A picture can tell a thousand words

A picture can tell a thousand words

A photojournalist’s job is to take photos to accompany written work. The photograph is to express in detail and give the reader a more in depth view of what’s happening. A photojournalist travels the world and sometimes views the most horrific events especially in third world countries, war zones or even natural disasters.

A good photograph follows the rule of thirds (golden mean). If a grid is put over a photo and the focal point of the picture is within in the middle of the grid it therefore follows the rule of thirds. What makes a great photo is the framing, focus, the angle or point of view, exposure, timing and “capturing the moment”.  If a picture is framed well it creates a finished look making the picture look more professional. A photograph needs a main focus point, to capture the readers eye, if the picture has a great focal point it can create emotional outlook. The angle or point of view of a picture is vital, throughout all different magazines on one special topic, there will be many pictures from all different angles trying to capture the one that speaks the best. Exposure or light of a photograph is important, if a picture has little exposure it could be done purposely to create a dark feeling, similar if the photograph had too much exposure. It is the photographers view on whatever topic. Similar to exposure, timing is key! Timing is important in certain areas like war or natural disasters. A photographer might spend minutes to even hours trying to capture the right moment or sometimes a photographer could be doing something and quickly take a snap and that picture could turn out great.

Pictures have been around since the cave paintings and it has progressed through religious window, stained paintings and for photojournalists is all started when pictures were put in newspapers in 1860’s. Over the years photojournalism has developed dramatically along with cameras. With the help of the internet, photojournalists can now take a quick snap and upload their picture while still on the field. Some other developments is the manipulation of photographs especially with celebrities, making them look completely fake but also using the headline “perfect figure, perfect body” making society fixed on so called perfection but in reality its fake because of digital manipulation. This is also used to emphasize or dramatize natural disasters or other disasters to receive more buyers therefore more profit. Other digital manipulation can be the change of a person due their race or gender to make the photograph look more appealing to a certain customer.

Sometimes words aren’t enough and a picture can do it justice if it follows the golden meaning. A picture has no meaning at all, if it can’t tell a story.