Visual Storytelling: Producing Compelling Photo Essays

1. Introduction: Hi. My name is Casey Wakalo. As a documentary photographer, producer, and educator, I often work with a lot of photographers who are technically skilled, capable of making really strong photographs. But yet, they feel like their work is not landing, like something is missing. Most of the time, what is missing is not them making better photographs. They already do that. What I have found to be missing is better storytelling. And that's what this class is about. I will teach you how to move from single images to a clear structured visual narrative, which is also known as a photo essay. A photo essay is a curated sequence of photographs arranged with intention with each image building on the last to construct a cohesive narrative. We'll look at the difference between a photo essay and a photo series, we'll break down the narrative arc, we'll look at the four essential shot types that helps you build a photo essay, and I will show you how to storyboard a complete photo essay before you even pick up a camera. By the end of this class, you won't just understand how photo essays work. You would have the foundational tools to build one in the form of a structured eight frame storyboard for your own project. You will do this using a downloadable worksheet that I've provided in the class resources. You don't need to shoot anything new specifically for this class. All you need to do is to bring a story that you want to tell. If your work has the images but not the story, this class is for you. Let's get into it. 2. Project: Your project for this class is simple. You're going to complete an eight frame photo essay storyboard. I have included a downloadable worksheet in the class resources. It provides a step by step guide, starting with your name, the project title, and the logline of your story. Then you will map out the beginning, middle, and end of your story. All this will be done within an eight frame storyboard, where you include a short description of the shot, its rationale, type of shot and the position of that shot in the narrative arc. This exercise is not about perfection of ideas, but to help you clarify your direction. Many photographers wait until they get into the field to figure out what they are doing. This project changes that habit. When you plan before you shoot, you arrive with intention and that changes everything about how your work comes out. Once you're done, upload your storyboard to the project gallery. I'll be reviewing submissions and providing feedback. I look forward to seeing your project. 3. What is a Photo Essay: And photo essay is a collection of photographs arranged in a deliberate sequence to tell a story. So the very key thing with photo essays is that it follows a narrative arc. So it has a beginning, a middle, and end. Photo series is pretty much a collection of photographs that share the same theme, subject or aesthetic, whereas with photo essay, it is the narrative. It's in the way the pictures are captured, but also in the way that they are shaped, the way the story is being told. Sometimes there are projects that are in the middle, but the main thing that separates them is just the narrative arc. The first major photo essay that we've known is the country doctor. And this was shot by Eugene Smith. And it's pretty much the life of a doctor in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. At the time, you know, it was, you know, more like the photojournalist boom, where people are trying to take one picture that tells all the story. But what Eugene Smith did was, you know, capture multiple pictures that all builds up to make one story. And that is the core defining factor of a photo essay. So you can see in this picture, you know, the doctor is arriving for work with his bag. You know, you can see the time of the day. You can tell you know, what this environment looks like. You get a feel of the area. Is it a suburban? Is it rural? You know, you're getting a sense of what the place looks like. You're also seeing who the central character is with the bag. Then he moves over to the next shot him getting ready for his job, you know, taking some coffee. He's looking already tired, even before he starts the job, but you get a sense that um, is a very busy doctor. You can see the kitchen. You, you know, every single thing in the frame is showing is giving you more context of who this person is and what this story is about. Then you can see the doctor, you know, meeting the first patient, you know, how the picture is framed. You know, you can see the environment with the captions as well. Progresses to, you know, the doctor seeing another type of patient. So he meets older people, he meets children, he meets parents. Then you can see the doctor, you know, treating a bit of a detailed shots, going a bit closer, you know, showing the doctor the eye, the emotion, the feeling. You see the patient, older patients. You know, you've seen young. You've seen middle age now, you're seeing old. And also you're seeing a picture where the doctor is not in the frame. So it's not a must that the doctor will be in the frame. Sometimes you can take pictures of other things that are happening around the main subject to build the story. And then you can see, you know, someone I think this person died or something like that, but you can see that action, that drama, you know, he's carrying someone. You know, you've gotten to you've progressed to, like, the middle, the most active part of the story where he's carrying someone when someone is squeating out water from their mouth, that kind of a thing. Then it progresses to him closing at the end of the day in his hotel room, about to have his bath, you know, making a phone call, probably calling the family, calling the wife. Oh, today was busy, you know, but you can see that narrative arc. And this is not all the pictures. So I've cut down the pictures in a way that, you know, we kind of see the main actions that are happening in real time. And also, you can see how the shots kind of ends with a dark environment. You know, I kind of just shows nighttime, shows close of the day. So that is the main thing that defines the photo essay, you know, the ability to build that narrative arc, that beginning, that medal, and that end. Photo essay and a photo series, one of the key differences the photo essay is narrative driven. So it has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Whereas, photo series sequence is not really important like that. So you can move one picture from the beginning to the end and it will still be good. Then for photo essays as well, the photos are dependent on each other. So when you move one picture out of the sequence, it makes it harder to understand what's happening in the other one. Whereas in photo series, each picture can stand on their own. Then generally photo essay some kind of acts or answers a specific question. You know, what is a day in the life of a of a doctor, you know, living in this region. What does it look like? And a photo series often explores a subject or theme, something that is a bit broader, mental health for people that have gone through, you know, traumatic experiences, you know, it could be domestic violence. It could be it could be so many things, but the umbrella time is traumatic experience. Whereas with photo essays, is more narrowed down. You're kind of trying to show something. You're trying to ask or answer a question. And another thing is that photo essays have a natural end, you know, because it has that beginning, middle, and end, at some point, the story is going to come to an end, you know? So, you know, there is that clare cut off where the story begins and where the story ends. Whereas, with photo series, it could go on for a long time. You know, you could work on it for 20 years. And so if you're doing a story on food markets, for instance, you can explore going to other countries, you know, and see compare what food market is like in the UK, what is like in in Nigeria or Libya, you know, you can keep expanding the project in a way that you can do it for the rest of your life. Whereas with photo essay, is a bit more confined and you just have to finish up at some. Sometimes there are stories that are hard to tell in photo essay. So photo essay is often better when it's a personal story. I would say that how you would look at both would be, how do I want to tell the story? Do I want people to connect on a personal level, to this individual, to this space, to this community, on a very intimate or personal level? Or do I want to show the scale of the issue? You know, this issue I'm talking about, this topic affects 500,000 people, and these are some of the people. So it boils down to how you want to tell the story and the kind of outcome you hope to get from that story. It's not a very hard line. There are stories that you can start off as a photo essay, working with one individual, working with one community. But at some point, you kind of expand it into bigger thing, you know, where you are now looking at different people in different locations, you know, you. So it boils down to what you want to achieve with the story. So that's what we define it. And as you've seen, you know, it's not a hard line. Sometimes there are crossovers, but just knowing and having this in your mind kind of helps you know how to approach your story. Visit one of the websites that I've provided in your worksheet and distinguish between the projects that are photo essays and photo series. 4. Anatomy of a Story: An idea is Steve Kelly, for instance, and Macy Crowe, creating a five minute multimedia story, Hungry living with Prada Willie Syndrome for Maryland's Howard County Times website. So the idea basically for this story that was already brought out was to document the effects of an incurable genetic disorder, whose symptoms include insatiable hunger, low IQ, and behavioral problems. So that is the idea. But the story is the relationship between a teenager between a teenager, teenage boy living with the disorder and his father is a caregiver. You see the difference. So the idea is, you know, I want to tell a story around this genetic disorder is incurable. The symptoms are insatiable hunger, low IQ, and behavioral problems. That is the idea. But the story is actually finding an angle that you want to approach the idea from. A lot of the time, we stop at the idea. We just have the idea, but we don't have the story. So the idea is, this is what, in general, I want to address. The story is, how are you going to, like, what builds up that story? And also, the story is made up of 5Ws and H. So this is the who are the characters of the story. So every story should have that. You should have a character. You should have the location, you know, where the story is set, when is it happening? What is the character's mission, and why is it important? Then you also have to talk about why did it happen? Why did that mission happen? So that is the key thing that makes up a story. So when you go back to this story, you can see that the K Ws and H is also answered in some of these things. So with the story, we know that the central character is the boy and the dad. If we were to look at where the story is set, we know it's in the US, possibly. And then we want to look at the when it is happening. The story would show us when we know the timeline. Sometimes they can introduce it using text or something. What is the character's mission? So, pretty much, we know that the mission is for how this boy copes with the disorder, but also how is the father helping him? And how is the father trying to get the best out of life for his son? And that is the tension, you know, the conflict that would help the story be stronger. Why is it important? It's important because there are people hundreds of people or thousands of people that are living with this disease, and it would be even if you're not living with the disease, you're probably battling with one disease or the other, or you have relatives or you have friends, you know, so it's important to kind of show what living with this disease looks like, because a lot of people will see themselves in that story. Or even if they don't see themselves, they can build more empathy towards other people that are going through similar stuff. Then how did it happen would now be how, you know, so what part of the relationship are we showing? What journey, what outcome is the dad trying to get with the son? Is the story focused on the son trying to survive or trying to achieve something, or is it focused on the dad and how? So it now boils down to who is telling the story to kind of know what angle they are going to tell the story from. There is something they call the Hero's Journey, which every story basically follows, you know. So I think from your TV series to your cartoons to your superhero to whatever story that you look at, it follows the hero's journey. And I'm not going to go into too much detail into this, but every story is built in three acts, pretty much the beginning, middle, and end. And in the beginning is like the ordinary world, this normal person, you know, living their life. Then all of a sudden they get a call to an adventure. So let me think let's use the story that we just talked about. This man that has a job, you know, living his life, all of a sudden, he has a son that has this disease. So maybe he battles whether they will have the child or what to do, you know, about the situation. Then he starts talking to other people or, you know, he just has that drive to do something or to support the son to achieve something out of life. Then, you know, initially, he will now go on this journey, and the adventure would start. He would go through a lot of tests. You know, he wins. He will try to overcome some. He won't. And this is where the tension. So in the middle, which is the second art, this is where you build up all your tension, all your conflict. You know, you will meet allies, he will meet enemies, you know, then you will want to retract back into their inner cave, you know, the ordeal. Then will size up the reward. Like, is this the what's my time? Am I supposed to do this? Am I called to do this? Is it what it? Then you go to the third act, which is them, you know, having the chance to make it right. So they trace back their step, you know, get this extra training or this extra power or whatever, and then progress to face their challenges head on. And then they reach that resurrection atonement, and then they come out victorious, or they come out defeated. So when you look at this, this is how virtually every story that you know is built. Sometimes very intelligent creative storytellers would move around this piece. They can bring a bit of the second act in the beginning to kind of hook you and now take you back to the beginning. So, you know, you move it around in different ways to take people on that journey. You know. So at the end, you want people to leave that story feeling something or, you know, either feeling happy, feeling sad, feeling empowered, whatever feeling you want people to have, but, like, that journey is important. Choose one of the photo essays from your worksheet and examine whether it answers the 5Ws and That is the who, what, where, when, why and how. 5. Narrative Arc: And when you're building your story, you should already be thinking about what is the beginning of the story? What is the middle of the story, and what is the end? So for instance, let's say we are doing a story about a student chef at a culinary school. We know that the beginning is them preparing a meal, you know, what the kitchen looks like, you know, getting some training, making the meal. Then the middle is them actually serving the meal, practicing what they have learned. And then the end would be them closing from work, or tired removing their apron. So without this clear understanding of what happens in the beginning, the middle, the end, you will just end up no matter the amount of pictures you take. If you don't capture pictures that highlights the beginning, the middle, and the end, you will struggle to build a story. So it's very helpful for you to already think about what happens in the beginning, what happens in the middle, what happens in the end in my story when you're building up a photo essay. Specifically in photo essay, that would be exposition, opening or establishing shop, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. So exposition sets the scene for the story. So you kind of introduces the main characters of the story, the main concept of the story. Your opening shot or your exposition should inform people about what the story is about. It should hook people to the story. It should be interesting enough for people to want to open the story. So think about it as your, you know, where you turn on Netflix, right? And the first few scenes you see in that Netflix movie, as a movie starting, it's that exposition. It sets the scene. You know, it kind of takes you on a journey. It doesn't give you everything you need, but it gives you enough to spark your interest to want to follow the story. So in photo essays, you have to be thinking about what picture am I going to open this story with? How what picture is going to establish where this picture is where this story is unfolding. Think of virtually almost any movie you've seen, it often starts with at the beginning towards the early part of the movie, you would see a wide shot showing, like, high rise buildings or, you know, landscape that kind of shows this story is set here, you know, sometimes they use text to kind of highlight that. But that is very important. You have to consider that in your opening stages. Then you think about the rising action. You know, something is starting. The story is unfolding. You know, conflict is building up. So this is the part where you are you're turning off the gas a little bit. You're turning off the heat the heating a little bit, but not at the highest. So you're building up that story for people to follow through. And then the climax is the peak moment in the story. This is where the highest energy point is, where the highest action happens, where the highest emotional peak happens, pretty much maybe where the person is now if it's an action movie, where the person is now having this very serious fight, you know, then falling action is the is immediately after climax. So now the person is almost tired, they almost giving up, then all of a sudden they push through. And then you have the final outcome. Did they win, were they killed? Did they succeed? Did they fail? You know, whatever outcome you want to think about your story, you know, would have. That is why it comes to full view. So this is pretty much similar to what even non fiction writers would use. It's just that Oh, its documentary photographers we are dealing with real people, so we are not necessarily in control of how things end. Sometimes we are in control of how we show the end, but, you know, the outcome is often dependent on what actually happens in the story because all this whole narrative arc is built on real people, real places. So it's more of you thinking about how can you, you know, position what is happening within this narrative arc to build up a story. So now bringing it down to photo essays, right? You are now thinking about the visual elements. What are the visual elements you have to work with in photo essays? So this is the portraits, environmental shots, detail shots and action shots. The portraits, you know, kind of, this is where you would show who the main characters are or the various characters in the story, using really strong portraits can help us get to know who we are photographing. And, you know, beyond I mean, from beyond the typical traditional definition of a portrait, which is more like someone's face and stuff like that. I photo essays, it's not necessarily that type of picture. Sometimes it's environmental portrait, you know, which is how I like to make my portraits. I hardly unless coming close to the person's face, you know, contributes substantially to the story, I would usually want to photograph people setting the scene, using their environment to kind of tell us who they are. So don't think about portraits as just getting up close. Sometimes portraits is about photographing people within their natural environment, and that kind of helps build up more context about woo you're photographing. So, for instance, if it's a doctor, going up close with a doctor is a good portrait, but a better portrait would be to photograph them wearing maybe a lab coat or with their setoscope or in their office showing, like little little information that helps us know this is a doctor. Then the environmental shot helps you set the scene. You know, you want to take your viewers on a journey. You want them to know where the story is set. Sometimes it's not necessarily knowing the exact location because, you know, photos are very limited in how they can communicate that. But it kind of sets the scene for you to know, okay, this story is setting in Asia, or it's probably setting in Sub Saharan Africa, you know, or Europe. You know, when you're able to see the environment, you know, busy streets or something like that, you can get a sense of where the story is happening. And also the environmental shops helps you know when it's happening. You know, just little details around, like, what type of building. Is this the type of building that I mean, I can tell the time a story is told for Nigeria because there is, like, a clear architectural difference between how houses were, you know, 50 years ago and how houses are now. Um, whereas, maybe in Europe, you know, it's a bit different unless you go to new build areas, and even that can give you more context. Okay, this is a new development area, you know, so all that kind of information is what you get from the environmental shot. And then you have the detail shot. So sometimes you want to have a variety. You want to bring people a bit closer to certain details that, you know, they might not be aware of that is important for the story. You know, so it's not everything that needs to be wide and, you know, show all the whole thing. So you need to get a bit closer, you know, show some part of the story that no one is paying attention to that you think would help push the story forward. And then you think about the action shot which is which kind of now shows the actions that are happening in the picture. Again, each of these pictures can one picture can be both portrait and environmental shot. So, you know, doesn't necessarily mean that one picture would be entirely one of these visual elements. It can be multiple, you know. But you having that in mind. The main thing is that you're getting variety for your story. You're getting the condiments that you need to make your story. So you need portraits, environmental shot, detail shots, and action shots. So thinking about this ahead of time, For this story, what would be the portrait? What would be the environmental shot? For this story, what would be the action shot? What are the type of actions that I need to capture for this story would help you, you know, get the right pictures in the field? All these things into practice, you can now see how I've laid out the pictures, thinking about this narrative arc. You know, these are the two pictures that I used to kind of establish the story. You know, we know it's about this person in a bus. The bus is not moving. You know, she's in a driver's seat, no seat belts. You don't know if she's the driver. You know, there is still a bit of questions, but then you get enough information to know what the story is about. Then you have this one that sets the scene. A Rwandan person I think it's called, would Know what this location is. Based on this mountain is a core landmark. You know, the busy environment. It's like you coming into this environment to see what it looks like. Then you have the rising action, you know, where, you know, the other people, you know, people queuing up, getting their tickets. Mama Celine, you know, collecting the tickets from her passengers. You know, there is also this human moment of her mother instinct kicking in, you know, helping another mother with their child, you know, still highlights that gender touch to the story. And then you have, you know, someone taking out the sign from the vehicle kind of shows where the vehicle is headed and kind of sets the scene for the next action that is to follow. So you have the climax. You know, she's driving. I took the picture, reducing the shutter speed to kind of show that motion, to show that action brought down the camera a little bit to show a bit of the environment. It's very tight, but to show the environment around her, to show the context around what her work looks like, and also to show her as, you know, a strong character that is driving, you know, vehicle, conveying people in her country. Then you have the falling action, you know, showing her in relationship to other people, you know, things are dropping. She's taking a break. This is what the location looks like. You know, she's sitting down, having a meal with her friend. You know, this really quiet moment, you know, to tone down the action. And then you have the resolution, which is her going back in an empty bus. It's now nighttime. She drops the bus. She doesn't have her own vehicle. She needs to She needs to use a bike, a public bike to get home. And then she meets her daughter at the door, coming back with a pineapple, and she's being greeted by her daughter. And then, you know, she's going on a walk, an evening walk with the rest of her children. So it kind of helps close the story. Choose one of the photo essays from your worksheet, analyze whether it follows a narrative arc and whether it uses a variety of shot types from the ones we've covered. 6. Making a Photo Essay: And So now we go into the actual stages of making a photo essay. So we've talked about the thinking behind it. We know what the concept is. Now we are now making a photo essay. And to illustrate this, I'm using a photo essay that I made in Kigali Rwanda, which is very similar to the country doctor. I shot this for three days, and I was part of a workshop. Rwanda. I think this was in 2019, and it was a week long workshop. So we were required to make a story to illustrate some of the things we've learned. And, you know, I had to make a photo essay, which, you know, I like and I enjoyed doing. So I'm going to use this project as a case study to kind of go through all the various steps that I took to kind of make the story. Pretty much behind Mama Celine wheel is about a female driver, you know, not very common in that region. In fact, we have countries where, you know, where women might not be able to drive. So it's something of interest because it's not very common in that location in Rwanda, for a woman to be driving a public transport. I think she was one of the few people that I found that fit into that story. And also, it was a time that Rwanda is also, like, with Paul Kagame trying to push, you know, more women involvement in, like, politics, reserving, you know, some part of the parliamentary seats for women. So I kind of was fascinated with that whole idea, and I just wanted to, you know, make a day in a life photos, kind of, of this female driver. So we're going to use that project as as the case study. And then we talk about the pre production. So pretty much I already started talking about this. You start off with the story idea. You know, what is the broad theme? What is the topic? You know, I just picked interesting like, Okay, Rwanda is moving in this direction. How do I photograph that within a short time? How do I show a fragment that highlights that? And then after I got the idea, okay, maybe I could do a story around on a female bus driver that does long haul driving. The next thing I did was to research the story. And, I mean, I'm one of those people whenever I hear the word research, I'm thinking about, like, wearing big scientific glasses, you know, going to the library. Sometimes it's not that elaborate. Sometimes research is just Googling stuff, you know, where can I find this? Is this happening? And for this project, I started off with, Okay, this is the idea that the next thing was for me to write on Google, female bus drivers in Rwanda. And I started seeing multiple articles, a few of them, and that's where I saw the woman that I photographed. So I think I saw only three women. The newspaper boldly said that there are only three women that were driving long haul buses in Rwanda at the time. Um, so I now narrowed it down to, okay, this woman, where would I find her? I went to the park where the vehicles usually load, and I tried to, you know, speak to the people there to kind of gain access to her. I took a screenshot of her picture and just showed them, Oh, I'm looking for this person, you know, and that conversation led to someone giving me this person's contact. You know, Rwanda is very Um, you need permission to do a lot of things. It's a very controlled country. So there is a lot of legislation around a lot of things. So to even be able to photograph in the park, I needed to get the permission of some authority to also access the woman. But we'll get into that when we get to talk about actually shooting the project. But then after I've done the research, I now streamline the storyline. So the story line is the day in the life of a female bus driver in Rwanda, basically. So streamlining it the individual, what that story would look like, what I want to highlight in the story, that's the story outline. Then the next thing you would do is to make a mood board. I advise people to do this, but having a mood board would definitely help you know the kind of energy, the kind of emotion that your project needs to highlight. And it's not it doesn't have to be anything you know, exorbitant or very classy. It can be just you putting different pictures together, putting different keywords together, and just using different visuals and texts, even songs to kind of highlight the mood you want your photo essay to have. And then the next thing is the short list, it's always helpful to have a short list because, you know, you could think yeah, you know the story you want to tell. You know the pictures you want to get. Sometimes when you get to the field and you are now taking pictures, you might forget what you need to capture. So that's why it's important for you to have, like, a short list that you can look at and know, okay, I need a picture. For my beginning, I need these pictures. For the middle, I need this type of pictures. For the end, I need this type of pictures. But also thinking about, okay, I'm meeting this woman at home. What are the likely pictures I can get from here? Or what are the pictures do I need from here to be able to build the story? In the pack, What pictures do I need? On the journey, what pictures do I need? So these thinking processes would really help you know how to approach your story. So using that idea, so I don't want to go into detail for every single thing. I've talked about the research, the story idea, the story line moodboard, storyboard and short list. But I'm picking storyboard as an immediate concept, and I'm using that same project. So typically, a storyboard is supposed to have pictures that helps you tell the story in each frame. You can get pictures online, or you can draw. It doesn't have to be perfect. You just want to show what would be in each frame. So you're thinking about as a photo essay, we've talked about the beginning, middle, and end. So you're thinking about this story. How would each picture fit in into the sequence? Thinking about the opening or exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. So for the for this project, which the logline is a day in the life of Estin Mama Celine Mokagina, a Rwanda woman who spent over a decade defining expectations as a long haul driver. So that is pretty much what the story is. Then you think about I've done this story board in four frames, basically. Sorry, in eight frames. And the first two would serve as the opening and the establishing shot. The third, fourth and fifth frame is serving as the rising action. The fifth frame is the climax, the falling action, and then the resolution. So you can make a storyboard that includes up to ten pictures, up to 15 pictures, up to 20 pictures. But still, you have to be thinking about what is in the beginning, what is in the middle, what's in the end? Which part is the opening? Which one is the rising action, climax, and the lights. So for the opening action, I, you know, I used the rationale for the shot. And that's another thing, right? In photo essays, every picture needs to earn its place. So every picture is supposed to be taking and pushing the story forward. So, let's say, the first frame is Mama Celine getting ready for the day inside her boss. You know, what is the rationale for this picture? So I'm using this picture to show the main character of the story, but also to set the scene of the story. So the main character is a woman, Mama Selin but also Mama selling in a boss. So you kind of get the idea, even if it's not very clear, you get the idea that this story is about a woman and this woman is in a boss. And then the next shot is a wide environmental shot of a busy car park. So now I'm setting the scene. This story is happening in this environment, in this area, in this park. And the next word is, you know, people on cue at a ticket counter. So I'm building up the tension and building up the action, you know, to kind of show how busy it is, you know, how competitive, you know, how busy it can get at the park. Then I also took a picture of Mama Celine as she verifies and collects tickets from the passengers. And this is for me to build up tension and to show that the journey is about to begin. Then here, I photographed people taking off the loading signs, you know, you know, and the final activity before take off. So this is the part that I kind of use to show the detail because it doesn't really show anybody's face. I'm going to show you the pictures. It doesn't really show anybody's face, but it's showing, like, a small detail that I can use to kind of break into the next scene. Then you have the climax. For this selection for this storyboard, I've only included one climax. But the climax is Mama selling at the driver's seat on a full speed during the journey. So this is the highest energy point in the story. And I'm highlighting that, as well. Then you talk about the falling action, you know, we are Mama Celine and a colleague takes a break for a meal. So it kind of shows how tedious this trip is that, you know, she needs to take break. And it also introduces other people. Introduces Mama Celine and her relationship with other people and her doing a breakaway from her from her driving. But also, it's helping me tone down the story so that I can end. Then you have the resolution, which is Mama Celine, you know, traveling back home after a day's work. So now we are looking at Mama Celine as an individual, you know, how she goes back home, when she closes work, her relationship with her family, how they receive her when she arrives, and this kind of helps us conclude the story. It kind of helps us build up that resolution. Photo essay can be in terms of the narrative arc, it can be more complex than this, but this is a very linear type of story that kind of helps you know how to build a photo essay. Complete the eight frame storyboard in your worksheet, include your name, project title and logline at the top for each frame. Note the shot type, its position in the narrative arc, a brief shot description and your rationale for including. So now you get to production. What we just talked about is the pre production, which is the things you do before you actually go into the field. So for the production, you know, you have to think about access, like I already mentioned, I had to go ahead of time, you know, write a letter, meet who is in charge, get that permission, speak with Mama Celine company that she drives with. And they told them what I'm doing and they gave me permission, and then I spoke with Mama Celine who was happy for me to photograph her and embed in her vehicle during the drive. So that's also informed consent. In some cases, you would need someone to sign a consent form, which is very much advised because you don't know whether if you want to publish the story or you want to do an exhibition, it's always good to have some form of signed consent because some organizations or companies may ask for that consent before they allow you publish that story. And this is not to be confused with model release, which is when you are doing when you are using the pictures outside editorial sense, where you are using the pictures for commercial purposes, in those kind of situations, you have to compensate the people you photograph, because it's now for profit making, so you have to treat them as a model in that context and make sure that they get compensated. But for informed consent is mostly for editorial use just to show that you've done your due diligence and that you haven't stolen the pictures. Then also, you have to think about your gear, you know, what equipment do you need for the shoot? You know, do you need do you need flash? Do you need lights? Do you need what type of lens, memory card? Then shooting is now you getting on the field and making sure your camera is charged and you're getting the right pictures and moments that you need for your story? And so you think also about, like, the post production, still taking the beginning, middle, and end approach. But now in terms of how you produce the work, you think about after you've taken the pictures, how do you backup your files? Where do you store them? And then you think about writing captions and descriptions for your pictures. I'm guessing a lot of us use maybe adobe light room or forgotten the other one photo mechanic. There are multiple options you can use, but it's important to ride the captions because sometimes you forget the names of the people you photographed. And the location. So it's always good. Even if you won't write anything elaborate, just write the name of the person and the location in the caption and embed it. Then the next stage would be you now calling the pictures. Obviously, to get that 15 pictures or ten pictures that you used to show your photo essay you probably have taken like hundreds of pictures. So Colin is, you know, the methodology that you use to kind of select, you know, the pictures and take out the bad ones and only leave the good ones. The technically sound ones, the ones that work, yeah, that's where you would consider Colin. And this is done in multiple stages. You know, you can use the starring. You start selecting the first group, take out the bad pictures. Then the next stage would be you selecting pictures that work. The next stage would be pictures that fit into the narrative arc. So thinking more about, like, well, no, the next stage will be you thinking more about the various types of pictures. Which ones are the portraits, which ones are the environment. You know, you get a good selection for each of them. And then the next stage will now be more of you thinking about the narrative. You know, what do you need for the establishing? What do you need for the detail for the rising action, what do you need for the climax? And you start, you know, narrowing it down till you end up to one, two, or three pictures for each of these narrative positions. Think about processing your pictures, how do you edit? How do you do your post product How do you do your processing? Do you need to adjust the white balance? Do you need to adjust the colors? Do you have a preset? Do you have a way that your pictures look? This is where you do that. Then editing and sequencing. Now from these pictures that you've selected, you have a variety that fits into the various narrative arc, then you will now start sequencing the story. You know, which one comes first? Which one comes second, all that kind of stuff. Then presentation is pretty much showing your work. On your website or as a PDF in portfolio reviews or even putting it in competitions or open calls on a magazine, you know, those are some of the ways you can show your work. Yeah, we've talked about a lot of distance, and sometimes you have a project idea, but you're struggling with, like, the visual language. You don't know how to take the pictures. You don't know what the pictures would look like. One of the things I do as I'm researching, I'm also looking at what other people have done on that topic, on that subject, you know, but I'm also looking at other platforms that publish photo essays, you know, look at the story. How did the photographer tell the story? And that is one way you can keep developing yourself. These are some of the key places that I go to to get inspiration. WordPress photo, you know, you can go through the archive from, like, 19, whatever, and you see the photo essays that have won and you see how different people build up their story. I like the New York Times Lens blog, which is archived at the moment, but you can still access photo stories that were published, you know, there still useful. Magnum photos is also one of them. So some publications like New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian Atlantic. Some of these publications have a dedicated section for photo essays, and this is some of them that I've listed out. Social documentary network is also good. They have this SDN Ziki magazine that you can look at. It's free of charge online. You can look at past workor and kind of see how people are building their stories, guardianing pictures, seven Foundation. Even No Aala magazine, we have you know, photo series that have been published, so you can also draw inspiration from that. So this is like a very extensive list of places to go to national geographic. But yeah, the more you consume photo essays and stories that are made by other photographers, the more your own visual language will develop, and you can already you know, start thinking about how to make your own project. Another thing I do is to buy photo books. So when I find the photo project that kind of aligns with my project, in terms of style, in terms of theme, in terms of story, I can even I go as far as buying the book sometimes and kind of just consuming it to see how the photographer approached it. And I try to draw inspiration from multiple projects. So it's not that you're copying another person's project, but you are drawing inspiration but sticking to your identity, to your personality, and to how you tell stories. Complete the eight frame storyboard in your worksheet, include your name, project title and logline at the top for each frame. Note the shot type, its position in the narrative arc, a brief shot description, and your rationale for including it. 7. Project Preview: Behind Mama Celine's Wheels: B 8. Conclusion: If you made it to the end of this class, you now know something that many working photographers don't know. Foundations of strong visual stories are built before you head out into the field. They often not improvised on location or assembled in the edit. That solid foundation is what you've been working on in this class. And I hope that you are proud of yourself. We learned about the difference between a photo essay and photo series. We looked at the narrative arc, the components of a story, and the four types of shots to include in your photo essay. We've also learned how to storyboard your project in eight frames, ensuring your story flows with each frame, pushing the story forward. Now the next step is to go out and shoot your project. As you take your storyboard out in the world, you will soon discover that not every frame will work out the way you had imagined. Some shots will work and some w, and that's totally fine. A storyboard is not meant to be a rigid script that you have to follow. Rather, it's a foundation that gives you direction and clarity of purpose. Think of it as a compass that helps point you to the direction of choice, but the actual path that leads to your destination will only be discovered when you embark on that journey. Your storyboard is your compass. So treat it as such. Remember to post your project in the gallery, look at other students' projects and leave a comment. That exchange is all part of the learning. And if you're working on a longer project, feel free to expand the storyboard frames to as much as needed. But remember that each frame needs to earn its place. In photo essays, less is often more. Each frame should push the story forward. And if you would like to connect with me, you can follow me here on Skillshare and on my Instagram at KC O Cover. If you enjoy the class, please don't forget to leave a review. It helps other students discover the class. Until next time now go tell that story.