Buzzword alert.
You’ll find the words strewn across the website of almost every photographer.
Storyteller, storytelling, telling your story. Or choose your variation.
The general thing about buzzwords it that somewhere at the beginning of a long trail of overuse, is a true golden nugget of goodness. Storytelling, is, really, is a great descriptor of what most photographers try to do.
Images that draw you in the scene, the characters, the time. Images that tell not just of that moment, but the ones before it, and the ones to come. Images that surprise you and hold your interest.
Images full tension and emotion, anticipation and revelation.
Does overuse mean a subsequent loss of meaning? I hope not. Storytelling is an amazingly powerful tool for us to think about as we shoot - if we really think about and use it.
So how can you go beyond throwing around a buzzword and actually tell great stories through your photos?
Here are a few things we’ve banked in the old noggin to tell stories through our photos. Take a couple and throw them around your own brain next time you shoot a wedding, event or portrait session.
Wide, Medium, Close (Context, Subject, Emotion)
Make it a mantra.
Here’s a super simple three step principle.
The wide, medium close trifecta of goodness is a well known tenant of visual storytelling. If you look closely, you’ll begin to notice this principle in almost every scene of every movie you watch (careful, it’s kind of a curse).
A satisfying and simple story can be simple told through following a sequence of shots that are wide, medium, and close frames. As we will see this is also a pattern of context, subject and emotion.
WIDE FRAME - or an establishing shot. The aim of the game here is to show context. To let your viewer know where you are and where the action is going to take place. It shows a mountain range with a couple walking on it, a sprawling forest and small clearing, or a lonely house next to a beach. It helps you settle in for what is coming next.
MEDIUM FRAME - Here’s your chance place your subject in the context which you have established. It introduces your subjects, what they look like, what they wear, what they are doing.
CLOSE FRAME - Move in closer to display some kind of emotion or feeling or detail. Complete the story sequence by showing off something in details, really hitting home in the feels. Show a tear down a cheek, an almost kiss, a look of excitement, a smile or a detail. You’ve already established your context so you can focus on the detail here.
Think about it. A series of just one type of these shots isn’t going to tell a good story. You are gonna want to follow this pattern. Wide, medium, close, wide, medium, close. Make it a mantra.
Try notice this next time you watch a good TV show or movie. Heck hopefully even in our wedding posts you’ll see us employ this simple framework ALL the time.
(BONUS TIP - Think about your choice of lens when shooting each of these shots and how different focal lengths invoke different feelings of distance.)
Context
You can also try to implement the above principle (context, subject, emotion) into more of your single frames. Try to put context into every frame. This means not isolating a detail or emotion or subject with nothing else in the frame. It means layering your frame by shooting with lots of elements in your frame. Try to shoot with something in the foreground. Try to shoot over someone’s shoulder and include their shoulder in the frame. Try to shoot through doorways and include the door in the frame. It helps to tell a story by adding context into the frame. (Bonus tip: This will be easiest using a wider lens like a 24mm or 35mm lens. We keep a 35mm on our cameras for 95% of a wedding day).
Put yourself in it
Your ability to tell the story of a wedding day is going to depend literally on where you are. Where you place those two feet of yours. What you anticipate. What you see. So YOU will have to get involved. You will have to get close. You will have to get amongst it.
This means not freaking out and getting awkward when people are having a moment together when you are around. Capture that goodness. This means not feeling awkward being seen at the front of the church so you can get close and capture the feels. This means actually getting amongst the dance floor and showing your own moves. It means working hard, moving around and always been ON and anticipating moments as or before they happen.
Take it and go
While storytelling is a good word, it’s a buzzword. It’s important to make that shiz practical and really think about what it actually means to tell a story through your frames. So take these few thoughts and go.
This article is also featured on Medium. https://medium.com/@cameronthorp/how-to-shoot-like-a-storyteller-3655a1402ac0