COURSE NAME: PHOTOGRAPHY AND AUDIO VISUAL

PRODUCTION (VOCATIONAL) FOR UNDER GRADUATE (FIRST

YEAR)

PAPER TITLE: PHOTO APPRECIATION

UNIT: PHOTOJOURNALISM PART - 2

TOPIC: ROLE OF PHOTOJOURNALIST

OBJECTIVES

After a study of this e content module the learners will be able to:

  1. Understand the role of a Photojournalist
  2. Describe the preparedness of a Photojournalist
  3. Understand the ethics of Photojournalism
  4. Differentiate Rights Managed and Royalty free photographs
  5. Understand stock photography
  6. Understand impact of new technologies on photojournalism

INTRODUCTION

Photo journalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (e.g., documentary photography, social documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical framework which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media.

  • Timeliness — the photos have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.
  • Objectivity — the situation implied by the photos is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.
  • Narrative — the photos combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.

Like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter but he or she must often make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles (e.g., physical danger, weather, crowds).

ROLE OF PHOTOJOURNALIST

Back bone of photojournalism is the photojournalist. A good photojournalist is both a skilled photographer who uses the camera and other equipment to his best advantage. He must also be a thinking creative person who mixes technique and judgment to capture images as they happen because news events do not wait for the photographer.

Some photojournalists attempt to make their photographs more interesting by manipulating the image (for example, by making people pose for the photograph). This is wrong as the main task of a photojournalist is to give the viewer an image that is truthful and speaks for itself. Manipulating an image is like making up a news story. It would no longer be journalism but story telling.

PREPAREDNESS OF PHOTOJOURNALISTS

Events wait for no one, especially for photojournalists. A photojournalist must be prepared to act fast and have his camera always at hand. The interesting pictures are most often a result of the alertness of the photojournalist who is at the right place at the right time. If a photojournalist is casual about his job, he is likely to miss many important chances. It is also not just being present at an important location but it is also about being positioned at the best place with the camera ready.

There are some events about which a photojournalist has advance information. So he can be there well before the action begins. For example, a public function like a sports event or a political meeting is usually announced well in advance.

Newspapers are informed about the time and the venue. If the photo editor thinks that the event is important he will assign a photojournalist to attend the event. The photographer will take pictures of the participants, the audience, the venue etc..

However, there are events that no photojournalist can prepare for like a terrorist attack, a riot, a train accident, an earthquake or a bridge collapse. If a photojournalist is present when some thing like this occurs he has to act quickly while at the same time ensuring his own safety. It is rare for photojournalists to capture terrorist attacks, serious accidents or major natural disasters as they happen. It is usually the aftermath that the camera captures. The photojournalist then tries to take pictures that convey the sense of the event, its magnitude and its impact on people and the place where it has occurred. The best pictures are a result of the judgment and sensitivity of the photographer.

Only a small selection of pictures appears in the newspapers each day. Why is this

so? Just as not all the news stories gathered by reporters get published in a newspaper not all pictures taken by photojournalists get published. A photo editor will look at all the pictures that have been submitted by various photojournalists on any given day and make a choice about what will appear and what will not.

Let us see how this is done by the photo editor.

One consideration will be the major news events of the day. A photograph that enhances the lead story is almost certain to be published. For example, if the most important news of the day is that fuel prices are going to go up, a photograph of long lines of auto rickshaws of trucks at a petrol station is quite likely to get published.

Another consideration is the photograph itself. If a photograph is hard hitting, or tells a story then it has a better chance of being published. For example, a picture of a flood, with only the roofs of houses above water has a greater impact than many hundred words describing the same flood.

What will interest the reader is also a consideration while choosing pictures for the newspaper. So photographs of local events like an inter-school sports competition or the inauguration of a new school building often get published.

When a photojournalist is doing a photo feature, there is need for a different approach and different kind of preparedness. If the photos are of people then the photojournalist must have patience and win the trust of the people to be photographed. Most people are self-conscious when they have a camera pointed at them or feel shy when facing one and do not behave as they normally would.

The photographer should work in a way that the people who are being photographed do not feel his presence. This is most easily done if the photojournalist spends time with the people being photographed, talks to them about what they are doing and explains the purpose of the photograph. So when the photographs are being taken they are no longer curious or worried about the photographer’s interest in them and can ignore the camera and behave naturally when the camera is pointed at them.

ETHICS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM

Ethics is an important word in journalism. Ethics are the moral principles that influence the conduct of people. Journalistic ethics are the moral principles that govern the practice of all forms of journalism. They guide the photojournalist in deciding what is right and what is wrong. Truthfulness is a core journalistic ethic. A photojournalist must always strive to take pictures that tell the truth.

This issue of ethics has become more important in the digital age when it is very easy to change the photograph on the computer. It is believed that the camera never lies. But now with a few clicks of a computer mouse, you can completely change a photograph. So much so that it is no longer a record of an event. For example, you can show a man to be smoking even if he has never held a cigarette in life or in the company of someone he has never met. You can show a crowd of people at a place when in fact there were only a few people present when the picture was taken. You can make people appear to be standing in front of well known monuments in foreign countries to which they have never been!

All manipulation of photographs is a violation of basic journalistic ethics. For the photojournalist must capture the truth. This means that the photojournalist must only photograph what has happened, when it happened and not invent a situation or recreate one by moving things around in the picture to make it seem more interesting than it really was.

It is also against journalistic ethics to stage or create a picture by having people pose for the camera. For example if a photojournalist wants a picture of a midday meal scheme in a school he must go to a school at meal time and take pictures of what is seen. These might be of food being prepared or served to the children or the children eating their food. It would be against journalistic ethics if he were to make a group of children in school uniform sit in rows with plates in front of them and pretend to be eating a meal at school.

A photojournalist who takes his professional responsibilities seriously would never manipulate an image or stage an event for the benefit of his camera.

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

Stock photography is the supply of photographs licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer, often for a lower cost. Today, stock images can be presented in searchable online databases. They can be purchased and delivered online. Often, these photographs involve people, and are produced in studios using a wide variety of models posing as professionals, stereotypes, expressing common emotions and gesticulations, or involving pets. Other common stock photography niches include images related to travel and tourism, as well as conceptual photography.

Royalty-free (RF)

"Free" in this context means "free of royalties (paying each time you use an image)". It does not mean the image is free to use without purchasing a license or that the image is in the public domain.

  • Pay a one-time fee to use the image multiple times for multiple purposes (with limits).
  • No time limit on when the buyer can use an image.
  • No one can have exclusive rights of a Royalty-free image (the photographer can sell the image as many times as he or she wants).
  • A Royalty-free image usually has a limit to how many times the buyer can reproduce it. For example, a license might allow the buyer to print 500,000 brochures with the purchased image. The amount of copies made is called the print run. The buyer is required to pay a fee per brochure, usually 1 to 3 cents, for additional prints. Magazines with a large print run cannot use a standard Royalty-free license and therefore they either purchase images with a Rights-managed license or have in-house photographers.

Rights-managed (RM)

Rights managed images are also called "licensed images"

  • The value of a license is determined by the use of the image, which is generally broken down along these lines;
  • Usage: (e.g. Advertising - "Above the Line", Corporate - "Below the Line" or Editorial - "News Media")
  • Specific Use: (e.g. Billboard, Annual Report, Newspaper article)
  • Duration: (e.g. 1 month, 2 months, 1 Year, 2 Years etc.)
  • Print Run: (e.g. up to 10,000, up to 1m)
  • Territory: (e.g.; USA, Europe, UK, Germany, or whatever combination of territories are required)
  • Size: (how big is the image to be used - 1/4 page, 1/2 page, full page, or double page spread)
  • Industry: (Industry type - e.g. Consumer Electronics, Marine Engineering, Financial Services etc.)
  • Exclusivity: (Exclusive, or Non Exclusive)
  • The terms of the license are clearly defined and negotiated so that the purchaser receives maximum value, and is protected in their purchase by a certain level of exclusivity.
  • Rights-managed licenses provide assurance that an image will not be used by someone else in a conflicting manner. The agreement can include exclusivity, and usually recognises that this represents added value. Not all Rights-managed licenses are exclusive, that must be stipulated in the agreement.
  • A Rights-managed image usually allows a much larger print run per image than a Royalty-free license.
  • Editorial is a form of rights-managed license when there are no releases for the subjects. Since there are no releases the images cannot be used for advertising or to depict controversial subjects, only for news or educational purposes.

THE IMPACT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Smaller, lighter cameras greatly enhanced the role of the photojournalist. Since the 1960s, motor drives, electronic flash, auto-focus, better lenses and other camera enhancements have made picture taking easier. New digital cameras free photojournalists from the limitation of film roll length, as thousands of images can be stored on a single memory card.

Content remains the most important element of photojournalism, but the ability to extend deadlines with rapid gathering and editing of images has brought significant changes. As recently as 15 years ago, nearly 30 minutes were needed to scan and transmit a single color photograph from a remote location to a news office for printing. Now, equipped with a digital camera, a mobile phone and a laptop computer, a photojournalist can send a high-quality image in minutes, even seconds after an event occurs. Camera phones and portable satellite links increasingly allow for the mobile transmission of images from almost any point on the earth.

There is some concern by news photographers that the profession of photojournalism as it is known today could change to such a degree that it is unrecognizable as image-capturing technology naturally progresses. Citizen journalism and the increase in user contribution and submission of amateur photos to news sites is becoming more widespread. As early as the Crimean War in the mid-19th century, photographers were using the novel technology of the box camera to record images of British soldiers in the field. However, the widespread use of cameras as a way of reporting news did not come until the advent of smaller, more portable cameras that used the enlargeable film negative to record images. The introduction of the 35mm Leica camera in the 1930s made it possible for photographers to move with the action, taking shots of events as they were unfolding.

The age of the citizen journalist and the attainment of news photos from amateur bystanders have contributed to the art of photojournalism. Paul Levinson attributes this shift to the Kodak camera, one of the first cheap and accessible photo technologies that “put a piece of visual reality into every person's potential grasp.”The empowered news audience with the advent of the Internet sparked the creation of blogs, podcasts and online news, independent of the traditional outlets, and “for the first time in our history, the news increasingly is produced by companies outside journalism”.

DIGITAL PHOTO MANIPULATION

Digital Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception (in contrast to mere enhancement or correction), through digital means

In digital editing, photographs are usually taken with a digital camera and input directly into a computer. Transparencies, negatives or printed photographs may also be digitized using a scanner, or images may be obtained from stock photography databases. With the advent of computers, graphics tablets, and digital cameras, the term image editing encompasses everything that can be done to a photo, whether in a darkroom or on a computer. Photo manipulation is often much more explicit than subtle alterations to color balance or contrast and may involve overlaying a head onto a different body or changing a sign's text, for example. Image editing software can be used to apply effects and warp an image until the desired result is achieved. The resulting image may have little or no resemblance to the photo (or photos in the case of compositing) from which it originated. Today, photo manipulation is widely accepted as an art-form.

There are several subtypes of digital image-retouching:

Technical retouching

Manipulation for photo restoration or enhancement (adjusting colors / contrast / white balance (i.e. gradational retouching), sharpness, removing elements or visible flaws on skin or materials,

Creative retouching

Used as an art form or for commercial use to create more sleek and interesting creative images for advertisements. Creative retouching could be manipulation for fashion, beauty or advertising photography such as pack-shots (which could also be considered inherently technical retouching in regards to package dimensions and wrap-around factors) One of the most prominent disciplines in creative retouching is image-compositing. Here, the digital artist uses multiple photos to create a single composited image. Today, 3D elements are used more and more to add extra elements or even locations and backgrounds. This kind of image composition is widely used when conventional photography would be technically too difficult or impossible to shoot on location or in studio.

CONCLUSION
This lecture provided you information about-
Role of photojournalist
Preparedness of photojournalists
Ethics of photojournalism
Stock photography and photo agencies
Influence of technology on photojournalism
Digital photo manipulation
Conclusion

By this we have completed the series of two lectures on photojournalism topic.