Basic skills of news photography

Basic skills of news photography 1 news photography preparation

Nowadays, news photographers usually take pictures with digital SLR cameras. In actual news photography, lenses with different focal lengths, external flashlights, spare memory cards and spare batteries are all essential.

In my daily photo interview, I usually have three kinds of lenses with focal lengths of 17-35mm, 28-70mm and 70-200mm, and choose the corresponding lens according to different shooting materials.

In aimless interviews, I mostly only bring a 17-35mm lens. In the process of interview, photographers often not only have to undertake the task of photography, but also take charge of writing records. Therefore, recording pens, notebooks and wireless network cards are also the equipment we need to keep.

If the shooting scene is selected in a concert hall, a stadium or a large venue, it needs to be equipped with equipment such as a monopod, so as to successfully complete the task when the lighting is dim or the flash is not allowed.

After receiving the interview task, we should strive to arrive at the interview area in advance, fully understand the environmental facilities and lighting conditions in the interview area, and it is best to get the agenda of this meeting or activity, so as to be aware of it and not to fight unprepared.

How to make good use of spotlight

In the process of news interview and shooting, photographers should be familiar with the conventional expressions of various topics, fully understand the agenda of various activities, observe the terrain on the spot, and choose the best shooting angle.

In addition, we should also consider the influence of outdoor light on the activity site, whether the indoor lighting illumination is appropriate, and how to set the flash.

If possible, you can shoot in different setting modes to ensure foolproof; When shooting outdoors, we should consider the influence of sunlight on shooting, and fill the light with a flash when necessary.

Usually, company meetings and large-scale activities are held in low-light atmosphere, which puts higher demands on our photography work.

There are three situations that need to be photographed with the help of live light: First, the flash is not allowed in the news scene. In this case, it is necessary to properly improve the sensitivity of the camera and the shutter speed to ensure the imaging quality of shooting; Second, the shooting scene is too big or the subject is far away from the shooting location; Third, the photographer should highlight the atmosphere in the picture.

When taking photos with spotlights, try to choose large-caliber lenses, such as 70-2 10mm/F2.8, 28-70mm/F2.8, etc. This kind of lens has a large aperture and can ensure a certain shutter speed, so the imaging quality will be better. Generally speaking, most of us use hand-held cameras for indoor shooting, which requires that the shutter speed should not be lower than the minimum. When shooting with a lens of 17-35mm, the shutter speed should be controlled around115-1/30s. When shooting with a 28-70mm lens, the shutter speed should be controlled at about 1/30- 1/60 seconds.

How to use flash well

The flash we are talking about here refers to an external flash, and its flash head can be adjusted at will. We should have the experience that direct exposure to the subject by flash is easy to cause overexposure.

In this case, we can try to adjust the flash head to a certain angle, extend the reflector, and the light source reflects through the reflector and the ceiling. This operation can eliminate the projection of the subject and improve the influence caused by uneven illumination; If the venue space is small and the subject is relatively close to the camera, you can adjust the flash to 90 degrees and reflect light through the ceiling and surrounding walls to brighten the subject.

In the actual combat of daily news photography, we can try different flash methods and accumulate experience in using flash. When shooting a leader's speech or a fleeting scene, I suggest that you turn the flash to TTL automatic mode, which can save us a lot of time, have a higher success rate and a higher insurance factor.

How to shoot the leader's speech and panoramic shooting of the venue

Before leaders make speeches, speeches and other scenes, we should fully communicate with them and tell them that they can keep smiling properly, adjust their sitting posture, and try to cooperate with photographers when they feel ready to take pictures.

Photographers can also give the leader a gesture or hint before preparing to take pictures, so as to grasp the best shooting opportunity for continuous shooting and snapshot. In the shooting of the press conference, we should always be on high alert and pay close attention to the movements of the spokesman. When you find that the speaker is getting better and better, you should go to continuous shooting immediately and put his best expressions and gestures in the camera.

It should be noted that the microphone, water bottle and other items in the venue may block the main body and destroy the composition. Meeting photography should pay attention to finding the best angle and avoid obstacles as much as possible.

It's really difficult to shoot at the venue. We should make full use of spotlights and flashlights. When shooting a large conference attended by hundreds of people, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the audience, the leaders of the rostrum and the exhibition board of the rostrum. At this time, it is necessary to skillfully use the flash.

I found a trick myself: turn the external flash up slightly. At this time, the flash output is the maximum flash, which ensures that the distant podium is fully exposed, and objects close to the lens will not cause overexposure. When there is enough light at the venue, you can turn off the flash, choose a larger aperture and shutter speed (pay attention to the minimum shutter limit mentioned above), and measure the average light according to the LOGO on the back board or the people seated on the rostrum.

How to choose news pictures

The press release forms of news photos mainly include single photo, group photo and thematic photography.

A single photo is the most commonly used publishing form for photographers in their daily work. The basic requirements for shooting a single picture are: to show the typical instantaneous value of the image, and to pay attention to details, emotions and body language of the characters.

A group photo can be a description and expression of different aspects of the same news scene, or a combination of different scenes under the same theme. Group photos are mostly used to show news events from many sides and angles and deepen the theme. I participate in the news and photo reports of the National People's Congress every year. After the two sessions, I will select the photos of the meeting site, the delegates' discussion site, and the delegates and members' inspection, exchange and writing proposals, form a group photo and publish it.

Thematic photography refers to reflecting a news theme from multiple angles through multiple photos. Every photo tells a story or a plot, and there must be an opening photo, an climax photo and an ending photo, which are connected in series to form a complete story. Special photography should pay attention to the use of different scenes such as big scene, middle scene and close-up, as well as the collocation of horizontal and vertical photos, which has a long time span and diluted the timeliness.

The photos we finally choose to publish should have the following elements: first, the actions and expressions of the people being photographed are natural; Second, the moment that best represents the essence of news events; Third, there are both close-ups and big scenes; Fourth, the picture composition is reasonable and ornamental; Fifth, the picture is dynamic; Sixth, the captured images.

News photography should put visual impact in the first place

"News value" and "image value" have always been considered as two major elements of news photography.

Value of the image of news photography mainly refers to the visual impact or visual attraction of news photos. For a long time, many researchers and practitioners of news photography believe that news value is the first of these two elements, because news photography belongs to the category of news rather than art.

However, in the teaching of news photography in recent years, students are repeatedly asked to choose their favorite 10 news photos in any newspaper or designated newspaper, and it is found that the standard for students to choose is the picture effect of the photos themselves first, and the news value of the photos ranks second.

When discussing with students why the news value of news pictures is not the first consideration, many students said that news with great news value is often learned from newspaper reports or TV broadcasts, so when looking at photos, they are more inclined to pay attention to the picture effect.

Re-examining China's long-standing news photography practice and readers' evaluation of newspaper news photography, and putting the visual impact of photos in the first place, should be more conducive to the improvement of our news photography reports, more conducive to the innovation of news photography reports, and more in line with readers' needs for news photography.

First, pay attention to the choice of readers' visual feelings. News propaganda should be "close to the masses", and it is of great practical significance to study the characteristics of readers' visual feelings and choices for improving news photography reports.

News photography belongs to visual news, which mainly spreads news information to the public through visual images. The title of the picture is relatively subordinate to the text description. When readers choose news photography reports, the first choice is the image of the picture.

Because people accept news photography from the beginning of accepting the image of the picture, and then they will look at its text description.

If a news photo itself has no visual appeal, few readers will continue to read its description. Of course, just as everything is judged in many ways, a photo with strong visual impact or attraction is not necessarily a good photo, but a good news photo must have strong visual impact or attraction.

Human vision is a visual form with strong initiative and selectivity. People often say "turning a blind eye" means that what is included in the visual range can still be "invisible" or "invisible", which is the visual selectivity.

It only sees objects that attract it, that is, objects that have strong stimulation and impact on it. From the perspective of news photography, what kind of objects will stimulate, shock or attract readers' vision?

Psychologists have long pointed out that the things that vision dislikes the most are those static images or those repeated images. The so-called "turning a blind eye" is also true. Only when the vision faces a strange object will it "open its eyes".

People's vision has a tendency to seek novelty and accept differences, which requires news photographers to make their photos attractive, not satisfied with shooting the content and form that people can generally see, but should focus on the content and form that people can't generally see.

Become a "visible" photo report. The content and form are unique news photography reports, which are undoubtedly the most popular among readers; Only "form" (that is, the picture effect of photos) is a unique news photo report, which will also attract readers' attention; However, news photos with unique "content" are third-class, because the picture effect of the photos themselves is "deceiving readers". News photographers should try their best to make readers feel fresh through "seeing at first sight"

Second, strengthen the application of innovative thinking in news photography. Innovative thinking has the distinct quality of liking new things. Its thinking direction is positive, positive and upward.

Towards objects that have never happened, seen or reported before. This kind of thinking accords with the attributes of newspapers and periodicals. Newspapers exist to report news, and everything revolves around the word "new".

The innovative thinking of news photography is mainly manifested in two aspects: first, the innovation of content; The second is to seek new forms.

The innovation of content needs news photography to find and find the object worthy of reporting. Mr. Nan, editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, put forward six main directions in the article Analysis of Factors Affecting News Discovery: First, he is good at discovering or discovering little-known fresh facts that have not been widely spread through mass media so far. Second, he is good at discovering or clarifying the truth of major social events in different opinions and differences. Third, he is good at discovering or refining fresh experiences that help solve various difficulties and social contradictions at present. Fourth, he is good at discovering and capturing new ideas that can enlighten people and profoundly revealing new changes in people's concepts in the tide of reform and opening up. Fifth, he is good at discovering and expressing typical figures who can best embody the spirit of the times and have great encouragement and inspiration to people. Sixth, be good at finding new signs and trends that can reflect the development law of things, and accurately predict and describe the development trend of things.

Third, pay attention to the capture of typical moments. Modern society has entered the era of reading pictures. News photography is not the only medium for people to get video news. Compared with TV news, news photography is generally in a weak position from the perspective of news communication.

The former is "dynamic" and the latter is "static", the former is vocal and the latter is silent; The former can transmit reports synchronously when news happens, while the latter always lags behind before meeting readers. In the face of this weakness, does news photography still have advantages? The answer is yes.

The advantage of news photography is to capture the typical moments of news objects and freeze the essence of news moments for readers to savor.

If news photography wants to attract more readers' attention in the competition with TV news, it is necessary to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and pay attention to capturing typical moments.

Basic skills of news photography II. Definition of news pictures

The explanation of news pictures in China Practical News Dictionary is "a form of news reporting that combines the visual image of pictures with short text descriptions to report news and spread information". This interpretation shows that "news" and "information" are the "core" of pictures, and pictures are just the "shell" carrying "news" and "information". If there is no "news content" in the picture, only the "shell" of the picture is left, and the picture will lose its meaning.

(1) Definition of visual impact force

Visual impact refers to an intuitive image, which is directly presented to the audience without the imagination of the audience and can leave an impression on the audience's mind.

(2) The method of taking pictures in kind makes news pictures have impact.

Emphasize the uniqueness of the scene and make it have a strong visual impact. You do this in order to get closer to the subject, and you can get better visual impact than long-distance shooting. In addition, the choice of shooting point should be unconventional and the photography language should be concise and clear.

Second, the production method of news pictures has the impact of pictures.

(1) is good at capturing information-rich moments.

News photography mainly reveals news facts and disseminates news information with instant images. The more information concentrated in news photos, the greater the news value and the more innovative it will be. For example, in the Netherlands, when a car accident happened, two photographers from DPA and AP were present. A reporter from DPA photographed the moment when a car hit the wall and got out of the building. The Associated Press reporter filmed the moment when the car collided with the oncoming car after passing through the building. Therefore, most newspapers use the photos of the Associated Press. Because the photo of the Associated Press reporter not only reflects the plot of the car hitting the wall and going out of the building, but also explains the result of colliding with another car after going out of the building, which is more informative.

Information content has two aspects: one is factual information content, and the other is emotional information content.

In the practice of news photography, we often find such a phenomenon: some news photos seem to contain little information, but they are also favored by readers. What is the reason? This is because the information content of news pictures includes two aspects: factual information content and emotional information content. Although many news pictures contain little factual information, they contain a lot of emotional information, so they are equally popular.

A typical example is the photo of a girl with big eyes taken by China Youth Daily reporter Jie Hailong in the series of photos "I want to go to school". Compared with another photo in the group photo, the teachers and students of the whole school, this photo obviously contains much less factual information. In "All Teachers and Students", the images of rural background, big bowl of rice, rural teachers dressed in Hanfu, diligent children, etc. condense all kinds of specific information about children's learning in poor mountainous areas. However, the previous photos contain more emotional information. The beauty of the little girl is in sharp contrast with the sinister environment in the poor mountainous area. The little girl's big eyes reveal innocence, simplicity, persistence and hope, staring at the audience's conscience and soul like a searchlight, which strongly impacts the audience's mind and makes you unable to escape. Because of this, the author and readers have become accustomed to taking this photo as the masterpiece of the whole series of photos, and even the organizers of the National Hope Project have taken this photo as a symbol of activities and publicity.

(2) Be good at capturing symbolic moments.

It is a moment famous for its generality and expressiveness, and its images often show some hidden meaning, indicating some connotation outside the painting, and more infiltrating the photographer's subjective understanding and thoughts and feelings. This kind of instantaneous image often does not directly and clearly show the transmitted information on the screen, but is supplemented to a greater extent by mobilizing the reader's "re-creation" and arousing the audience's deep thinking. Therefore, the information capacity is larger, the news value is higher, the visual impact is stronger and more innovative.

In addition, symbolic moments do not seek to reflect the whole picture of the event, but only highlight the most profound and symbolic corners and parts of the event, so that people can know the whole leopard at a glance. Therefore, it provides a broad and free space for journalists to give full play to their subjective initiative to shoot innovative pictures.

The world-famous news photos "The Disaster in Bhopal" (photographed by Pablo bartholomew) and "The Consequence of Ugandan Drought" (photographed by Mike Wells) are good examples. These two photos reporting disaster news did not describe the disaster in detail, but only selected the most symbolic corner of the disaster to show the disaster, which was novel and original and achieved excellent communication effect. The former chose to bury the poisoned child at this moment, which highlighted the round eyes of the victim who was fatally injured and symbolized that he would die unsatisfied; Slightly moving lips seem to have his last groans and complaints. The latter picture is a close-up of a white and generous palm holding the palm of a black teenager similar to a chicken claw, symbolizing the evil consequences of drought in Uganda, and the palm is thin.

(3) Be good at capturing humorous moments

In the development of most news events, there are many humorous moments. On the surface, it seems to have nothing to do with the meaning or essence of the event, but in fact it reflects the meaning and essence of the event from another angle and side. It can enlighten people's minds and make people relaxed and happy. Capturing this moment requires the photographer to have humorous thinking, which can make people break the usual connection between things and observe the world from another angle. Humorous moments often give images magical and novel meanings. Shooting this moment is the main way for news photos to gain new ideas and produce visual feelings.

1987 12.7. After seven years, the negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce the medium-range strategic nuclear missiles finally made a breakthrough and signed the Sino-Russian Agreement. Tim Clary, an American photojournalist, captured a humorous moment in this very stylized and serious news event-Gorbachev and Reagan were about to shake hands to congratulate each other after signing the agreement to exchange texts, but their hands were not together. In the photo Trade, Reagan and Gorbachev are like businessmen. After some bargaining, they finally reached a deal, which is very innovative. Although it is not too strong visually, it has impacted people's minds.

(4) Be good at shooting novel moments.

That is, at the scene of news events, because of the special shooting position and angle of reporters, the news events filmed are refreshing and unique. This moment is famous for its novelty and uniqueness.

A large part of the subjects faced by news photography are stylized and rarely change, such as winning prizes in sports competitions, annual people's congresses and so on. Capturing novel moments is the main way to make your photos innovative and ahead of many competitors. For example, the annual People's Congress, the rostrum is also arranged in this way. In this case, it seems difficult for photographers to take refreshing photos. However, when the First Session of the Seventh National People's Congress was held in 1988, a photographer tied his camera to his hand and stretched out his arm, which moved the shooting point forward by several tens of centimeters and changed the shooting angle. Therefore, his meeting photos make readers feel fresh.

Yue Hu's The Birth of a New Record is also a good example. Zhu Jianhua, a high jumper from China, broke the world record of men's high jump with a score of 2.38m at the 5th National Games. Amid the warm cheers of the audience, Zhu Jianhua walked around the field to pay tribute to the audience. At this time, many photographers rushed to the front and followed. Hu Yue stood calmly in the stands and took a unique news photo of "the birth of a new record"-enthusiastic audience and sports reporter behind, Zhu Jianhua cheering for the audience in front-novel and refreshing.

(5) take exclusive photos.

Innovative news photos are often exclusive photos of the news scene, so we must be fully prepared for taking photos. In addition to the necessary interview preparation and technical preparation, it is more important to carefully observe the situation at the news site and be aware of it.

The exclusive news photo "Sleepless Night in Beijing on September 23rd" taken by China Youth Daily reporter Liu Zhankun is a typical example. When Samaranch announced that the host city of the 2000 Olympic Games was Sydney, when "Night in Beijing on September 23rd" was broadcast live on Beijing TV, people's expressions ranged from surprise, hope to confusion. This is an exclusive photo, and its success is undoubtedly due to the reporter's on-site observation in advance. At the shooting scene at that time, only Beijing TV reporters could take pictures in front of the venue. All the reporters were arranged on the second floor, and only the people in the live broadcast room could be seen. Liu Zhankun quietly surveyed the terrain and even knew the shortest distance from which door to the front of the venue. When the moment touched hundreds of millions of people came, he rushed down the stairs quietly and quickly, jumped to the front of the venue flexibly, and photographed this fleeting moment very calmly.

(6) Observe the movements of the characters carefully

Expressions and actions are the external expressions of characters' inner feelings, and they are the key to reveal people's spirit, temperament and personality characteristics. News photography can only express people's inner spirit, thoughts and feelings through their actions. Action is the most basic feature of the image used by news photography to "speak", that is, the image of an activity or the image of a plot in a group activity. In news photography, the action expression of characters' personality characteristics must be related to the expression of characters' thoughts and feelings, that is, the emotions expressed by characters' characteristic expressions and action gestures can be expressed.

(7) Correct use of posture

Regarding the posing phenomenon, Wang Wenlan, director of the photography department of China Daily, vice chairman of China Photographers Association and academic member of China Photojournalism Society, once said: "In China photojournalism, the debate about capturing and posing ended in the Cultural Revolution, because the different shooting methods at that time came from the falsification of many photos during the Cultural Revolution, and this debate lasted for a long time. Now this problem is no longer a problem. Judging from Jose's photos, many of them have been posed, designed and planned, such as masks that won the second prize in science and technology, but they have not affected the authenticity of photos and the reliability and readability of news events at all. On the contrary, they improved their influence through the design of pictures. No matter how you shoot, capture and pose, you must achieve the effect of the picture, which should be the only criterion for your success or failure. "

Third, respect the laws of news photography and give full play to its characteristics.

The planning of news photography reports must be able to give full play to the advantages of photography: visual impact. The principle of planning and considering the theme is to have a sense of lens. The so-called camera sense has three criteria: first, the news subject can be displayed by the picture, especially the inner world of the characters; Second, the news background and its environment can be displayed through pictures; Third, the news scene has a strong impact, that is, whether news and picture composition can form a climax that makes people echo each other.

The impact of news pictures has nothing to do with the size of the pictures.

At present, there is a phenomenon of "big" in newspapers. That is to say, newspaper pages are lifeless without pictures, but there must be a degree between the "big" and "small" news pictures. The ruler to grasp this fate can only be "big" and "small" of "news content". However, in the eyes of some editors and reporters (including a few editors-in-chief), they think that the bigger the picture, the better the visual effect and the stronger the impact.

As a result, the "big" wind of greed in picture editing seems to be getting worse. Long and empty words are often denounced by readers as smelly and long "lazy wife foot-binding" Similarly, a big and empty picture without "news content" is also a kind of "bubble". Although this kind of news picture looks "big", it has no influence because of its dull, pale and empty content, but it can only occupy, waste and even pollute the space.

Basic skills of news photography 3 I. Preparation before the meeting

First of all, we need to communicate with customers to understand the purpose and requirements of shooting the conference. The news shooting of the conference "If you want to do something well, you must sharpen your tools first", which should take into account not only the shooting of large scenes such as the venue, but also the shooting of close-up pictures such as leaders' speeches, especially important meetings. Photographers should not be too close to the leader, so the preparation of the lens must take into account that the wide-angle end is wide enough and the telephoto end can meet the requirements of close-up shooting.

Before the meeting begins, ask the conference group for a meeting agenda, and it is best to arrive at the shooting site one day in advance to inspect the size, lighting, guest positions and their seats. Clothes should also be ready. You must wear a suit and tie for international conferences, and you must also wear a suit and tie for large and medium-sized domestic conferences. You should get a badge from the organizer for easy access.

Second, shooting before the meeting

The general meeting ends in half a day, which is relatively simple. Some large conferences may be divided into main venues and sub-venues. Time is as short as a few hours, and as long as a few days, there are many agendas. During the meeting, the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the meeting activities attended by some major leaders and important people, are definitely the focus of shooting. Photographers should know these situations in advance and make clear the shooting requirements and key points. On the day of the meeting, you should arrive in advance and arrange all kinds of equipment properly. Before the meeting, you can shoot some background information, such as the layout outside the meeting, shooting banners and other publicity slogans, so that the audience can know the main contents of the meeting at once.

The official shooting starts from the sign-in desk, and all the shots signed by important guests should be filmed. When important guests sign in, the staff will wear corsage for them, so it is easy to identify who is the VIP. Before the meeting, the main guests should rest in the VIP room and take pictures of shaking hands and talking between the guests.

Third, the press conference shooting

When shooting the venue, it is best to shoot it after the meeting has been going on for a while, or after the leaders have spoken for a while. This can avoid many photographers in front of the rostrum and affect the neatness and beauty of the picture. Also, try to find a high point to shoot, so that the photos taken are large, layered and perspective. When the conference officially begins, it is necessary to shoot the host, clap the applause of all the staff and take a panoramic view of the rostrum and the venue. Then there is the speech at the conference, and every speaker has to shoot it. Be familiar with and be good at using the lens in your hand when taking pictures, and try to contain more useful information in the limited picture space. Let the photos speak for themselves. It is of course necessary to take photos of meeting news, meeting places and leaders, but it is far from enough.

When shooting meeting news, we should not only shoot the necessary meeting agenda, but also "concentrate on two tasks" and pay attention to finding and shooting things outside the meeting agenda. Or while shooting the prescribed actions, we should also deliberately shoot some interesting moments outside the prescribed actions, just like the "tidbits" written by the screenwriter. These "tidbits" photos are a useful supplement to the news photos of the main body of the meeting and are easily adopted by newspapers. Especially after the newspaper reported the main news, it needs a large number of such photos to come up with special-edition pictures for further reporting.