1. Picture Editing
For newspapers

2. Picture shape and orientation
Most pleasing shape is golden section ( …) ie 5:3 or 3:5
Squares boring
Landscape orientation connotes order, peace, organisation
Portrait orientation connotes strength, power, movement

3. Picture content
Each image should encompass object doing something cf active verb
Avoid clichés (eg ‘line-up’ or ‘firing squad’, ‘grip and grin’, non-shot eg exterior of building with no people)
Photographs should have energy (eg information < graphic appeal < emotion < intimacy)

4. ‘Grip and grin’ cliché

5. Key moments (or not)

6. Avoiding the cliché - life

7. Showing relationships

8. Showing relationships

9. Digital manipulation In general, crop severely
Crop to head and shoulders to avoid ‘firing squad’
Reasons for cropping (content, emotion, conflict, context, shape, size, new focus of interest)

10. Cropping

11. Cropping

12. Cropping

13. Which is the killer?

14. Which is the killer?

15. Why are photographs so powerful?
Freeze the moment
Symbolise era
Mug shots symbolise the moment/character
Black and white connotes ‘reality’ and captures mood better than colour
Images can tell a story
Images can see what human eye cannot

16. Symbolism - connotations

17. Symbolising an event

18. Symbolising an event

19. Power of close-ups

20. Power of close-up

21. Power of black and white 1

22. Power of black and white 2

23. Power of colour

24. Seeing what human eye cannot

25. Seeing what human eye cannot

26. Criteria for selection photos 1
Animation ie life
Depth of meaning
Decisive moment
Action (eg meaning, movement, aesthetics, focus, key moment)
Composition (angle, lines of force - these may be used to ‘point’ to headlines))

27. Life

28. Decisive moment

29. Decisive moment

30. Decisive moment

31. Decisive moment

32. Selecting decisive moment

33. Decisive moment

34. Lines of force

35. Power of low/high angle

36. Criteria for selection photos 2
Contrast
Repetition
Energy eg in diagonals
Beauty
People eg character revealed, positive/ negative rather than neutral, people in context

37. Repetition

38. Repetition and contrast

39. Repetition and contrast

40. Drama of the diagonal

41. People in context

42. Combining photos Narrative sequence Contrasting images
Two pictures can collide or coalesce to give ‘third’ meaning

43. Combining pictures

44. Ethics Is it ethical to digitally manipulate photo?
OK to remove flaw
Not OK to fake photo
What content is unacceptable to readership? eg distressing photo, nudity, invasion of privacy

45. Ethics - to show or not to show?

46. Citizen Photographers

47. Text and pictures
Headlines and captions can anchor a picture’s meaning ie reduce its polysemy
Try to be interesting - give more than is in the picture
Dull picture can be made interesting by intelligent cropping and bright caption
Can you express the emotion in the image or be creative?

48. Anchorage through headline
THE
PICKET
LINE
VICTIM

49. Anchorage through headline

50. Caption types
label eg in single column picture of person (give name and something extra - eg Joe Bloggs, lottery winner)
explain significance of picture and bring it to life (eg Jane Bloggs shows she is a match for the men)
explain the story in the picture (who, what, where, why, when)

51. Other visuals Visuals can simplify complex material eg charts logos
drawings
cartoons
maps
diagrams

52. Charts Line graphs show trends Bar charts allow comparisons
Pie charts show proportions of a whole
Pictographs may include relevant icons

53. Logos Logos can be used to identify the newspaper to identify section
as button to link to section

54. Cartoons, drawings, maps, diagrams
Cartoons draw eye in to page
Drawings reduce possibility of offence or defamation
Maps useful if readership not familiar with location
Diagrams useful to show plans e.g. town redevelopment