Unit 5: Photography

That was why, later on, he began to lose interest in photography: first when colour took over, then
when it became plain that the old magic of light-sensitive emulsions was waning, that to the rising
generation the enchantment lay in a techne of images without substance, images that could flash
through the ether without residing anywhere, that could be sucked into a machine and emerge from it
doctored, untrue. He gave up recording the world in photographs then, and transferred his energies to
saving the past. J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man
Photography is the art, process and practice of producing images of objects on photosensitive surfaces
such as films (reel, photo-film roll, roll-film, reel) and also in digital formats by using a digital camera.
Photography is an occupation of taking photographs and printing photographs.
Photography is a process of recording images on sensitized material by the action of light, Xrays, etc, and the chemical processing of this material to produce a print, slide, orcine film
Photographer is a person skilled to take photographs of someone or something as a means for livelihood
such as a photo-journalist, wedding-photographer, film-photographer and others.
Photojournalism is a visual storytelling of news, natures fury, human interest stories, capturing events
that are newsworthy among others.
Photojournalism is an understanding of the world through photographs: photo essays, photo features,
documentary photography,
In 24/7 news and current affairs television channels and moving images available on Internet-connected
gadgets such as mobile phones and tablet computers, there is significance for the still photography.
Newspapers, magazines and news agencies have photo-journalists working in many parts of the world
along with the photo-desk manned by photo or picture editor.
Established media organizations depute their photojournalists to different parts of the world to cover
events when they unfold and have importance to cover, and report to their audiences.
In 2014, TIMEs commitment to photojournalism remained as strong as ever, as the magazine assigned
photographers to stories all across the U.S. and in Afghanistan, Brazil, Burma, Central African Republic,
Finland, Gaza, Hong Kong, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, the Phillipines, Syria and Ukraine among many
other countries. time.com
Brave, independent and unconventional, Homai Vyarawalla is known to be Indias first female photo
journalist. She captured some of the most memorable and incredible moments of Indian history from
the first flag hoisting ceremony at the Red Fort on 16th August 1947 to the cremation of world
renowned dignitaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. TBI remembers this amazing lady and
her extraordinary contribution to Indian media. -www.thebetterindia.com
In the digital age, photographers are expected to be familiar and knowledgeable with Photoshop.
Debatable: Photoshop is ruining photography.
Photoshop is also a tool (akin to the darkroom) to manipulate images.

Photo editing
After taking photos by a photographer, the photos that have the quality, newsworthiness or importance
of lasting quality may need to be edited for suitable publication or for display.
With the arrival of computers, photo-editing has become easier, and possible with the help of photoediting softwares such as PhotoShop.
Photo editing
All good journalism requires editing, and that includes pictures.
Editing is a vital part of the photojournalism process, and anyone who takes or works with pictures must
know some of the basic principles and procedures. These include selection, cropping, enhancing and
sizing.

Selection
A photographer or a photojournalist can click many photographs but only few, or one may be selected.
There are no definitive guidelines governing their selection. However, to select a photograph depends
on: that which will capture the attention of the reader, and the selected photograph will illustrate and
supplement the editorial content, or the news item.
Photographic elements considered by editors, news editors and photo editor in the selection process
are: Photographs that capture:
Drama. Drama is the pictures that tell a story that are most likely to be chosen by an editor for
publication.
Pictures that have high dramatic quality can clearly tell the reader what is happening.
A scene can depict several aspects of drama unfolding but only one photograph can summarize
everythingsadness, loss of hope, devastation, hopelessness
Emotion. Photographs with emotional qualities often tell a story. There may not be a dramatic
element but evoke some an emotion in the mind of the viewer.
An old journalistic proverb says that readers will always look at pictures of children and animals.
Action. Editors and readers are most likely to be drawn to pictures with some action or movement in
them. Pictures suggesting movement will be seen and studied by readers more readily than still-life
pictures. Even though a photograph by itself cannot move, if its content indicates movement, it can
serve as an extremely good attention-capturing device for the editor to use.
Artistic or technical quality. Here we are talking about the good photograph, the one that has
sharp, clear focus and good framing or that presents a subject in an unusual or pleasing manner. This
kind of picture often appears in newspapers, especially with the change of seasons.
Bizarre or unusual subjects. A picture of something unusual, something not likely to be seen by
readers in their everyday lives, makes a good candidate for publication. Unusual subjects may stem from
the days news events, such as a fire or wreck, or they may be simply something a photographer has
happened upon or heard about, such as a twelve-pound tomato or an old mans wizened expression.
Prominence. Like the news value of the same name, prominence is a quality editors often consider in
selecting pictures. Pictures of famous people are always likely candidates for publication, even when
they do not contain any of the qualities mentioned above. Readers will look at pictures of famous
people, and editors will use such pictures for precisely that reason.
A good picture editor must have a feel for spotting the good photograph, one that will capture the
attention of the reader, illustrate the editorial content and enhance the overall quality of the
publication.

Cropping
Cropping means taking out parts of a picture. It has two purposes: eliminating unnecessary parts of a
picture and emphasizing or enhancing parts of a picture.

Eliminating unnecessary parts of a picture. Some elements of a picture may simply be

unnecessary to the subject and purpose of the photograph, and they should be eliminated. Often these
parts are not only wasteful but also distracting. An editor must use the space in the paper efficiently,
and proper cropping of a photograph is one way to do this. Good, tight cropping of pictures is just as
important as editing to eliminate unnecessary parts of a story.
Emphasizing or enhancing parts of a picture. One photograph may contain many pictures within
it. A good picture editor must have an eye for these pictures within pictures and must be able to see and
choose the picture that best fits the intended purpose. Cropping is a way of bringing out the particular
picture the editor wants to use, of emphasizing the part of the picture that readers should notice. A
picture that seems ordinary at first glance may be made dramatic by good cropping.

Enhancing
Photographs often need some adjustments or enhancements. Photo editing software allows
photojournalists to change the brightness, enhance the color or even increase the sharpness of a
picture. Photo editors should learn to use these with two principles in mind:
1. Its better to do too little to a picture than too much.
2. The basic subject matter of the picture should never be changed.

Sizing and scaling

Scaling is the process of changing the size of a picture area by enlarging or reducing it while keeping the
proportions of the original. Once an editor has selected and cropped a photograph for use in a
publication, chances are the picture will not be the exact size needed. Enlargement or reduction will
probably be needed to make the picture fit the standard column widths of the publication. When that
reduction or enlargement is made, the editor will have to find out how deep the reproduction of the
picture will be.
An editor may also have to change the resolution of the picture or the dpi (dots per inch), especially if
the picture is going to be put on a web site. The best dpi for web pictures is 72.
The concept of proportionality must be understood by those who work with the scaling process. For
our purposes, proportionality means that the width and depth of a picture must stay in the same
proportion to each other whether the picture is enlarged or reduced. Lets say a cropped picture is two
inches wide and four inches deep that the depth is twice the width. Given these dimensions, it does
not matter how much the picture is enlarged or reduced; the depth will always be twice the width. The
proportion must remain the same. The only way it can be changed is to re-crop the picture.
Heres a very short video tutorial on resizing your photo in Photoshop. While the instructions are specific
to Photoshop, the general principles and the specific steps are the same in most other photo editing
programs:

Biography of Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter (13 September 1960 27 July 1994): South African photojournalist, member of
the Bang-Bang Club, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph depicting the 1993 famine
in Sudan. He committed suicide at the age of 33. His story is depicted in the 2010 feature film The
Bang-Bang-Club, in which he was played by Taylor Kitsch.

Kevin Carters Photograph most famous photograph capturing the suffering of the Sudanese famine,
published in the New York Times on March 26, 1993.
The reader reaction was intense ; not positive. Some people said that Kevin Carter, the photojournalist
who took this photo, was inhumane, that he should have dropped his camera to run to the little girls
aid.
Issues: emotional detachment; livelihood or humanism
This was his suicide note; very depressing:
I am depressed without phone money for rent money for child support money for
debts money!!! I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and
pain of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer
executioners I have gone to join Ken [recently deceased colleague Ken Oosterbroek] if I am
that lucky.
The suicide: On 27 July 1994 Carter drove to the Braamfontein Spruit river, near the Field and
Study Center, an area where he used to play as a child, and took his own life by taping one end
of a hose to his pickup trucks exhaust pipe and running the other end to the passenger-side
window. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning, aged 33.

PHOTOGRAPHER
Ten years ago, Arko Datta's picture of a tailor named Qutubuddin Ansari became the face
of religious riots which left nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead in Gujarat.
In the picture, Mr Ansari, then 28 years old, is standing on a narrow veranda. He is wearing a light
checked shirt stained with dried blood. His faintly bloodshot eyes are glazed with fear. His hands are
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folded in an expression of obeisance, hiding a mouth agape. It's a disturbing study of fear and
helplessness.
"An Indian Muslim stranded in the first floor of his house, along with a few other Muslims and
surrounded by a Hindu mob begs to the Rapid Action Force (Indian paramilitary) personnel to rescue
him at Sone-ki-Chal in Ahmedabad, March 01, 2002," said the caption of the picture put out by Reuters
news agency, for whom Arko worked at the time.

Sources & references

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/?gclid=CJyAov6WisgCFQgRjgodssENMQ
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/world/the-photo-that-rocked-the-world-body-of-a-syrian-boy1083313.html (The photo that rocked the world: Body of a Syrian boy by Kovuuri G Reddy)
http://www.jprof.com/photojournalism/%E2%80%A2-photo-editing/
https://fstoppers.com/education/10-editing-techniques-changed-my-photography-68187 (first person
account of a photographer)
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/kevin-carter
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-17150859