5.1 Photo Selection and Editing

Photo selection and editing are crucial skills in visual storytelling. They help create powerful narratives that resonate with readers. Choosing the right images and enhancing them effectively can make or break an editorial piece.

Effective photos support editorial goals, evoke emotions, and provide context. Editing techniques like cropping, exposure adjustment, and retouching can enhance impact. However, it's essential to maintain authenticity and adhere to ethical standards when using images.

Effectiveness of Photographs for Editorial Content

Selecting Photographs to Support Editorial Goals

Top images from around the web for Selecting Photographs to Support Editorial Goals

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  Sense and Sensitivity - Florida Association News Blog View original

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  Expressing and Recognizing Emotion | Introduction to Psychology View original

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  Miss Representation: A Must-See – Active History View original

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  Sense and Sensitivity - Florida Association News Blog View original

  Is this image relevant?

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  Expressing and Recognizing Emotion | Introduction to Psychology View original

  Is this image relevant?

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Top images from around the web for Selecting Photographs to Support Editorial Goals

• 

  Sense and Sensitivity - Florida Association News Blog View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Expressing and Recognizing Emotion | Introduction to Psychology View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Miss Representation: A Must-See – Active History View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Sense and Sensitivity - Florida Association News Blog View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Expressing and Recognizing Emotion | Introduction to Psychology View original

  Is this image relevant?

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• Photographs should be carefully selected to support and enhance the key messages, themes, and tone of the editorial content
  • Effective photographs grab attention, evoke emotion, and provide visual context (powerful war image, uplifting portrait of a leader)
  • The subject matter, style, and tone of photographs should match the editorial brand guidelines and resonate with the target audience (youthful lifestyle magazine, serious political journal)
  • Photographs should be selected to add diverse representation that is inclusive and culturally relevant to the target audience when appropriate
    • Avoid perpetuating stereotypes (only showing certain ethnicities in certain roles)

Compositional Elements for Effective Communication

• The composition, framing, perspective, and visual elements of a photograph impact how well it communicates the intended editorial narrative or story
  • Photographs with strong focal points, leading lines, rule of thirds, and visual balance tend to be most effective (portrait with subject positioned off-center, landscape with winding road)
  • Photographs can be used to provide evidence, add credibility, and strengthen arguments made in the editorial text
    • Photos showing real people, places, objects or events relevant to the content help readers connect (image of a protest to accompany an article about social unrest)
• Photographs should work in harmony with other visual elements to create a cohesive visual package that effectively communicates the editorial content to the target audience
  • Other elements include headlines, captions, and graphics (pull quote overlaid on image, infographic next to photo)
  • In some cases, photographs can be used as standalone storytelling devices with minimal text (photo essays, galleries with a strong central theme or narrative)

Photo Editing Techniques for Visual Impact

Essential Editing Tools and Techniques

• Cropping is used to remove distracting or irrelevant elements, change the aspect ratio, or to emphasize the most important parts of the image
  • The crop should focus attention on the key subject (cropping out background clutter to focus on a person's face)
• Adjusting exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and black/white points can help optimize the tonal range
  • Adds depth, dimension and clarity to an image (lightening shadows to reveal more detail, darkening highlights to recover overexposed areas)
• Color correction tools are used to fix white balance, adjust hue/saturation, or creatively stylize images
  • Colors can be enhanced to make images more vivid or muted to create a certain mood (warming up the color temperature for a sunset, desaturating colors for a vintage effect)

Retouching and Sharpening Considerations

• Retouching tools like healing brushes, clone stamps, and patch tools are used to fix blemishes, remove dust spots or distracting elements, or smooth skin
  • Retouching should be done sparingly to maintain realism (removing a pimple, stray hairs, or a small distracting background object)
  • Using editing techniques to composite images or add/remove major elements is usually unethical for editorial content and should be avoided except for obvious illustrations
• Sharpening is applied to enhance texture, details and edges in an image
  • Over-sharpening can cause halos or artifacts (crisp edges on a building, individual strands of hair or eyelashes)
• Photo editing techniques should be applied with purpose to enhance the image without deceptively manipulating the content or message
  • Changes should look natural (subtly brightening an underexposed photo, not completely changing the lighting or colors of a scene)

Selecting Photographs for Editorial Vision

Aligning with Brand and Audience

• The technical and creative quality of the photographs should align with the production value and design aesthetics of the publication
  • Low quality or stock images may not be suitable for a premium editorial product (generic business stock photos in a high-end fashion magazine)
• In ongoing editorial publications, selected photographs should align with the established photographic style for consistency, but also offer some variety and interest to keep readers engaged
  • Consistency helps establish a recognizable brand look (always using bright, colorful images with ample white space)
  • Variety keeps things fresh (alternating between wide and tight shots, mixing up subject matter)

Technical Specifications for Publishing

• For print publications, selected photos must meet the technical specifications for proper resolution, color mode, and file format to reproduce well
  • Resolution should be 300dpi at actual size, CMYK color mode, TIFF or EPS file format
• Digital publications have more flexibility but should still use high quality images
  • Resolution can be lower (72dpi) but should still look sharp, RGB color mode, JPEG file format

Legal and Ethical Considerations in Photo Usage

Obtaining Permissions and Releases

• Photographs are intellectual property and permission must be obtained from the copyright holder before publishing
  • This may involve paying a license fee or obtaining a release
  • Using photographs without permission is a copyright violation (using a photo from Google without licensing it)
• Photographs of people may require a model release to use their likeness, especially for commercial or promotional purposes
  • For editorial usage, releases are not always necessary but it depends on the nature of the usage (street photography vs. portraiture)
• Photographs of private property, private events, or sensitive subject matter may require a property release or special permissions to publish, even for editorial purposes
  • Examples: photos taken inside a private home, behind the scenes at a company, or of minor children

Proper Attribution and Ethical Usage

• Proper attribution should be given to photographers in the form of a photo credit, usually near the photo or in a credits section
  • The format of the credit may be specified in the license agreement
  • Exception: some photographers prefer to remain anonymous
• Photographers and publications must follow ethical standards to avoid using photographs to intentionally mislead or misrepresent the truth
  • Photos should not be edited to alter the facts (moving pyramids closer together, adding or removing people from a scene)
• Graphic, explicit, or disturbing photographs should be used cautiously and come with a warning or disclaimer, especially for sensitive audiences
  • Editorial value and public interest must be weighed against potential harm (graphic war images, nudity, violence)