now time to have them use a different camera. The cameras can be ones that the students already own, preferably digital, or if a student does not own a camera, the school, depending on the budget, can assign one for that student to rent. However, another option would be disposable digital cameras. Unfortunately, the disposable cameras will not have the option to edit and crop the image on the device, like a smartphone or a digital camera would. This, however, is useful to the student, because they will have to focus on the composition and take the shot by placing the camera exactly where it needs to be, unlike with a smartphone where the image can be edited immediately after.

The Subject Matter

The students will need to think carefully about their subject and how to incorporate these techniques to abstract or tell something about their subject. Teenagers usually are passionate about technology, music, and fashion. Subjects could include cell phones, articles of clothing, music playing devices, etc. These would likely be subjects for the techniques proximity and vantage point.

As for place and disturbance the students could take photographs of the things that they do with their family and friends. The environment should be used to the photographer's advantage.