In Campus Journalism: Photojournalism

Trying to get the best shot!

Pictures and artwork are aids in catching the reader’s attention. A series of black-and-white pages with nothing but printed words is certainly unattractive. Carefully taken, appropriately chosen and properly cropped pictures add life to a n otherwise boring and text-heavy page.

         The age of modern technology has made the art of taking pictures considerably simple and easy. One need not be an expert photographer to come up with good and well-composed pictures because most cameras today are equipped with sophisticated devices that take care of some of the technical concerns of a photographer.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD PICTURE:

A picture worth printing must possess certain qualities. These are:

1. It must feature a prominent personality, event, or place.
2. It should tell a story by itself.
3. It should have a certain degree of human interest. Something odd or unusual never fails to draw attention.
4. It should capture a portion of the drama of life.
5. It should show a person or persons in action. Posed and stiff pictures create a sense of inactivity and lifelessness.
6. It must express the recent events.
7. A good picture should clearly show the faces of its subject matter. A picture of unrecognizable faces means nothing to the readers.
8. A picture must be properly cropped so that the desired image may be highlighted. Cropping means getting rid of the undesirable and unnecessary images of portions of the picture.
9. Any picture must have a caption (also called a cutline) summarizing the “story” the picture tells. Poetic caption is also acceptable, and in many instances, attracts readers, example: Icing On A Concrete Cake, Sa Ihip ng Hangin, Musmos sa Likod ng Rehas, etc...